De Minimis Cliff Detector
Type a shipment value. Instantly see which countries let it through duty-free — and which ones hit you with a bill at the border. The de minimis is the single most important number in cross-border e-commerce, and getting it wrong by one dollar can cost you hundreds.
Enter the goods value only — not shipping. Customs tests de minimis on FOB value in most jurisdictions.
Each Country's De Minimis — The Rules Behind the Results
United States — $800 (Section 321)
The most generous de minimis in the developed world. Section 321 of the Tariff Act allows goods valued at $800 or less per person per day to enter duty-free and tax-free. This threshold is based on the goods value alone — shipping costs don't count toward the $800 cap. Clearance is electronic via Type 86 entry: no bond required, no broker needed, no Merchandise Processing Fee. Cross $800.01 and the full CIF becomes dutiable — no partial exemption, no sliding scale. CBP can aggregate multiple packages to the same consignee on the same day, so splitting a $1,500 order into two $750 boxes to dodge the threshold is structuring. CBP prosecutes structuring, and the penalty costs more than the duty ever would.
⚠ July 2026: This threshold is under active threat. Congress is considering legislation that would kill de minimis for Chinese goods entirely, and CBP has already tightened Type 86 enforcement at major ports. Read our full breakdown: Section 321 De Minimis Reform 2026 — what's changing and what it costs you.
European Union — €150 (Duty) / €0 (VAT)
It's a split threshold — and that's what burns people. Customs duty is exempt below €150 goods value. But VAT has zero de minimis floor since July 2021, when the EU abolished the old €22 exemption. Every euro of import value attracts VAT — collected either through IOSS at the point of sale or by the carrier at delivery with a handling fee. If you sell B2C into the EU and you're not IOSS-registered, your customer gets an email from DHL demanding 20%+ of the purchase price plus a €10-20 processing charge before they'll release the package. That email is the number one cause of refused deliveries and chargebacks for non-EU sellers. Duty is the easy part. VAT is the cliff.
China→France calculator | China→Germany calculator | Full threshold guide
United Kingdom — £135 (Consignment Value)
Post-Brexit, the UK's system is built around the £135 consignment value threshold. Goods valued at £135 or below: no customs duty, but VAT is collected at the point of sale by the seller, who must be UK VAT-registered. Above £135: full customs duty at the UK Global Tariff rate plus VAT at the border. The key operational headache: if the seller doesn't collect VAT at checkout for a sub-£135 order, HMRC holds the shipment and the carrier collects the VAT plus a handling fee from the buyer. Many Chinese marketplace sellers learned this the hard way in 2021-22. The £135 line is not a free pass — it's an obligation shift from the border to the merchant.
China→UK calculator | Post-Brexit guide | Full threshold guide
Canada — CAD $20 (The Lowest in the G7)
Canada's de minimis is an embarrassment — CAD $20 (about USD $15) for customs duty exemption. It's the lowest of any G7 country and has been the subject of repeated reform proposals that go nowhere. Above $20, full MFN duty applies. A separate CAD $40 threshold exists for GST on gifts, and a CAD $150 threshold under the Courier Imports Remission Order (CIRO) provides some relief for courier shipments specifically. But for standard commercial freight — pallets, containers, wholesale orders — $20 is the number. Every commercial shipment from China to Canada triggers full customs formalities: B3 entry, broker filing, GST at 5% on the duty-paid value. The CBSA's CARM digital system has made clearance faster, but it hasn't made the $20 threshold any less punitive.
Australia — AUD $1,000 (But Only for Duty)
Australia offers one of the highest thresholds globally — AUD $1,000 based on the FOB goods value — but there's a trap. The $1,000 threshold applies to customs duty only. Since July 2018, GST at 10% on low-value imported goods has been collected through a separate regime: sellers and marketplace platforms must register with the ATO, charge GST at the point of sale, and remit quarterly. If the seller isn't registered, the ATO can hold the shipment. So a $900 shipment from China is duty-free under the $1,000 threshold, but the seller still needs to collect and remit 10% GST — or the shipment doesn't clear. Australia's system is generous on duty and ruthless on GST compliance. The spreadsheet logic: duty is zero below $1,000, but GST is never zero.
Mexico — MXN $50 (Effectively Zero)
MXN $50 — roughly USD $2.50-3.00. It's the lowest de minimis of any major Western economy and, for all practical purposes, means every single commercial shipment from China undergoes full customs formalities: formal pedimento, licensed agente aduanal filing, 15% average duty plus 16% IVA on the duty-paid CIF, assessed from peso one. There is no low-value parcel channel comparable to US Section 321. Mexico's policy is deliberate — they want no Chinese e-commerce parcels circumventing the IVA. The only escape hatch is IMMEX: if your goods are destined for re-export after processing, duty and IVA are deferred. For direct-to-consumer sales into the Mexican domestic market, budget the full landed cost on every single package.
