How Do You Ship Amazon US Purchases to Taiwan? The Official Rules on AmazonGlobal Direct Shipping, Import Duties, Returns and Prime

The official rules table: shipping, duties, returns, Prime

Every cell is taken from an official Amazon help page or from the wording of its terms (verified 2026-09-06). Where the official pages say nothing, the table says "not found" instead of guessing.

This site has no US warehouse and Amazon US goods do not pass through the Shenzhen warehouse; not one row in this table is a HowBridge service. Amazon's official rate table has no separate row for Taiwan, only the Asia region, so this page does not invent Taiwan-specific figures.

AmazonGlobal direct shipping to Taiwan: coverage, rates, transit times, free-shipping threshold

Amazon.com ships to Taiwan with AmazonGlobal, and no forwarding or consolidation is needed. The cost is a per-shipment base fee plus a per-item fee, Taiwan takes the Asia rates, and standard shipping is free once eligible items reach USD 35 in value.

• The export list: the official "AmazonGlobal Export Countries and Regions" page puts Taiwan in the "Australia, Asia, and Pacific" block, alongside Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Amazon notes that PO box addresses are not serviceable everywhere, that third-party sellers each set their own limits on international shipping, and that duties and import fees in the destination are borne by the recipient.
• How to tell whether an item ships: the official method is to set the delivery address to Taiwan, after which eligible items are marked "FREE Shipping" on the product page or in search results; there is no official filter called "Ships to Taiwan".
• Rates: in the official Global Shipping Rates table Taiwan falls under Asia: a per-shipment base of USD 5.99 for standard, USD 10.99 for expedited and USD 13.99 for priority courier, plus a per-item charge based on quantity, weight or dimensional weight; Amazon notes that not every option exists in every region.
• Transit times: in the official Global Shipping Times table the Asia region is "as fast as 20 days" for standard and "as fast as 8 days" for priority (for comparison, Hong Kong is as fast as 7 / 4 days and Japan 13 / 6 days); the official wording is as fast as, not a guaranteed number of days, and priority cannot be chosen on every order.
• Free international shipping over USD 35: Amazon lists 27 free international shipping destinations, and the threshold for Taiwan is USD 35 (the same tier as Hong Kong, Thailand, Colombia and Costa Rica, while South Korea, Malaysia and New Zealand are USD 49). The limits: standard shipping only; when only some items qualify, postage is still charged on the rest; items shipped by third-party sellers, VAT and the Import Fees Deposit do not count towards the threshold; it does not apply to Amazon Business; and Amazon states in writing that it is "a limited-time offer, and Amazon reserves the right to change or end it at any time".
• Third-party sellers: the official terms separate "shipped by Amazon Export Sales LLC" from "shipped by a third-party seller"; for non-media items that sellers ship themselves, postage outside the continental US is set by the seller; only media such as books, CDs and DVDs have an official international rate table (for example USD 16.95 for a book under 1 pound, USD 46.50 for international expedited).

Amazon Day delivery is expressly listed as unavailable for "addresses outside the continental US"; on warranties, the terms warn that a manufacturer warranty may be void in the destination country and that voltage and plug types may not match, so an adapter or transformer may be needed.

How import duties are charged: Import Tax and Fees and Taiwan's EZ WAY

Amazon takes the estimated Taiwanese customs duty and business tax together at checkout, and the carrier it designates pays them to customs for you; Amazon guarantees that nothing is billed afterwards, but whether a difference is refunded depends on whether the checkout page shows a deposit or a fixed amount.

• The official definition: the "About Import Tax and Fees" page states that for shipments outside the United States Amazon handles customs clearance, that you are responsible for import duties and fees, and that Amazon may charge a fixed amount at checkout covering the whole clearance process and its costs (including estimated import duties and fees), which the carrier or its agent then uses to pay customs and the tax authorities for you.
• Two ways of charging, two rules on refunds and top-ups: clause 3 of the International Shipping Terms & Conditions reads — "for certain destinations, Amazon Export estimates the import fees and collects a deposit at checkout (Import Fees Deposit); for other destinations, it collects a fixed amount (Import Charges)"; and "if the actual import fees exceed the amount collected, you will not be charged more; if the deposit exceeds the actual fees, the difference is refunded; Import Charges are a fixed amount and are not refunded". Which of the two applies to Taiwan is not named by Amazon, so go by the label shown at checkout.
• You are the importer: the terms state that the recipient is the "importer of record" and authorise the carrier designated by Amazon (the Designated Carrier) to act as your agent in clearing customs and paying the customs and tax authorities; risk and title pass to you when the goods are handed to the first carrier outside the country of import. Amazon does not name which carrier serves the Taiwan route, nor does it publish any advance-payment handling fee for Taiwan — this page gives no handling-fee figure that Amazon has not confirmed.
• The rules on the Taiwanese side: the exemption authorised by Article 49, Paragraph 2 of the Customs Act waives customs duty, commodity tax and business tax when the customs value of a single consignment is NT$2,000 or less, and above that the whole consignment is taxed; more than 6 duty-free releases in a half-year period ends the exemption. The amount Amazon collects in advance already includes the estimated customs duty and business tax, and the final assessment is made by customs on the basis of the declaration.
• EZ WAY is a requirement Amazon writes into its own help pages: the Amazon "Customs and Import Fees / ID requirements" page reads: "Taiwan: effective January 16, 2020, Taiwan Customs requires recipients of imported express shipments to complete identity verification. Recipients must register directly through the Taiwan Customs EZ WAY App on a mobile device to complete identity verification. Parcels for which identity registration and verification are not completed may not be accepted for import clearance", and it links to the Customs Administration website; the same page lists Taiwan among the places that may require an identity document number, and explains that identity data unused for 90 days is deleted automatically.
• US sales tax: the official US State Sales and Use Taxes page says "items ordered from Amazon.com and shipped to countries outside the United States may be subject to the tax rates applicable in that country", with rates calculated from the state and local rates of "the destination or the point of shipment" — there is no official statement that shipping internationally makes US sales tax go away. Taiwan is likewise absent from the list of places where Amazon collects local consumption tax on low value imported goods (LVIG) at checkout (Australia, the EU, the UK, Singapore, Malaysia and others).

