# De Minimis Is Gone: What Small US Importers Do Now

> The $800 duty-free de minimis exemption ended in August 2025 and has been suspended indefinitely. What changed, what an entry now requires, and how small sellers adapt.

*Published: 2026-08-12*

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For years, the Section 321 de minimis exemption was the quiet backbone of small cross-border trade: shipments valued at $800 or less entered the US duty-free with minimal paperwork. That era ended. Duty-free de minimis treatment was suspended for all countries effective August 29, 2025, and in 2026 the suspension was formalized as indefinite, with formal-entry requirements extended across transport modes and a separate framework for international postal shipments. If your business model assumed $800 shipments stay duty-free, that assumption is dead, and this article is about what replaces it.

## What Actually Changed

Three shifts, in order of impact:

**Every shipment now needs an entry.** Sub-$800 shipments no longer skip formal process. They require customs entry with a 10-digit HTS code, declared value, and duty payment, the same legal apparatus that larger shipments always used.

**Duty applies from dollar one.** The exemption was duty-free treatment; its suspension means duty and applicable tariffs are assessed regardless of shipment value. Whether duties are owed depends on the HTS line, origin, and applicable measures, including additional tariffs that stack on specific 10-digit lines. For how to check that stacking, see [how to check if your product has extra tariffs](/blog/how-to-check-section-301-tariffs).

**Data requirements grew.** Descriptions like "gift" or "sample" or vague product names do not clear anymore. Entry-level data includes a specific product description, quantity, value, and the full 10-digit classification. Freight couriers now collect this at checkout or pickup for their consolidated filings.

## The New Cost Structure for Small Sellers

The practical math changes in two places:

1. **Duty per unit.** A 10 percent line on a $30 item is $3, but across thousands of units it reprices your landed cost permanently. Products whose margin relied on duty-free entry need re-pricing or re-sourcing.
2. **Entry cost per shipment.** Whether you file entries yourself, pay a broker, or absorb courier-bundled clearance fees, there is now a fixed cost per import that did not exist before. Consolidation flips from optional to structural: fewer, larger shipments amortize that fixed cost.

## Adaptation Patterns That Work

**Consolidate and formalize.** Replace daily small parcels with weekly consolidated freight under one entry. This is the largest lever for most sellers: one entry, one clearance cost, and duty assessed once on the shipment.

**Classify once, use everywhere.** With every entry requiring a 10-digit code, an unverified code is no longer a rounding error, it is a compliance exposure repeated on every shipment. Build a per-SKU classification record with reasoning; our [HS Code Finder](/tools/hs-code) generates grounded candidates from the official HTS to start that record, and a broker can finalize it.

**Check origin and stacking.** Duty now owed means additional measures matter at small values too. Products from China can carry Section 301 additions; steel, aluminum, and derivative products can carry Section 232. Origin is determined by substantial transformation, not by where the parcel ships from, covered in [country of origin rules](/blog/country-of-origin-substantial-transformation).

**Reconsider fulfillment geography.** Some sellers shifted to US-side inventory: import once in bulk, then ship domestically. Import costs still apply, but domestic shipping after entry is faster and simpler than clearing parcels into a market that no longer has a small-shipment lane.

**Watch the postal channel.** The international postal network operates under its own framework following the suspension, with duties collected differently than courier modes. If your supplier ships postal, confirm with them how duties are being assessed and passed through, because the mechanics differ from commercial channels.

## What Did Not Change

The fundamentals of importing were always this way for formal entries: [classification drives the rate](/blog/hts-code-vs-hs-code), [the schedule structure is learnable](/blog/how-to-read-hts-schedule), and the importer of record owns the declaration's accuracy. De minimis let a generation of small sellers skip that education. The exemption's end just made it compulsory.

*This article is general information, not legal advice, and tariff measures change frequently. Confirm treatment of specific goods with a licensed customs broker or CBP.*