Japan — ¥10,000 (Duty + Tax Combined)
Japan exempts shipments valued at ¥10,000 or below (roughly USD $65-70) from both customs duty and the 10% consumption tax (JCT). This is a combined duty-and-tax threshold — more generous than Canada's split system, less generous than the US or Australia. Three ¥4,000 items in one box total ¥12,000 and trigger full assessment on the entire CIF amount, not just the excess. Between ¥10,000 and ¥200,000, a simplified declaration is available. Above ¥200,000, a formal C-5020 declaration is mandatory. Japan's NACCS electronic system processes everything, so clearance is fast — but the threshold itself is hard-coded in the Customs Law with no ministerial discretion to adjust it. For the math: a ¥9,900 shipment = zero duty + zero JCT. A ¥10,100 shipment = full MFN duty (typically 3.5%) + 10% JCT on the duty-paid CIF. That ¥200 difference in goods value can trigger ¥2,000+ in border charges. The cliff is steep.
The $1 Cliff — When Crossing the Line Costs Real Money
De minimis thresholds are not sliding scales. They are cliffs. One dollar over and the entire shipment becomes dutiable — not just the excess. Here's what that looks like on an actual shipment:
| Scenario | US ($800) | EU (€150) | UK (£135) | AU (AUD $1K) | JP (¥10K) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1 under | $0 duty | $0 duty | $0 duty* | $0 duty | $0 duty + tax |
| $1 over | Full MFN + MPF on CIF | Full TARIC on CIF | Full UKGT + VAT | Full duty + GST on CIF | Full duty + 10% JCT on CIF |
| Extra cost | $20–200+ | €7–70+ | £6–60+ | AUD $50–150+ | ¥350–3,500+ |
* UK: VAT still applies at point of sale for sub-£135 consignments. The cliff is duty, not tax.
The extra cost column is conservative — it assumes a typical consumer good at a mid-range MFN rate. For high-tariff categories like apparel or footwear, multiply by 3-5x. The lesson: if your shipment value is sitting within 10% of a de minimis line, adjust the invoice or split the shipment. The arithmetic almost always favors staying under.
De Minimis Questions That Actually Come Up at the Border
Does shipping cost count toward the de minimis threshold?
It depends on the country — and getting this wrong is the single most common de minimis mistake. The US ($800) and Australia ($1,000) test de minimis against the goods value only — shipping and insurance are excluded from the threshold test but get swept into the CIF base once the threshold is crossed. The EU (€150) also tests against the goods value excluding shipping. The UK (£135) tests against the consignment value — which is the total transaction value including shipping paid by the buyer. Japan's ¥10,000 threshold applies to the CIF total including freight. Canada and Mexico: at $20 CAD and $50 MXN respectively, the distinction is academic — everything exceeds the threshold. When in doubt, assume the worst case: CIF inclusive.
Can I split a shipment to stay under the de minimis?
Splitting a single order into multiple packages to dodge a de minimis threshold is legal — as long as each package is a genuine separate shipment to a different recipient, or genuinely shipped on different days. What's illegal is structuring: deliberately breaking up a single commercial transaction into multiple shipments to the same recipient on the same day specifically to evade duties. US CBP, Australian ABF, and EU customs authorities all have aggregation rules. CBP can aggregate packages from the same shipper to the same consignee arriving on the same day. If they determine the split was intentional duty evasion, the penalty is the unpaid duty plus a civil penalty of up to the domestic value of the merchandise. The risk-reward ratio is terrible — especially when the duty rate is low. Split shipments for legitimate logistics reasons. Don't split them to dodge a 3% duty. The penalty will cost you more than a lifetime of paying the duty honestly.
Do marketplaces like Amazon and eBay handle de minimis for me?
Sometimes yes, often no — and never assume. Amazon handles VAT collection for FBA inventory in the EU and UK through its marketplace facilitator obligations, but it does not manage customs duty de minimis determinations — that's between your freight forwarder, your customs broker, and the border authority. For DTC shipments: Amazon's global selling programs may collect VAT/GST at checkout in certain jurisdictions, but the de minimis threshold for customs duty is tested independently at the border. A shipment can have VAT collected by Amazon at checkout and still trigger customs duty at the border if it exceeds the duty de minimis. eBay's Global Shipping Program handles some of this, but only for shipments routed through their consolidation centers. If you self-fulfill, you're on your own. Never assume a platform is managing your border costs — verify. Your customs broker is the only person who can give you a definitive answer on what will actually happen when your goods hit the border.
Which country has the most generous de minimis for e-commerce?
Australia, on paper: AUD $1,000 FOB goods value for duty exemption. But the GST obligation at $0.01 undermines it — sellers still need to collect and remit 10% GST regardless of the duty exemption. The United States, in practice: $800 per person per day, goods value only, no federal VAT or sales tax at the border, and the Type 86 electronic entry clears shipments in seconds without a broker. For a DTC brand selling from China directly to consumers, the US de minimis regime is hands-down the most favorable in the developed world — and it's not close. The EU comes third, but only because the €150 duty threshold is paired with universal VAT from €1, which adds friction. For the full cross-country comparison, see our de minimis value guide.
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