De minimis vs informal entry: de minimis released low-value goods free of duty; an informal entry, for shipments up to $2,500, is a simpler entry on which duty is still paid.
What does de minimis mean in US customs?
In trade, de minimis is the value below which goods enter a country without duty or tax. In the United States it is Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C)), which let CBP admit goods free of duty and tax when the fair retail value of articles imported by one person on one day was $800 or less.
Current status: suspended for all origins since August 29, 2025, with the statutory end on July 1, 2027. Low-value goods now clear through an informal or formal entry and pay every duty that applies.
Read the full guide: the US de minimis ($800) rule and what changed โ It covers the dates, the executive orders and CBP rules behind the suspension, the mail rules and the entry types.
To see what a small shipment now owes, enter its HTS code, origin and value in the tariff simulator.
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