De Minimis Suspension in 2026: What $800 Imports Pay Now

The US de minimis exemption, which let shipments valued at $800 or less enter duty-free, has been suspended for every country since August 29, 2025. It stayed suspended after the Supreme Court's IEEPA ruling in February 2026, CBP made the suspension indefinite in June 2026, and a court upheld it in August 2026. Today a $40 parcel pays duty the same way a $40,000 container does.

What changed on August 29, 2025

For years, a shipment valued at $800 or less could enter the United States free of duty. This was the "de minimis" exemption under 19 U.S.C. 1321, and it's a big part of how cross-border ecommerce got so cheap.

Executive Order 14324 ended that for every country starting August 29, 2025. From that date, low-value shipments had to pay duty like any other import.

What low-value shipments paid at first

When the suspension started, the main tariffs on most imports were the IEEPA tariffs (the "reciprocal" and fentanyl-related duties). For shipments arriving by international mail, carriers could pay one of two ways for the first six months:

1. The ad valorem IEEPA rate for the country of origin, charged on the value of the item.
2. A flat amount per item, based on that country's IEEPA rate:

Shipments arriving any other way (express couriers, freight) had to go through normal formal or informal entry and pay every duty that applied.

Is de minimis still suspended in 2026?

Yes. On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA doesn't give the President the power to impose tariffs. The IEEPA tariffs stopped being collected, and their HTS headings went inactive on February 24, 2026.

A lot of people assumed de minimis would come back with that ruling. It didn't:

• February 20, 2026: Executive Order 14388, "Continuing the Suspension of Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries," kept the suspension in place for all countries and all values. From February 24, mail shipments paid a duty equal to the new 10% Section 122 surcharge in place of the IEEPA rates.
• June 24, 2026: CBP published two interim final rules making the suspension indefinite, one for mail and one for every other mode of transport. The mail rule also created a postal informal entry for shipments valued at $2,500 or less, in use from July 24, 2026.
• July 23, 2026: the Section 122 surcharge expired. From July 24, many countries' goods pay a Section 301 forced-labor duty of 10% or 12.5% instead (see 2026 HTS Revision 13).
• August 13, 2026: the Court of International Trade granted summary judgment for the government in a challenge brought by Detroit Axle, upholding the suspension. The court separated taking away a duty-free privilege, which IEEPA allows, from imposing a new tariff, which it doesn't.

Behind all of this sits a permanent change: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, repeals the $800 de minimis exemption for commercial shipments effective July 1, 2027 (the separate exemptions for travelers' purchases and gifts stay). The executive orders and CBP rules cover the period until then.

What duty do shipments under $800 pay now?

The same duty as any other entry of that product. The rates that apply are the HTS base rate plus whatever Chapter 99 tariffs cover that product from that country, for example:

• Section 232 on steel, aluminum, copper, autos and parts, and other covered products
• Section 301 on goods from China, from 7.5% to 100% depending on the product
• Section 301 forced-labor duties of 10% or 12.5% on products of 59 countries and the EU, from July 24, 2026

Which of these apply, and how they stack, depends on the product's HTS code and country of origin. Our guide to US tariff stacking rules explains which ones add up, and How US Tariffs Are Calculated walks through the math with real examples.

What this means for ecommerce sellers and importers

If you sell into the US through low-value parcels, every SKU now needs a correct 10-digit HTS code and a known duty rate. CBP's postal informal entry asks for exactly that: the description, country of origin, HTS code, value and duty for each shipment.

It's a paperwork job, and a pricing problem too: a product that paid nothing in 2024 can now carry a base rate plus one or more Chapter 99 tariffs, and those change with almost every HTS revision. The latest US tariff changes table tracks each one.

The fastest way to see what a specific product pays today is to run its HTS code and country of origin through the HTS Hero duty calculator, which stacks every program. Headline rates rarely tell the whole story.