If a buyer sees the amount, they have to know who set it.
LiveA recovery amount on a storefront is a disclosure problem before it is a pricing problem. The buyer sees a number they did not expect and forms a view about where it came from. If the wording lets them believe a government levied it, the disclosure has failed regardless of how carefully the amount was calculated. This page covers the wording SkuWatch drafts, why each part of it is there, and what a merchant should never write.
Available on Shopify: this workflow is part of SkuWatch Tariff Recovery. The current app produces estimates, review states, recovery drafts, and finance CSVs; it does not change products, prices, orders, or checkout charges.
- Search intent
- Shopify merchants who have decided to recover import cost and need to know what the line should say, where it should appear, and what they are not allowed to claim.
- Workflow input
- The recovery amount for a SKU, its country of origin, and the market the order ships to.
- Workflow output
- Draft buyer-visible wording with a fixed disclosure line, versioned so the exact sentence a buyer read is recoverable later.
The wording, and why none of it is decorative
Most disclosure failures are not deceptive on purpose. A merchant writes "tariff" because that is the word in the headline, and a buyer reads it as a government charge because that is what the word means. The gap between intent and reading is where the problem lives, and wording is the only thing that closes it.
The wording SkuWatch drafts is fixed rather than composed per store, for the same reason a receipt format is fixed: the parts that protect the reader are exactly the parts a busy merchant would trim.
What is fixed, and what is not
- Fixed: the disclosure sentence saying the amount is not a government tax. It is not editable in any version.
- Fixed: the label. "Import cost recovery" names the merchant as the source of the amount.
- Versioned: every draft carries a wording version, stored with the batch, so the exact sentence a buyer read is recoverable months later rather than inferred.
Claims to avoid
Do not write, and do not let a template compose: tariff tax, government fee, customs duty collected by us, mandatory tariff, AI-calculated surcharge, or hidden import fee. Each one either attributes the amount to an authority that did not set it, or describes a charge this approach exists to prevent. SkuWatch checks its own drafts against that list at build time rather than leaving it as a style note.
SkuWatch does not act as a customs broker, does not file or remit anything to a customs authority, and does not guarantee a legal outcome. The amount is your pricing decision, disclosed in your own words, under your own terms.
What a disclosure has to carry
Catalog facts, official tariff evidence, and estimates stay separated so unresolved inputs are visible before a decision.
Call it what it is
The line reads "Import cost recovery". Not a tariff, not a duty, not a fee levied by anyone. The name is the first thing a buyer reads and it does most of the work.
Say why it is there
One clause, in plain words — it helps offset changing cross-border import costs. A buyer who understands the reason argues with it far less than one who is guessing.
State what it is not
The sentence saying it is not a government tax appears in the buyer's own view. It is fixed and is not editable in any version, because it is the one that prevents the misreading.
Live app, source-linked tariff data
The amount behind any recovery draft comes from the current published tariff snapshot. Buyer-facing setup remains manual; the app does not change products, prices, orders, or checkout charges.
2026 HTS Rev 19 · synced · Operational
Inspect data and calculator status →Frequently asked questions
What exactly does the buyer see?
A line labelled Import cost recovery, a short explainer saying it helps offset changing cross-border import costs, a note of the origin the item is imported from, and the sentence Shown before checkout. Not a government tax.
Can I write my own wording?
The drafted wording is what SkuWatch models today, and editing arrives with the write step. The disclosure sentence stating it is not a government tax is not editable in any version, because that is the claim the disclosure exists to prevent.
Is this legal advice?
No. SkuWatch is not a tax or legal advisor and does not provide customs advice. The wording is drafted to avoid misdescribing a merchant charge as a government one; whether a given disclosure meets your obligations in your market is a question for your own advisor.
Where does the line appear?
The draft is intended for a product surface before checkout, so the amount is not a surprise at payment. The current app prepares the draft for manual review and setup rather than publishing it to the storefront.
Does SkuWatch charge my customers?
No. SkuWatch does not collect money from your buyers, does not add a checkout fee on its own, and makes no Shopify change without your explicit approval and a write permission this app does not currently request.
Reference information only, not customs, legal, tax, or classification advice. SkuWatch does not guarantee HTS accuracy or a final duty amount; confirm material classifications and entry facts before acting.