Putting a forwarding warehouse in as your US address to "save sales tax" contradicts the wording of Amazon's official tax page, and this site has no US warehouse that could be used that way; this page no longer offers that approach.

Returns: 30 days, and whether postage and the deposit come back

Items shipped by Amazon can be returned within 30 days of delivery; if you pay the postage yourself, Amazon automatically refunds up to USD 25; only for defective, damaged or wrongly shipped items does Amazon state that it refunds the full postage and returns the import fees deposit.

• Deadline and entry point: the official International Returns page says "items shipped by Amazon can be returned through Your Orders within 30 days of delivery"; items shipped by third-party sellers themselves go back to the seller rather than to Amazon.
• Return methods depend on the country: Amazon lists UPS drop-off (for orders shipped to Canada), DHL Express drop-off or home pickup ("available in select countries"), and "paying for a return label yourself"; which of these Taiwan can use is not listed by Amazon, so go by what the order page actually shows.
• Postage and the deposit: if you pay the postage yourself, Amazon automatically refunds up to USD 25 once it receives the return, depending on the country, and anything beyond that has to be claimed from customer service; the official wording is "if you return a defective, damaged or incorrect item, we will refund the full shipping cost and the Import Fees Deposit when we process the return" — for a change-of-mind return, Amazon promises no refund of the deposit.
• How long a refund takes to arrive: Amazon does not publish a processing time for international refunds, so this page gives no number of days.

Before returning anything, check whether checkout charged a deposit or a fixed amount: a fixed amount (Import Charges) is never refunded, and the deposit is refunded, in Amazon's express wording, only for defective, damaged or wrongly shipped items. For evidence and platform dispute procedures on cross-border returns, see our Complete Guide to Cross-Border Returns and Refunds.

How Prime, Subscribe & Save and Prime Video apply to Taiwan

Every address on the official Prime delivery benefits page is inside the United States, and free shipping to Taiwan runs through a separate USD 35 offer that needs no Prime; the official Subscribe & Save list of 14 regions does not include Taiwan; Prime Video can be subscribed to on its own in Taiwan.

• Current Prime prices (US site, official page on 2026-09-06): USD 14.99 per month, USD 139 per year, Prime for Young Adults USD 7.49 per month, Prime Access USD 6.99 per month, with a 30-day free trial.
• Scope of the delivery benefits: the official "Amazon Prime Delivery Benefits" table covers only the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and not a single row is international shipping; Release-Date Delivery is expressly listed as not applying to international addresses. Amazon nowhere writes the flat denial that "Prime free shipping does not apply internationally", so this page only states the scope of the benefits table.
• Subscribe & Save: the terms (updated January 23, 2024) read "available only to customers shipping to addresses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, India, Japan, Australia and the United Arab Emirates" — Taiwan is not on the list.
• Prime Video in Taiwan: primevideo.com shows TWD 169 per month for Taiwan with up to 3 devices streaming at once; this is a standalone Prime Video subscription and a different thing from a US Prime membership.

Amazon Day delivery, same-day and next-day delivery are all limited to US addresses; the real options for shipping to Taiwan are only the standard, expedited and priority services shown at checkout.

Is there an Amazon in Taiwan? Where amazon.tw, amazon.cn and amazon.co.jp stand

Taiwan has no Amazon consumer storefront: the amazon.com.tw domain does not exist and amazon.tw redirects straight back to amazon.com; Amazon's official businesses in Taiwan are the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region and Prime Video.

• No Taiwanese site: no DNS records were found for amazon.com.tw or sell.amazon.com.tw, and www.amazon.tw is steered to www.amazon.com through Amazon's own redirect parameters. Buying from Amazon means using the US site (or the Japan site and others) and shipping to Taiwan.
• Amazon's official businesses in Taiwan: the official AWS global infrastructure page announces "AWS launches a new region in Taiwan" (the Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region); Prime Video offers Taiwan a TWD 169 per month plan; no Taiwan-specific domain was found for Amazon Global Selling.
• amazon.cn: the official notice sits on the homepage — from January 27, 2024 the Amazon Global Store (China) moved to the "Amazon Shopping" app and a WeChat mini program, and shopping is no longer offered on desktop; Prime membership in China stopped taking new sign-ups on December 28, 2023 and ended on January 27, 2024. The Amazon Global Store (China) is cross-border shopping for consumers in China, not a purchasing channel for Taiwan.
• amazon.co.jp shipping to Taiwan (for comparison): the Japan site's official international shipping table lists Taiwan outright, with a base charge per shipment of ¥1,650 (Premium) / ¥1,450 (Economy); the delivery time table gives two figures for Taiwan, as fast as 2 days and as fast as 7 days. No dedicated import deposit page was found for the Japan site this time.
• Amazon's scale (first-hand official figures): the Amazon FY2025 Form 10-K (filed February 6, 2026) reports full-year net sales of USD 716.9 billion and net income of USD 77.7 billion; on catalogue size the official wording is "hundreds of millions of unique products", and the number of Prime members is not disclosed — the old claim of 600 million products has no official source.

Changes to the Amazon Global Store (China) and to Prime in China follow the official notice on the amazon.cn homepage; the launch date of the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region was not verified word for word here, only the headline of the official announcement is quoted.

Three routes: official direct shipping, the Japan site, what this site can do

Frequently asked questions