SendCloud importer of record

For some international shipments the carrier needs an importer of record: the company that imports the goods and handles customs in the destination country. FedEx DDP is a common case. Duties and VAT are billed to the FedEx account on the contract used to create the label. The importer’s name, address and tax numbers are sent with the shipment.

You store that importer on the SendCloud shipping method, in Settings JSON. Other keys already in that field, such as contract_id, stay as they are. Add customs_information next to them.

ChannelDock sends this data on the label request to SendCloud (POST /api/v2/parcels, field parcel.customs_information) when the destination country matches importer_of_record.country_code. A method that also ships to other countries keeps working: those shipments are created without this importer.

Add the importer

1. Open Connections → Carriers and open your SendCloud connection.
2. Edit the shipping method that should use this importer (for example a FedEx DDP method for one country).
3. In Settings JSON, keep the existing JSON and add customs_information.

contract_id is the SendCloud contract. That is what assigns duties and VAT to the FedEx account. customs_information is only the importer.

{
  "contract_id": 12345,
  "customs_information": {
    "importer_of_record": {
      "name": "Jane Doe",
      "company_name": "ImporterCo",
      "address_1": "Maple Avenue",
      "house_number": "123",
      "postal_code": "90210",
      "city": "Springfield",
      "country_code": "US",
      "country_state": "US-MA",
      "telephone": "+15551234567",
      "email": "[email protected]"
    },
    "tax_numbers": {
      "importer_of_record": [
        {
          "name": "EIN",
          "country_code": "US",
          "value": "987654321"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

4. Save the shipping method and create a test label to that country with SendCloud.

Use a separate shipping method per destination country when the importer differs. country_code on the address and on each tax number must be the destination country (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, for example US).

Fields

Importer address (importer_of_record):

Field	Required	Notes
name	Yes	Max 75 characters
address_1	Yes	Street, max 150 characters
city	Yes	Max 30 characters
postal_code	Yes	Max 12 characters
country_code	Yes	Destination country, for example US
company_name	No	Max 50 characters
address_2	No	Max 150 characters
house_number	No	Max 20 characters
country_state	For US, Canada, Italy and Australia	ISO 3166-2, for example US-MA
telephone	No	E.164, for example +15551234567
email	No

Tax numbers (tax_numbers.importer_of_record) are a list. Each item has:

Field	Example
name	EIN, VAT, EORI, GST
country_code	US
value	The number itself

You can also add sender and receiver lists in the same tax_numbers object when the carrier asks for them.

If you only have the address, customs_information may be that address object. If you only have tax numbers, it may be the array of number objects. The example above sends both, which is what FedEx DDP needs.

See also Connecting SendCloud.