The seller pays the tax; someone in the EU files.

What DDP says in Incoterms® 2020

DDP is the end of the scale that loads the most work onto the seller. The ICC's guidance note of April 2025 shows this in one table: under ten of the eleven rules the buyer clears import and pays the duty; only under DDP are both with the seller. In the note's words, under DDP the seller is responsible for all duties, taxes and import formalities in the destination country.

The question "has DDP been abolished?" usually comes from two other rules. What disappeared was not DDP but DDU, replaced by DAP in Incoterms® 2010, and DAT, renamed DPU in 2020; detail on Incoterms® 2020: the eleven rules. DDP is still one of the seven rules for any mode of transport and works for sea, road, air or rail.

The ICC also warns against it. The Incoterms® 2020 introduction puts the two extreme rules side by side: under EXW, merely placing the goods at the buyer's disposal can cause problems with loading and export clearance, so the seller is advised to use FCA; under DDP, some of the seller's obligations, import clearance for example, can only be performed in the buyer's country. That may be physically or legally difficult for the seller, and the introduction suggests considering DAP or DPU in that case. What the other extreme means on exports from Türkiye is on EXW on exports from Türkiye.

On the Turkish side, DDP is the delivery term written on the export declaration and the invoice; which field takes the code is on Incoterms on the declaration and the e-invoice. How a DDP price is built from an FCA or DAP price is on converting prices between Incoterms.

Who lodges the EU import declaration

Under the Union Customs Code a customs declaration may be lodged by any person able to provide all the information required for the procedure declared and to present the goods to customs (Art. 170(1)). But the declarant must be established in the customs territory of the Union (Art. 170(2)). The declarant is the person lodging the declaration in its own name, or the person in whose name it is lodged (Art. 5(15)).

A seller not established in the EU therefore lodges through a customs representative. The Code knows two kinds of representation (Art. 18(1)): under direct representation the representative acts in the name of and on behalf of another person; under indirect representation it acts in its own name but on behalf of another person. The representative itself must be established in the EU (Art. 18(2)). It must state that it acts on behalf of the person represented and whether the representation is direct or indirect; a person who fails to state that it is acting as a customs representative is deemed to act in its own name and on its own behalf (Art. 19(1)).

In practice: a seller outside the EU selling DDP will in most cases file through an indirect representative. Under indirect representation the representative is the declarant and the debtor for the customs debt; the seller on whose behalf the declaration is made is also a debtor (Art. 77(3)). If the information leads to duty not being collected, the person who provided it and knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that it was false is a debtor too. Because the representative takes on someone else's debt, whether to accept indirect representation is its decision: it may ask for a guarantee or prepayment, or decline the work for a seller outside the EU. Find the representative before you quote and get its terms in writing.

The rules are changing. The new Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, applies from 21 September 2027 (Art. 287(2)). Under the new text the importer must be established in the EU; one of the exceptions is an importer represented by an indirect representative established in the EU (Art. 27(3)(e)). An indirect representative acting for an importer not established in the EU is considered to be the importer for the importer's obligations (Art. 33(3)). Those obligations are to provide the information, to ensure payment of the duties and to ensure that the goods comply with other legislation. The timeline of the reform is on what changed in 2026.

Import VAT and VAT registration

Industrial goods travelling from Türkiye to the EU with an A.TR pay no customs duty; import VAT is, as a rule, due on every shipment. For a Turkish exporter, then, the money side of DDP is often not duty but import VAT, with excise duty and anti-dumping duty added for some products. Which charges arise is on importing from Türkiye into the EU; the logic of building the tax base from the customs value plus duties is the same on Turkish imports, and its order is on import duty calculation in Türkiye.

The person liable for import VAT is designated by the Member State of importation (VAT Directive Art. 201). Because under DDP the seller imports on its own account, the chain from there ties the seller to that country's VAT system:

• The sale becomes a supply in that country. Where transport begins outside the EU, the supply by the importer designated as liable for VAT and any subsequent supply are deemed to take place in the Member State of importation (Art. 32). The DDP seller's sale to the buyer is a domestic supply subject to VAT there.
• The VAT on that supply is in principle payable by the seller (Art. 193). A Member State may make the customer liable where the supplier is not established there (Art. 194); whether it does varies by country.
• VAT registration may be needed. Member States identify taxable persons who make supplies giving a right of deduction in their territory, except supplies on which only the customer pays the tax (Art. 214(1)(a)).
• Recovering import VAT depends on registration. A taxable person deducts the import VAT in the Member State where it carries out its taxed transactions (Art. 168(e)). The route for an unregistered non-EU business is a refund under Directive 86/560/EEC (Art. 171(2)), but only for a business that has made no supplies in that Member State (86/560/EEC Art. 1(1)). A DDP sale is a supply in the Member State of importation (Art. 32), so the seller can use that route only if the country makes the buyer liable for the VAT on that sale (Art. 194; Art. 171(2), second subparagraph); otherwise it needs a VAT registration and deducts through its return. Where the refund route is open, a Member State may make it conditional on reciprocity and require a tax representative (86/560/EEC Art. 2(2)–(3)).
• Payment at the border can sometimes be avoided. A Member State may allow import VAT to be entered in the VAT return instead of being paid at importation (Art. 211); that requires someone filing VAT returns in that country.

Which of these applies, and on what conditions, is national law. Before quoting DDP, ask a tax adviser in that country two questions: is VAT registration required, and how is the import VAT recovered?

CBAM goods sold DDP

CBAM goods such as cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen may be imported into the EU only by an authorised CBAM declarant (Regulation (EU) 2023/956 Art. 4). The Regulation defines the importer as the person lodging the release for free circulation declaration in its own name and on its own behalf or, where the declaration is lodged by an indirect representative, the person on whose behalf it is lodged (Art. 3(15)). Under DDP that person is the seller in Türkiye.

Where the importer is not established in a Member State, the indirect customs representative obtains the status of authorised CBAM declarant, whether or not the importer is exempt under the 50-tonne threshold (Art. 5(2)). The representative then carries the importer's CBAM obligations for those goods (Art. 5(2a)). So under DDP the representative must agree to take on not only the customs declaration but also the CBAM declaration and the certificates; if it does not, the goods cannot be imported. Emissions data and cost sharing are on CBAM for Turkish exporters.

When DAP carries less risk

Under DAP the seller still brings the goods to the buyer's door and carries the risk up to there; import clearance and import charges are the buyer's. The ICC flowchart ties the choice to exactly this question: can you obtain the import licences and carry out the import formalities in the destination country, and can you recover the import VAT? If not, use DAP instead of DDP, as the ICC guidance note also suggests, or DPU if unloading is yours as well. Who pays which cost item under these three rules is on Incoterms cost allocation.

A common middle way is an addition such as "DDP, VAT unpaid": the duty stays with the seller and the import VAT goes to the buyer. Incoterms® does not prohibit such alterations, but the introduction calls them dangerous: the parties must make the intended effect extremely clear in the contract and, if they alter the allocation of costs, state whether they also intend to vary the point of delivery and risk transfer. There is a further problem: the person liable for import VAT is designated by the importing country, not by the contract (VAT Directive Art. 201). Whether the buyer can pay depends on that country recognising it as liable. Variants in more detail on Incoterms® 2020.

On our road freight shipments from Türkiye to the EU, our own customs broker prepares the export declaration and movement certificates such as the A.TR and EUR.1; the import declaration in the EU is the work of a customs representative established in the EU.