What is the de minimis threshold?
A de minimis threshold is the value under which a consignment was let in without duty, on the reasoning that collecting a few cents costs more than it raises. For two decades that assumption held. Parcel volumes then grew to the point where it stopped holding, and the largest markets have withdrawn or replaced their thresholds.
The practical effect for anyone selling cross-border is that the small-parcel exemption most business models were built on is going or gone, and the replacement is usually a flat charge per item rather than a return to full duty.
Why they existed and why they are ending
The threshold was an administrative convenience, not a trade concession. It existed because a customs authority processing millions of low-value parcels by hand would spend more on the processing than the duty was worth.
Two things changed. Volumes rose by orders of magnitude as direct-to-consumer selling moved online, and the systems got good enough that charging small amounts stopped being uneconomic. Once both were true, an exemption that had been pragmatic started to look like a subsidy for imported goods against domestic ones.
What replaced them
The European Union removed the relief for low value consignments and put a flat customs duty per item in its place, charged for each distinct tariff classification in a consignment rather than on the consignment as a whole. It applies instead of the ad valorem rate rather than on top of it, and it has an expiry date written into the measure.
That structure matters for pricing. A flat per-item charge is regressive against cheap goods: it is a small fraction of a mid-priced order and a large one on a low-value item, so the products it hurts most are exactly the ones the exemption used to help.
What it means if you sell cross-border
Consolidating orders stops being purely a freight decision. Where the charge is per classification, an order containing three different kinds of product is charged three times, and the cheapest packing arrangement is no longer the cheapest customs arrangement.
Registering for the destination's import scheme, where one exists, moves the tax collection to checkout and gets the parcel through the border faster. It also makes you visible to that authority, which is the point of it.
Watch the dates, not the headlines
These measures arrive with commencement dates, review clauses and expiry dates, and coverage of them tends to report the announcement rather than the date it bites. A rule announced this year may apply from next year, and an interim charge may be legislated to expire.
This site tracks the dated measures it relies on and shows the window each one is in force for, so a page that quotes one can say when it started and when it stops rather than implying it is permanent.
Where the thresholds stand
Checked 3 September 2026. Each entry is the position as that market published it, not a conversion or an average.
| 🇺🇸 United States: None, suspended | CBP's own internet purchases page still describes the former 800 dollar clearance in the present tense. It is out of date rather than wrong about what used to apply, and it is not the source for this record. |
| 🇪🇺 European Union: None, flat charge per item instead | The EUR 150 consignment relief was abolished and replaced by a flat customs duty per item on low value distance sales. |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: GBP 135 | Import VAT is a separate charge and is not relieved. On a purchase at or under this value the seller normally charges it at checkout. |
| 🇦🇺 Australia: AUD 1,000 | GST on low value goods is collected at the point of sale by overseas vendors, platforms and redeliverers with AUD 75,000 or more in annual Australian turnover, since 1 July 2018. The border threshold itself did not change. |
| 🇨🇦 Canada: CAD 20 | Goods from the United States or Mexico carried by courier fall under the CUSMA courier thresholds instead: CAD 150 for customs duties and CAD 40 for taxes (GST/HST/PST), provided the goods entered US or Mexican commerce. Goods merely transshipped through either country fall back to the CAD 20 general threshold. |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil: No de minimis, graduated rates | The 0% PRC band rests on Medida Provisoria 1.357-2026 and Portaria MF 1.342-2026, both of 12 May 2026. Both houses of Congress approved PLV 13/2026, the bill converting MP 1.357-2026 into law, on 3 September 2026, and it awaits presidential sanction. The vote changed no figure: the rates above are set by Portaria MF 1.342-2026 and were not altered by it. The prior regime (Lei 14.902-2024) charged 20% up to USD 50, then 60% minus a USD 20 deduction. |
| 🇯🇵 Japan: JPY 10,000 | A list of designated articles is excluded from the exemption regardless of value, and domestic excises other than consumption tax, such as liquor tax and tobacco tax, still apply. |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore: SGD 400 | Since 1 January 2023, an overseas vendor above the registration thresholds (global turnover over SGD 1,000,000 and B2C low value goods supplies to Singapore over SGD 100,000) must charge GST at the point of sale on low value goods at or under this threshold sent by air or post, under the Overseas Vendor Registration regime. Goods above the threshold, and goods arriving by sea or land at any value, pay GST at the border instead. The GST rate is 9 percent. |
| 🇦🇪 UAE: AED 1,000 (Dubai) | This is a Dubai Customs rule, not a federal UAE threshold; other emirates are not covered by this record. The 5 percent import VAT is a separate federal charge administered by the Federal Tax Authority and is not relieved. |
| 🇨🇳 China: No de minimis, graduated rates | A separate RMB 50 exemption for personal postal articles is sometimes quoted for China. It is not verified as part of this reading and is not stated here. |
| 🇮🇳 India: No de minimis | The INR 5,000 figure is widely quoted as a general gift allowance. It is real, but it does not apply to a parcel sent by post or courier, which is how every consignment this calculator prices would actually travel. |
A worked example
A small apparel consignment into Germany, priced at the ordinary rate this site holds for that code.
| Goods value on the invoice | 140.00 |
| International freight | 15.00 |
| Cargo insurance | 2.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on (CIF basis) | 157.00 |
| Duty at 12% | 18.84 |
| Germany tax at 19%, charged on the value plus the duty | 33.41 |
| Total, before commercial charges | 209.25 |
| Estimate uses the CIF customs valuation method, so international freight and insurance are part of the dutiable value. Union Customs Code (Reg. 952/2013) Art. 70 and Art. 71(1)(e): transport and insurance to the place of introduction are added to the price paid. Rate last verified 2026-08-31. | |
A consignment near a threshold is worth modelling both ways, because the charge that applies changes shape rather than just size as it crosses.
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