Incoterm
DDP on citrus, and the tax bill behind it
Delivered Duty Paid asks the seller to arrive with everything settled, including import clearance and the tax that comes with it. In practice a seller in Spain has to act as the importer in your country, which is a registration question before it is a freight question. Quoted without checking that, the term produces an invoice nobody can process.
The figures
| Incoterms 2020 group | Rules for any mode of transport |
|---|---|
| Seller obligation | The heaviest of the eleven rules |
| Import clearance | Seller |
| Duty and import tax | Seller |
| Unloading at destination | Buyer, unless agreed otherwise |
| Inside the single market | No import entry, so the gap against DAP narrows |
What it changes on an order
You want one landed figure and no surprises
That is what this term is for. The figure carries the seller's estimate of duty and tax plus something for the chance of being wrong, so it buys you certainty and you pay for the certainty.
Your supplier is outside your tax territory
Ask whether they hold a tax registration where the goods land and who appears as importer on the entry. A seller who cannot answer that is offering a term they cannot perform, and the load stops at the border while it gets sorted out.
You buy within the European Union
Between member states there is no import entry to pay for, so the letters change less than they look. What still changes hands is the unloading, and that is worth naming instead of assuming.
What this note does not settle
- We do not offer this term today. No tax registration abroad, no customs representation and no duty arrangements are confirmed, and this note explains the rule rather than our practice.
- Who may pay or recover import tax in a given country is a question for your adviser. National rules differ, and a wrong answer shows up as an invoice your accounts team cannot reclaim.
- The rule moves cost and risk, never ownership. A delivery cleared and paid for still leaves title, payment terms and any retention clause to the sale contract.
Source: ICC Incoterms 2020 rules, Council Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of VAT
A seller who has to become an importer
This rule asks the seller to hand over goods cleared for import with duty and tax already settled. To do that in your country, a grower in Spain has to be able to appear on an import entry there and to account for the tax behind it. That is a registration question before it is anything else, and the answer is either yes with a number to quote or no with a term that cannot be performed.
Before treating such an offer as real, ask who will be shown as importer and where the seller holds a tax registration. The failure is undramatic. A load stops, and an invoice arrives that your accounts team cannot process because the tax on it was charged by somebody with no standing to charge it.
Inside the union the letters matter less
Between member states no import entry is filed, no duty is due and no broker is involved. What survives of the difference against a plain delivered term is the paperwork of the sale itself and the question of who lifts pallets off the vehicle. Buyers asking for the heavier term inside the single market are frequently buying reassurance the lighter one already gave them.
Outside it the gap is real and expensive, and it deserves pricing rather than assuming. Ask what the seller has assumed about the duty rate and about the tax, because an estimate built into a landed figure belongs to whoever made it. A term that moves a risk is also a term that puts a price on it.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.