As a Verified Account, you have access to:
No. Your Zonos Verified Account (and its tools) are free to use. You will only be billed for duties and processing/clearance fees per shipment you send to the U.S. using your Verified Account. The cost of the processing/clearance fee is listed in your Zonos Dashboard under Settings → Billing, in the Plan section.
You can use any of the same systems you use today. Australia Post will send shipment data to Zonos so Zonos can bill you for duties and processing/clearance fees.
Your Zonos Verified Account (and its tools) are free to use. There is no subscription cost and no cost for using Item Quoter. You will only be billed per shipment you send using your Verified Account: the duties, the taxes on your non-U.S. shipments, and applicable fees. Fee amounts are listed in your Zonos Dashboard under Settings → Billing, in the Plan section.
Your shipments will appear in Dashboard once the post sends the shipment data to Zonos. This can take a few days from when you ship your parcel.
While it is beneficial to confirm you have an account key, the integration with Australia Post does not require you to enter your Account Key anywhere. We use your MLID, APCN, or APBCN to link your Verified Account to your Australia Post account.
There are a couple of reasons you may not see your Account Key:
As of July 24, 2026, the duty prepayment threshold has risen from $800 to $2,500 USD. Your Verified Account should be used for postal shipments under $2,500 USD. Shipments at or above $2,500 USD follow standard customs entry procedures.
Before July 24, 2026, U.S.-bound postal shipments were only subject to Section 122 tariff rates—they had a temporary advantage where other normal duties (MFN, Section 301, Section 232, etc.) did not apply. As of July 24, 2026, that advantage went away, and Section 122 tariffs expired. Postal shipments are now subject to normal duties (MFN, Section 301, Section 232, etc.) for the first time. In addition, a new Section 301 forced-labor tariff (10% or 12.5% by country of origin; some origins are capped net of the MFN rate — see the U.S. tariff tracker) now applies to postal shipments, with a clean cutover from the expired Section 122 tariff rate to the new Section 301 rate.
Not an issue. With a Verified Account, Zonos collects and remits duties to CBP for eligible Australia Post shipments, even if another tool produced the duty estimate. You’ll be invoiced by Zonos for the assessed duties.
Duties are calculated per item based on country of origin and aggregated for the shipment total. The total appears on your Zonos invoice once postal shipment data is received.
Gifts valued over 100 USD are dutiable. Zonos calculates duties on the total gift value and bills your Verified Account accordingly.
For gift shipments with mixed origins, Zonos calculates duties per item by origin and sums them for the total duty, which is then billed to your Verified Account.
Yes. Letters and documents of no commercial value are not impacted by the suspension. However, you must still declare a value (minimum AUD$1.00) when lodging.
Bona fide gifts valued under USD$100 are not impacted by the suspension. These items must comply with declaration requirements.
CBP defines a bona fide gift as an item previously owned by a donor and given outright without compensation. Items acquired by purchase, barter, or as bonus items are not considered bona fide gifts.
To send a bona fide gift, select the Gift category on the customs declaration.
Yes. Customers can continue using a 6-digit HS tariff code.
A 10-digit HTS code will not be required until 28 February 2026.
Goods with a U.S. Country of Origin (COO) are not subject to IEEPA tariffs. In the Zonos dashboard, U.S. COO items will show 0% tariff for the postal channel.
Yes, but you do not need to go through the registration process again. You'll create a second, connected Dashboard account for your Verified Account.
To do so:
This second Verified Account will be connected to your existing Zonos account. Any orders placed via your ecommerce website using Zonos' integration will only appear on the ecommerce Dashboard account that you are used to. If you ship other orders (for example, through another selling platform not integrated with Zonos) with your AusPost business account, they will appear on your Verified Account Dashboard.
You can toggle between accounts by clicking your account name in the top right corner of Zonos Dashboard.
A third-party IOSS number is any IOSS registration other than Zonos': your own, your marketplace's, or one belonging to another provider you sell through. With one of those on your orders, you can still ship to Sweden, but hold off on Germany and Denmark for now.
Germany and Denmark: Both countries now require duties to be paid upfront on postal shipments, and your Verified Account is the only way to prepay duties to those destinations. Support for orders carrying a third-party IOSS number is still in development, so there is currently no clean path for IOSS orders to Germany or Denmark via the post. Zonos will notify you when the capability is available.
Sweden: Sweden accepts shipments without upfront duty payment, so IOSS orders to Sweden can ship without your Verified Account.
If you use Zonos' own IOSS number on your orders, or you and your sales channels are not registered for IOSS at all, ship duty-paid to Germany, Sweden, and Denmark with your Verified Account as normal.
Only if no one else is already remitting the UK VAT.
The UK uses a UK VAT ID rather than IOSS for orders under 135 GBP, which is the value band your Verified Account covers. Whoever holds that VAT registration is the one remitting the tax. So if you hold your own UK VAT ID, or your marketplace remits UK VAT on your orders, don't use your Verified Account for them, because the tax would end up remitted twice.
If neither you nor your marketplace is registered for UK VAT, use your Verified Account and Zonos collects and remits the VAT for you. If you sell through a marketplace and aren't sure which applies, check with them first.
Postal operators like Australia Post must work with an approved third-party to comply with U.S. CBP requirements.
Zonos is one of the first qualified third parties approved by U.S. authorities. Australia Post partnered with Zonos to enable resumption of services to the U.S. as soon as possible.
There are no additional Australia Post fees.
Business customers with a Zonos Verified Account are invoiced directly by Zonos for:
There are no subscription or hidden charges.
No. Your invoice for a U.S. shipment covers the duties and applicable fees—there is no tax line. U.S. sales tax is remitted under state sales tax IDs, which Zonos does not hold, so it is not something Zonos can collect or remit for you.
Whether you owe U.S. sales tax at all depends on your own sales, since states generally set their thresholds based on seller volume. If you cross a state's threshold, registering and remitting stays your responsibility.
Your non-U.S. destinations work differently—Zonos does collect and remit the taxes on those shipments.
No. The postal clearance fee is applied per parcel, not per individual item.
Contact the Zonos support team for assistance:
:e-mail: APsupport@zonos.com
According to CBP, U.S. returns are not duty-free and require duties to be paid.
There are a couple of exceptions where returns are exempt from duty:
3PLs should not ask merchants to create a Verified Account with the 3PL's MLID, APCN, or APBCN.
In your Zonos Dashboard, go to Settings → General. Scroll to the Danger Zone section. From there, you can choose to Archive organization to make your dashboard read-only, or Deactivate organization to remove access for all users. Follow the on-screen prompts to confirm your choice.
If your product description doesn’t align with the HS code, customs authorities may reclassify your shipment based on what they think it is. This can cause duty and tax adjustments, clearance delays, or even returns to sender.
Always use a straightforward, accurate description (for example, “leather men’s wallet” instead of “premium accessory”) to ensure your HS code stays correct.
See this guide for more details.
If you’re noticing your HS code being adjusted, it’s often because the description provided doesn’t match the code. Customs reviews shipments for coherency between the description and code—and when they don’t line up, they’ll correct it.
To avoid reclassification, use detailed, factual wording that clearly defines the item, its material, and its purpose.
See this guide for more details.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)