The $800 de minimis rule is gone

Changed in June 2026

De minimis means “too small to matter”. For years, under the de minimis rule, a shipment worth $800 or less could enter the United States free of duty and with almost no paperwork. A great deal of small-scale importing was built on that. It has been suspended indefinitely, and most of the guidance still online has not caught up.

If you have been bringing in samples, test orders or small e-commerce quantities under the $800 line, the thing you were relying on is not there any more. This is what replaced it.

What actually happened

On 24 June 2026 CBP issued two interim final rules. One covers merchandise arriving through the international postal network; the other covers everything else — ocean, air, truck and rail. Together they suspend the duty-free administrative exemption at 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C), the provision everyone knew as de minimis or Section 321.

The suspension is written as open-ended. In the words of the amended regulation, the exemption is suspended

…until such time as CBP determines that the application of the exemption is no longer inconsistent with the purpose…19 CFR § 10.151(b), as amended 24 June 2026

There is no country carve-out. This is not a China measure that leaves Vietnam alone. It applies to origin countries uniformly.

What survives

Two other exemptions in the same statute were left in place, and it is worth being precise about them because they are narrower than people hope:

• Bona fide gifts of $100 or less, sent person to person ($200 from certain US island possessions). A gift means a gift. Goods you bought are not a gift because the shipping label says so.
• Personal and household articles of $200 or less accompanying a traveller. Accompanying — in your luggage, with you.

Neither is a route for commercial goods, and treating them as one is a misdeclaration rather than a loophole.

What it means for a shipment that used to come in free

It now needs an entry. Which kind depends on value.

The $2,500 line comes from 19 CFR § 143.21(a), and it is not going to move: Congress capped it in statute at 19 U.S.C. § 1498(a)(1)(A), so CBP cannot raise it by regulation. It has stood at $2,500 since January 2013.

Two things on that table deserve more than a row.

The ISF requirement does not care how small the order is

An Importer Security Filing is required on ocean cargo regardless of entry type or value, and it is due 24 hours before your goods are loaded onto the vessel overseas — not before arrival, before loading. Ten data elements, one of which is the HTS classification you may not have worked out yet.

The liquidated damages are $5,000 per violation, written into the bond conditions at 19 CFR § 113.62(j). CBP publishes no cap. A single shipment can generate more than one violation — late, then inaccurate, then an inaccurate correction — so the exposure on one small box can exceed the value of what is in it.

You may have read that ISF penalties are capped at $10,000 per shipment. We could not find that cap in the regulations or in CBP’s published mitigation guidelines, and we would not rely on it.

Some goods cannot use informal entry even under $2,500

19 CFR § 143.21(a) excludes articles valued over $250 that are classified in Chapter 99, Subchapters III and IV of the tariff schedule — which is where additional duties such as Section 301 live. On a plain reading, a low-value shipment carrying an additional-duty classification is pushed into formal entry, with the bond that implies. Whether yours is affected depends on classification, which is exactly the thing to have checked rather than assumed.

Why we are not printing duty rates on this page

Because they would be wrong before you finished reading. The additional-duty layer sitting on top of ordinary tariff rates has changed repeatedly through 2026, across several different legal authorities, some of them litigated. Any specific percentage published as evergreen advice is a liability.

What does not change is the structure: your ordinary duty rate comes from the ten-digit HTS classification of your product; additional duties, where they apply, sit on top; then the Merchandise Processing Fee and, on ocean freight, the Harbor Maintenance Fee. Get the classification settled first. Everything downstream is arithmetic once it is right, and guesswork until it is.

The honest summary

The $800 exemption removed a whole tier of complexity for small shipments. With it suspended, the paperwork on a $600 test order and a $60,000 container is now the same shape — different entry type, same requirement to classify, value, declare and file, and on ocean freight the same ISF deadline with the same $5,000 exposure.

That is a much worse deal for small orders than for large ones, which is the part nobody says out loud. The fixed cost of an import did not fall; the threshold that let small buyers skip it did.

What the order actually costs once every line is in — and who pays the duty on it — are on the landed-cost guide and who pays the tariff on an import.

Questions people ask

What is the de minimis rule?

The de minimis rule — also called Section 321 — let a shipment worth $800 or less enter the United States free of duty and with almost no paperwork (19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C)). CBP suspended it indefinitely by two interim final rules issued on 24 June 2026.

Does the de minimis suspension apply to every country?

Yes. There is no country carve-out: it is not a China measure that leaves Vietnam alone, and it applies to every origin country uniformly.

What is the de minimis amount now?

For commercial goods there is none while the suspension lasts. What survives is narrower: bona fide gifts of $100 or less sent person to person, and personal articles of $200 or less accompanying a traveller. Neither is a route for goods you bought.

Do small shipments from China pay duty now?

Yes. A shipment that used to come in free now needs an entry: informal under $2,500, formal with a customs bond at $2,500 and over. Duty and the Merchandise Processing Fee are payable either way, and ocean shipments need an Importer Security Filing 24 hours before loading whatever their value.

Checked 19 CFR 10.151(b), 19 CFR 143.21, and the 24 June 2026 interim final rules verified on August 27, 2026. Due for review by October 26, 2026.