De Minimis Is Over: What a US Research Parcel Now Costs

Since the US suspended duty-free de minimis entry on 29 August 2025, what does a research buyer actually pay on a parcel of research material arriving from abroad, and who collects it?

A research parcel arriving in the United States now pays duty. Until 29 August 2025, a shipment valued at $800 or less could generally enter free under the de minimis rule. That exemption has been suspended for every country, and the suspension has since been continued and written into Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations ^[1][2][3].

Who collects the money, and how the amount is calculated, depends on the route. Express courier parcels are entered with CBP like any other low-value import. Postal parcels follow a separate interim process that is itself being replaced. This article covers only the cost mechanics. For the legal status of research material at the border, see the companion piece on the regulatory status of research material at the US and Canadian border. For what inspection actually involves, read the Q&A.

What de minimis was and what was suspended

De minimis is a provision of 19 U.S.C. 1321 under which low-value shipments pass without duty and with a simplified entry. For years the ceiling was $800 per person per day. It was the reason a small parcel from abroad rarely produced a bill.

Executive Order 14324, signed on 30 July 2025, provides that the exemption no longer applies to any shipment, regardless of value, country of origin, mode of transportation or method of entry. Non-postal shipments became subject to all applicable duties, taxes, fees, exactions and charges from 12:01 a.m. EDT on 29 August 2025 ^[1]. Postal shipments were given a different, interim treatment, described below.

Two later developments matter. On 20 February 2026 Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension and revised the postal duty rules, recording that the conditions anticipated in the first order had occurred ^[2]. On 24 June 2026 CBP published interim final rules that write an indefinite suspension into its own regulations for mail shipments, and set out a new postal informal entry process ^[3]. A separate statute, the 2025 budget reconciliation act, repeals the commercial de minimis provision with effect from 1 July 2027, as CBP's rule notes ^[3].

Two routes, two collection mechanics

A parcel reaches the United States by one of two broad routes, and the route decides who sends you the bill.

CBP's June 2026 rule describes the current position plainly. Low-value non-postal shipments that would have claimed de minimis are now generally entered under entry type 11, the standard informal entry, and CBP applies all applicable duties, taxes and fees to them. Low-value postal shipments went through the interim postal process, which applied only a single ad valorem duty and did not require a tariff classification ^[3].

That gap is what the new postal process closes. Under it, filers must supply more data, including the filer code, bond number and the full ten-digit tariff classification for each item, and must hold a basic importation and entry bond ^[3]. Compliance dates for certain postal goods, such as those subject to another agency's data requirements, run on a separate, later clock, which the rule sets 120 days after publication.

How the duty is calculated

Three inputs set the figure: the country of origin, the declared value and the tariff classification. Origin is the country where the goods were made, which is not always the country they were shipped from. Value is the price paid, as shown on the commercial invoice. Classification decides the base rate. The companion article on HTS classification covers that third input.

On top of the base rate, 2025 and 2026 added further layers. For a postal parcel in the interim process, Executive Order 14388 set the duty at the rate in the proclamation of 20 February 2026, a temporary import surcharge, applied to the value of each dutiable item. CBP's rule records that proclamation as a ten percent ad valorem surcharge for up to 150 days ^[2][3]. That period has run out. Rates in this area have been reset more than once within twelve months, which is why no figure is printed here.

The end of the flat per-item postal option

Executive Order 14324 gave postal carriers a choice. They could charge an ad valorem duty, meaning the applicable rate for the country of origin applied to the value of each item. Or they could charge a flat amount per item, set by tier of country rate: $80 for rates under 16 percent, $160 for rates from 16 to 25 percent, and $200 above 25 percent ^[1].

The flat option was limited to six months from the effective date, after which every postal shipment had to use the ad valorem method ^[1]. CBP's fact sheet sets the date as 28 February 2026 ^[4]. CBP's June 2026 rule confirms the practical outcome: qualified parties had already chosen to pay using the ad valorem method, and the interim process applies a simple percentage of value ^[3].

This matters because many pages still describe the flat option as available. A flat $80 on a low-value parcel was a heavy cost; an ad valorem charge on the same parcel is proportionate to what was paid. If a quote or an article refers to a flat per-item postal charge, it predates 28 February 2026.

Fees on top of duty

Duty is paid to CBP. Express carriers and brokers add their own charges for preparing the entry and advancing the money. These are commercial charges, not government ones. They are set in the carrier's published tariff or in a broker's agreement, and they differ by carrier and by service.

The practical consequence is that two parcels with identical duty can produce different totals. A fee shown as a percentage of duty plus a minimum behaves differently from a flat charge per entry. Neither CBP nor this article can state them. Read the fee schedule on the carrier's own page and compare it with the line on your invoice.

Other government fees can also attach to an informal entry, since the orders speak of duties, taxes, fees, exactions and charges ^[1][2]. If an invoice shows a line you cannot match to either duty or a carrier fee, ask what it is before paying.

Reading a duty invoice before you pay it

A duty invoice from a courier is a request for payment from a private company. It is worth thirty seconds of checking, because the entry it describes is made in your name or your organisation's.

1. Check the declared value against your supplier's commercial invoice. The two must match to the cent.
2. Check the country of origin. A parcel shipped from one country can contain goods made in another.
3. Check the goods description. It should name the substance and its form, not a vague word such as samples or chemicals.
4. Separate the lines: duty, any government fee, and the carrier's own fee. Each should be labelled.
5. Check the currency. If the invoice is in dollars and your supplier priced in euros, the conversion rate used should be shown.
6. Keep the tracking number, entry number and invoice together, then pay.

If something does not match, query it before paying rather than after. A held parcel and an unpaid invoice are the same problem for the carrier, and the parcel stays in a warehouse until the balance is settled.

What a supplier's commercial invoice should show

Under the new regime, the supplier's invoice carries more weight than it used to. It is the document from which value, origin and description are taken for the entry. A clean assessment starts with a clean invoice.

It should state the full legal name and address of the seller and of the consignee, the date, the exact goods description, the quantity, the unit price and total price with the currency, and the country of origin. It should also state the tariff classification the supplier declares. A supplier that ships regularly will have one and will tell you if asked. The new postal process requires a ten-digit classification from the filer, so a missing code becomes a delay ^[3].

Declared value must be the real price paid. An undervalued invoice does not reduce risk. It creates a mismatch with the payment record that a later audit will find.

Records to keep for the lab ledger

Landed cost is the supplier price plus freight, duty and fees. A laboratory that records only the first number cannot compare suppliers fairly, because the difference between a cheap parcel and an expensive one may sit entirely in the duty and the carrier fee.

• The supplier invoice and the courier or postal duty invoice, filed against the same order number.
• Declared value, country of origin and classification as shown on each.
• Duty paid, carrier fee paid and date of payment, as three separate figures.
• The tariff rate you understood to apply on the date of entry, and where you read it.
• Any correspondence if a charge was queried or corrected.

Because the rules changed repeatedly between August 2025 and the present, the fourth item is not decoration. A note of the rate you were quoted, with the page it came from, lets you explain a difference between two otherwise identical orders.

What to check next

Before the next order, ask the supplier which route the parcel will take and who will collect duty. Read the carrier's current fee page. Check the live tariff entry for the goods and the country of origin. Confirm the postal informal entry process dates on CBP's own site if the parcel will travel by post, because a compliance date falls on 22 October 2026 for some postal goods ^[3].