DDPDelivered Duty Paid

DDP sounds like the easy option. The seller delivers to your door with the duty paid and you sign for a box. What you've actually done is let a company in India become the importer in your country, and that has consequences for your VAT, your FTA claim and any refund. This page walks through them.

We'll say up front that we don't like DDP from India for most buyers, and we'll show you why with one UK seller's quietly expensive discovery. There are cases where it works, and we'll name those too. The rules quoted are Incoterms 2020, in force since 1 January 2020, and as of 28 September 2026 the ICC has published no newer edition.

The VAT That Couldn't Come Back

In July 2024 a UK business selling India-made apparel described how its stock arrived. The supplier sent it by express courier, door to door, and then "DHL then invoices me for VAT and Customs charges when the goods land in the UK" (r/smallbusinessuk, July 2024). Convenient, until the accounts were done. A reply in the thread put the problem plainly - "VAT shown on a DHL invoice can rarely be recovered as import VAT (this is only via PVA statement or C79)."

Nobody in that story wrote DDP on a contract, but it's the DDP lesson in miniature. Someone other than the buyer arranged the entry, the tax was paid on someone else's paperwork, and the buyer ended up holding a cost it couldn't reclaim in the normal way. Keep that seller in mind, because every section below is a version of the same lesson - whoever's name is on the import entry owns what follows. The same thing happened to US sellers with the 2026 tariff refunds, and that case is on duty refunds.

What DDP Means

Delivered Duty Paid. The seller delivers when the goods are placed at your disposal, cleared for import, on the arriving vehicle ready for unloading, at the named place of destination. The seller bears every cost and risk to that point, including export, transit and import formalities, and pays the import duties and taxes. Only unloading is yours.

It works for any mode. It's the maximum obligation a seller can take under the rules, the mirror image of EXW.

Who does what

Where The Risk Passes

At the named place of destination, when the goods are on the arriving vehicle ready for unloading, import-cleared. It's the same physical point as DAP, with the customs work done by the seller before it.

How To Write It

DDP [your warehouse address], Auckland, Incoterms 2020. Then add the two lines DDP always needs. First, who is the importer of record and under what registration. Second, whether VAT or GST is included, and if not, who pays it. The rule says the seller pays all import duties and taxes unless agreed otherwise, so if you want to pay the VAT yourself and reclaim it, write that as a clause. Don't write "DDP VAT unpaid", which isn't a rule.

When DDP Fits, And When It Doesn't

DDP fits when the seller has a real presence in your country - a subsidiary, a registered branch, or a fulfilment arrangement with its own import registration. Some larger Indian exporters selling to US retailers have exactly that. It also fits a few kilos of samples by courier, where the duty-paid service is the whole point.

It doesn't fit when the seller can't lawfully be the importer. The ICC's January 2025 paper on national regulatory barriers describes countries where import clearance must be done by a local entity, and there DDP simply can't work (ICC, National regulatory barriers (opens in a new tab)). The ICC Academy's advice is to use DAP instead (ICC Academy, DAP and DDP, February 2025 (opens in a new tab)). Whether your country allows a non-resident importer is a question for your customs broker, before you sign.

And it doesn't fit anyone claiming an FTA preference, reclaiming import VAT or expecting a tariff refund, which is most businesses.

What DDP Takes Out Of Your Hands

The refund. Whoever is importer of record gets the refund, the audit and the liability. Under DDP that's the seller or its courier, not you. US sellers learned this in 2026 when tariff refunds went to their suppliers' couriers (duty refunds).

Your VAT reclaim. In the UK, import VAT is recovered through the importer's postponed VAT statement or a C79. Our UK apparel seller found that VAT billed on a courier's invoice can "rarely be recovered as import VAT" (r/smallbusinessuk, July 2024). If the seller is the importer under DDP then the import VAT sits on the seller's record, and you may be paying a tax-inclusive price you can't claim back. The same logic applies to EU VAT and Australian GST. Ask your accountant before you accept a price that "includes tax".

Your FTA claim. Preference under Australia's ECTA, the UK's CETA, the UAE's CEPA and the NZ agreement is claimed by the importer on the entry. Under DDP that's the seller, so make sure it claims and that the price reflects it. A DDP price built on the full duty rate when 0% was available is money left on the table, and getting it back is the seller's claim, not yours (duty refunds).

Classification and value. US importers bringing in Indian goods by courier have caught "a number of incorrectly assessed tariffs that are starting to add up", and some have moved to their own broker to stop it (r/smallbusiness, November 2025). Under DDP you don't see the entry at all.

The Offer To "Save You Duty"

DDP has a darker cousin, and you'll meet it. Because the seller controls the declaration, some Indian suppliers offer to lower the declared value. One US buyer was told "I could pay 40 % in cash and 60 % by invoice to lower tariff costs" (r/importexport, November 2025). A UK practitioner said shipments from India "have a habit of being massively undervalued, and indicated as being a personal shipment" (r/smallbusinessuk, November 2023). The reply in the US thread called it what it is, textbook customs fraud known as double invoicing.

Say no, every time. The goods are addressed to you, the business is yours, and when the valuation is questioned the trail leads to you whatever the Incoterm says. The true price goes on the commercial invoice.

US Parcels In 2026

Every India-to-US parcel is now dutiable, because the de minimis exemption is suspended, and above US$250 a formal entry applies because the extra Section 301 duty sits in chapter 99 (our US trade page). "DDP by courier" from India therefore means someone is filing formal entries in your country on your goods, and you should know exactly who. The thresholds by country are on low-value imports.

Who Uses It From India

No one publishes usage figures. From our research, DDP from India is mainly a courier habit, on small direct-to-consumer and sample shipments where the courier's duty-paid product does the clearing. Among cargo shipments it appears with the few Indian exporters holding a registration in the destination country, and in quotes to buyers who asked for "an all-in price" without realising what that made the seller. Indicative.

What It Means For Your Landed Cost And Customs Value

The DDP price is the landed cost on paper, with only unloading left. The catch is that you can't see inside it. Build the same number from a FOB price in the landed cost calculator and compare. If the DDP quote is far higher, that's the seller's risk premium, and you can usually do better on DAP.

It's not your entry, but if you're checking the seller's work, every customs authority we read takes the duty and tax out of a DDP price before valuing. The UK deducts included customs duty and other UK taxes (GOV.UK Method 1 (opens in a new tab)). The EU excludes import duties and transport after entry. New Zealand deducts duties and taxes payable in New Zealand along with international freight (NZ Customs valuation guide, May 2025 (opens in a new tab)). A seller that skips that step has overpaid your duty and priced it into your invoice. The method is on working out the real import duty.

Keep the seller's proof of import and duty payment anyway, because if your tax authority asks who imported the goods, you want an answer.

DDP And Its Neighbours

• DDP vs DAP. Identical except that under DAP you clear import and pay the duties and taxes. For nearly every buyer with a broker, DAP gives the same convenience and keeps the entry in your name.
• DDP vs DPU. DPU has the seller unload but not clear import. DDP has the seller clear import but not unload.
• DDP vs EXW. The two ends of the scale. Neither works well from India for a foreign buyer, for opposite reasons.
• DDP vs CIP. CIP ends the seller's risk in India and pays for the trip. DDP carries it all the way and clears it too.

The blog version of the CIF, DDP and FOB choice is in everything you need to know about CIF, DDP and FOB. As for our UK apparel seller, the fix was never a better courier. It was getting its own EORI and postponed VAT instruction onto the entry, so the VAT landed on its own statement. That's exactly what DAP with your own broker does.