How do I handle custom taxes for dropshipping from China to Romania?

Accounting & Taxes
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Topic summary

  • Issue: A Romania-based Shopify dropshipper sourcing from China is unsure how to handle customs/VAT. Concern that customers are being charged at delivery and must collect parcels from the post, asking if local couriers (Cargus, FanCourier, SameDay) can deliver from the post to home.

  • Core guidance: Register for VAT and IOSS (Import One‑Stop Shop) in Romania. IOSS lets you charge and remit EU VAT at checkout and simplifies customs so customers aren’t charged on delivery.

  • Process notes: VAT registration is required to obtain IOSS; both can be applied for via the Romanian tax portal and may take a few weeks.

  • Implementation caveats: Many Chinese dropshipping services don’t support IOSS. If a supplier/logistics platform allows entering an IOSS number, they can pass it to the carrier. Share your IOSS only with suppliers who understand the liability and proper handling.

  • Status/outcomes: Concrete action items are VAT + IOSS registration and verifying supplier/logistics IOSS capability. The question about arranging last‑mile delivery from the post via Romanian couriers remains unanswered; discussion is open.

Summarized with AI on January 2. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

I recently started Shopify and wanted to try Dropshipping for the first time. I don’t really know what do to with all the custom taxes. You see, my store is based in Romania and I order products from China. The thing is I don’t know if I should charge or how to charge the custom taxes or how to prevent them, because China is not in the EU. And because of that, every package that is shipped outside of the EU is going to the mail, not to the customer’s house. I have free shipping on all of my products, but I guess it doesn’t matter and it is still going to charge custom taxes. The customers have to go to the mail to get their orders, but I was wandering if I could partner up with any Romanian shipping service (Cargus, FanCourier, SameDay) to ship the item from the mail to the customer’s house.

Does that work? Or what should I do? Please, respond to me if anyone knows, I’m literally disappointed because if I can’t do nothing, then my hours of work are just gone.

2

Hope you are still pursuing the business Brichetefancy!

First thing to do is to get registered for IOSS in Romania. IOSS facilitates simplified customs process and allows you to collect and pay the VATs on goods sold to EU instead of having the end-customer pay them on delivery.

Getting an IOSS number will require a VAT registration as well. You can get started on this in the Romanian tax administration portal. It will be a few weeks before you have the both registrations done.

Now comes the tricky part: many Chinese dropshipping services do not allow for IOSS. There are exceptions, if they have a placeholder for it, they will generally provide it to the logistics company. If the software does not allow for the IOSS number to be input, you can always reach out to the supplier if they can handle it. IOSS number identifies the VAT liable party, so be careful who you share the number with. They have to have the understanding of the importance of the IOSS number and the risks it exposes you.

Should you want help, just reach out to us at EAS Project. We are the leading cross-border compliance automation: https://apps.shopify.com/eas-eu-compliance