About this plugin
Since 1 July 2026 the EU charges a flat €3 customs duty per declaration line on distance-sale parcels worth €150 or less shipped from outside the EU, whether or not you use IOSS. On a normal low-value declaration a line is a 6-digit HS code, not a unit:
- 5 cotton T-shirts = 1 line = €3
- 3 T-shirts and a watch = 2 lines = €6
This plugin handles the whole flow for UK and other non-EU shops selling to EU consumers.
Order detection
- Spots EU-bound consignments from outside the EU and tests the €150 limit on goods value (ex VAT, shipping excluded)
- Your own exchange rate, or opt in to daily European Central Bank reference rates
- Skips virtual products, local pickup, non-EU destinations and shops that ship from inside the EU
EU VAT under IOSS
- Collects the destination country’s VAT at checkout on parcels of €150 or less, through WooCommerce’s own tax engine
- One click adds standard VAT rates for all 27 member states; edit them or add reduced rates as normal
- Above €150, EU VAT is removed automatically: the sale is zero-rated and VAT is paid on import. The €150 test uses the goods value after coupons, the same value as the duty, and order recalculations in the admin use the order’s own value
- Your IOSS number is encrypted at rest, masked in the admin, never shown to customers, and only sent to your carrier for parcels where IOSS VAT was actually collected, so nothing is taxed twice
The €3 duty
- Charge it at checkout or absorb it and record it
- Never charged at checkout on non-IOSS parcels shipped DAP, where the carrier already collects it from your customer
- Lines by 6-digit HS code (H7) or by 10-digit code plus origin (H1)
Customs paperwork and carriers
- HS code, country of origin and customs description on every product, with category defaults
- HS code finder: describe a product and pick a code from the official UK Trade Tariff
- Printable commercial invoice per order, with your EORI number
- Royal Mail Click & Drop order-import CSV, single order or bulk, with IOSS delivery terms only where IOSS applied
- REST endpoint for other shipping platforms: GET /wp-json/eupd/v1/orders/<id>/customs
- Warnings for missing HS codes, weights and SKUs (required by Royal Mail for EU e-commerce goods from 1 November 2026)
Audit trail
- Every order stores a record of the calculation: goods value, exchange rate with its source and date, duty lines, HS codes, VAT by rate, delivery terms and plugin version
- The record locks when the order is paid and an order note summarises it; later exports, shipment references and recalculations that change the customs outcome are logged with time and user
- Monthly IOSS report: VAT and taxable amount per member state and rate, net of refunds, converted at the ECB rate for the last day of the month, with CSV download
Important
This plugin is a calculation and record-keeping aid, not tax or customs advice. Check how your carrier and IOSS intermediary handle duty and VAT before going live. The €3 duty is transitional and due to run until 1 July 2028.
External services
UK Trade Tariff API (HM Revenue & Customs), used by the HS code finder in the admin. Only contacted when a store manager clicks “Find code” and searches.
- Data sent: the search text, plus your site URL in the User-Agent header. No customer or order data.
- Results are cached for a week.
- Service: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/
- Terms: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/terms
- Privacy: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/privacy
European Central Bank euro reference rates, optional and off by default. Only if the store manager chooses “European Central Bank” as the rate source in settings, the plugin downloads the public daily rates file twice a day, and the 90-day history file when the IOSS report is opened. Nothing about your shop, customers or orders is sent.
Until then, the manual rate in settings is used and the ECB is never contacted.
- Daily rates: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml
- About the rates: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html
- Legal notice and privacy: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/services/disclaimer/html/index.en.html
Checkout calculations never call an external service; they use the stored rate.