What It Costs to Ship From Thailand, With Tax Included

What "tax included" means in trade terms

The arrangement has a name in the Incoterms rules, which the International Chamber of Commerce writes and maintains. It is DDP, delivered duty paid, and the ICC describes it in one line:

"DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) is unique: the seller is responsible for all duties, taxes and import formalities in the destination country."

Source: Guidance Note, Using the Incoterms 2020 Rules to Manage Tariff Risk in International Trade, International Chamber of Commerce, April 2025, iccwbo.org.

The same document explains why the choice matters at all:

"While the Incoterms rules do not influence tariff rates or customs procedures, they define the allocation of responsibilities between buyers and sellers, including who bears the costs of customs tariffs."

The tariff does not disappear on a DDP shipment. It moves. Dragon Courier pays it in Thailand as part of the fee, and clears customs itself rather than handing the shipment to a broker.

What a parcel costs

Prices are in Thai baht, on the price list of 3 August 2026, duty and tax included.

The United States has three service levels, e-commerce, standard and express, which is why that column is a range. The Philippines is priced by zone, so Metro Manila is the cheapest of five and a remote island is the most expensive. Over 30 kg per box, call the office.

One rate covers customs clearance, transportation, delivery and documentation. No hidden fees, no surcharges. Nothing extra for an urgent shipment, nothing extra for a remote address.

There is no discount for anybody. One price applies to all customers, whether it is a first parcel or the fiftieth, whether it is one box a year or a shipment every week.

Why the scale is only half the price

The price is weight and dimension. A box is billed on whichever is greater, its actual weight or the space it takes up in the aircraft hold. A pillow weighs almost nothing and prices like a much heavier parcel, because it occupies the volume of one.

That is the number most senders get wrong when they estimate a cost themselves. Send the dimensions along with the weight when asking for a quote and the number comes back right the first time.

What the receiver would have paid instead

This is the part that makes the comparison honest. Without DDP, the following applies to the person receiving the parcel, and every one of these rules is the destination country's own.

European Union. The old exemption is gone. The European Commission announced it is "abolishing the duty exemption applicable until 30 June 2026" and replacing it with a "temporary €3 customs duty per item on low-value consignments (up to €150)" under "Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382", which "will apply until 1 July 2028, after which normal customs duties will apply". It covers "all goods in consignments up to €150 sold in distance sales (e.g. e-commerce to consumers), regardless of VAT scheme". Source: Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission, published 8 June 2026. Note the word "per item": a box with six items carries six charges, not one. VAT was already due below the old threshold, since the exemption applied only to customs duty, on parcels "exempted from customs duties although being subject to VAT".

United Kingdom. HM Revenue and Customs splits it at £135. Below the line, "if you bought the goods yourself and they are not excise goods, the seller will have included VAT in the total you paid". Above it, "you will have to pay VAT to the delivery company either before the goods are delivered or when you collect them", and customs duty applies on "goods sent from outside the UK if they're either: excise goods [or] worth more than £135". Source: Tax and customs for goods sent from abroad, gov.uk.

Australia. The Australian Taxation Office states that "GST applies to low value imported goods with a customs value of A$1,000 or less", and that "if you are a consumer and you buy low value imported goods, the price may include GST, which applies at the point of sale in the same way as when you buy goods from businesses in Australia". The customs value is defined as "the price the goods are sold for, minus freight and insurance from the place of export". Source: GST on low value imported goods, ato.gov.au.

Japan. Japan Customs sets a floor rather than a ceiling: "those goods at a total customs value of 10,000 yen or less shall be exempted from taxation of customs duty and consumption tax". The exemption has holes in it, though, and the page names them: it "shall not be applied to certain designated articles for which tax exemption is considered inappropriate from the viewpoint of their impact on our domestic industries", specifically "leather bags, handbags, gloves, etc., knitted apparel (T-shirt, Sweater, etc), ski boots, leather shoes and footware with leather soles". Source: FAQ 1006, customs.go.jp.

On a Dragon Courier shipment none of these land on the receiver. The €3 per item, the VAT above £135, the Australian GST, the Japanese duty on a leather handbag: all of it sits inside the fee already paid in Thailand.

What the fee does not cover

Insurance is required on every shipment and it covers loss. Dragon Courier does not pay for damage in transit or for a missing item from a package. Dragon Courier investigates how it occurred to avoid it happening again, but there is no compensation. The sender chooses the declared value when booking.

Dragon Courier does not offer insurance for live plants.

Anything fragile or valuable should be wrapped very carefully and insured.

How and when to pay

Payment is cash or bank transfer, before export, for every customer. Dragon Courier can provide any invoice a sender requires.

Drop-off is until 17:00, Monday to Saturday, at the Bangkok office in Sukhumvit Soi 4 or the Chiang Mai office on Viangbua Road. A pickup is arranged on request, on the date and time the sender wants.

Getting the number for your own parcel

The table above is a starting point, not a quote. Message the team on WhatsApp or LINE at +66 6-5937-0812 with the weight, the dimensions, the destination and what is inside, and the reply is the price for that shipment with everything included.

About Dragon Courier

Dragon Courier is a Bangkok-based international courier shipping from Thailand to over 200 destinations. Dragon Courier has been doing this over 30 years, under the same management team for most of that time. It started as a British business and is Thai family-run now. Today that is more than 20,000 shipments a month.