UPS: Commercial invoice for dutiable outbound and return shipments

Commercial invoice for shipments to a non-EU country and the return of undeliverable dutiable parcels

Ina Kahl avatar
Written by Ina Kahl
Updated over a week ago

Shipcloud supports you in shipping your UPS packages worldwide from Germany - via Shipcloud business rates or your own UPS contract, which you can already store with us starting from our Professional subscription.


In this article you will learn when you need to include a commercial invoice with your UPS shipments and how you can easily create one with Shipcloud.

In this article 👇


Dutiable outbound shipping to a non-EU country

For UPS shipments sent to a non-EU country, you must attach the proforma or commercial invoice in triplicate to the outside of the packages so that they can be cleared through customs. With Shipcloud, you can also create a commercial invoice together with the shipping label.

📌 Please note that missing customs documents lead to further costs and shipping delays. If you ship via Shipcloud business rates, we charge an additional fee of 5 EUR per shipment for missing customs documents and the associated additional operational expenses.

Returns of undeliverable dutiable parcels from a non-EU country

When returning UPS shipments from dutiable countries that could not be delivered in the destination country due to a problem or refusal of acceptance, you as the sender have to issue a new commercial invoice.

The commercial invoice must meet the following requirements:

  • All information (e.g., value of goods, contents, etc.) must be identical to the customs data from the original commercial invoice (for the outbound shipment).

  • "Return goods" must be specified as the shipment type.

  • The original UPS shipment or tracking number of the outbound shipment must be indicated on the invoice.

📌 Please note that UPS has to recheck these shipments in case of insufficient information and therefore delays in the return as well as additional fees may occur.

Create a commercial invoice in the Shipcloud webUI

Create your dutiable shipment as usual in the menu item "Shipping" >> "New Shipment" and select UPS as the carrier and the desired service (UPS Standard/Expedited/ Express Save /Express).

Enter the receiver address in the input mask. As soon as you have selected the carrier and a non-EU country in the "Country" field, an additional button "Add customs declaration" will appear further down.



Click on this button to open the input mask for entering the customs data. Detailed information about the individual fields and required data can be found here.

Then click on "Book shipment". You will now be provided with both the shipping label and the customs declaration for printout.



Create a commercial invoice via API/plug-in

If you create your shipping labels and customs documents via API request, you can find more information in our Developer Portal. If you create your shipping labels directly from your shop, ERP or inventory management system, please contact the developer of your plugin directly to find out whether the function for creating a customs declaration is already implemented. On our website you will find an overview of the available plugins and the corresponding contacts.

For more helpful tips on how to create a commercial invoice, click here.


Any further questions? We're happy to help.


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