UK seller with POD US-to-US fulfillment - duties?

Accounting & Taxes

Topic summary

UK-based seller using print-on-demand (POD) for US orders reports that Shopify charged a US customer duties even though the product is produced and shipped within the US. The order is US-to-US fulfillment; only the store’s business location is in the UK.

Shopify’s chatbot explained the charge as import duties applicable when shipping from the UK to the US, which the seller disputes since no international shipment occurred. Duties are government fees on imported goods, typically triggered by cross-border movement, not domestic shipments.

The seller asks whether duty charges in a purely domestic US fulfillment scenario are normal or if Shopify’s tax/duty collection settings need to be corrected.

Key unanswered questions:

  • Does Shopify assess duties based on the store’s registered country rather than the shipment origin?
  • How should tax/duty collection be configured for US-to-US POD fulfillment?

No resolution or action items yet; guidance is requested and the thread remains open.

Summarized with AI on January 15. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi - I’m having trouble finding an answer to this question specifically…

I’m based in the UK but I’m selling print-on-demand products to the US that are fulfilled in the US. I just had an order where Shopify charged a US customer Duties even though their entire order is being made and fulfilled in the US.

When I used the chatbot, it said it’s because my store is based in the UK and “When you ship products from the UK to the US, the US government requires these fees to be paid on imported goods.”

But I’m not shipping from the UK to the US…it’s US to US. Is this normal to charge Duties on a situation like this or do I need to do something to correct my tax collection settings?

Thank you in advance for any help!

4

Thank you so much! I’ve fixed all my settings now. Now I’ll need to figure out how to refund this customer the duties they paid.