19 USC 1321: De Minimis Suspension, Duties, and Penalties

19 USC 1321 is the federal statute that lets low-value imports enter the United States without going through the usual duty-collection process. It sets a floor of $800 for the general duty-free threshold and $100 for bona fide gifts mailed from abroad ($200 for gifts from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or American Samoa). The statute itself is still on the books, but since August 29, 2025, executive orders have suspended the $800 exemption for shipments from every country, so most low-value packages now owe duties, taxes, and fees that would previously have been waived.¹

What the Statute Authorizes

19 USC 1321 gives the Secretary of the Treasury authority to admit low-value goods without collecting duty when the cost of collection would outweigh the revenue. The statute fixes minimum thresholds the Secretary cannot go below: $100 for bona fide gifts sent from a foreign country to someone in the United States, and $800 for other shipments imported by one person on one day.²

Those numbers are still in the U.S. Code. What has changed is whether the executive branch is letting the exemption operate.

Why the $800 Threshold Currently Does Not Apply

A series of executive orders through 2025 progressively dismantled de minimis treatment. The first orders targeted imports from China. By August 29, 2025, a broader order suspended the $800 threshold for shipments from every country.³

A follow-up executive order on February 20, 2026, continued that suspension with no end date. It states that the exemption under 19 USC 1321(a)(2)(C) “shall not apply to any shipment of articles” outside a small set of humanitarian and informational-material exceptions, regardless of value, country of origin, mode of travel, or point of entry.¹

For e-commerce buyers and sellers who built workflows around $800 duty-free clearance, that option is not currently on the table.

What You Owe When a Package Arrives Now

With the exemption suspended, what happens next depends on how the shipment physically enters the country.

Express Carriers and Freight

Packages moving through FedEx, UPS, DHL, or freight services must be filed under an appropriate entry type in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), typically by a licensed customs broker. They owe all applicable duties, taxes, and fees at standard commercial import rates.⁴

International Mail

Packages arriving through the international postal network follow a transitional process. They owe duties at IEEPA tariff rates, collected by CBP through one of two methods: an ad valorem duty based on the product’s value and country of origin, or a flat specific duty that ranged from $80 to $200 per item. As of February 28, 2026, only the ad valorem method may be used.⁵

Carriers transporting international postal packages must keep an active bond on file with CBP, and qualified parties filing postal shipments need a basic importation and entry bond.

What Still Comes In Duty-Free

The suspension preserves categories protected by 50 USC 1702(b), the items the President cannot restrict even during a declared national emergency:⁶

Informational materials, including books, films, photographs, artworks, news wire feeds, and compact discs, whether commercial or not.
Humanitarian donations of food, clothing, medicine, and similar articles sent to relieve human suffering, unless the President has determined they would impair the response to the declared emergency.
Accompanied baggage and goods acquired for personal use during travel abroad.

The executive orders specifically suspend the exemption under subsection (a)(2)(C), the $800 general threshold. The statute’s separate gift provision at subsection (a)(2)(A) is not named in the suspension orders, but because all non-exempt shipments now have to go through standard entry, the practical benefit of the gift threshold has been narrowed.²

Categories That Were Never Eligible

Even before the suspension, several kinds of goods could not use de minimis treatment. Those exclusions still matter and will continue to matter if the broader exemption is ever restored.

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Perfumery

Goods subject to internal revenue taxes cannot use the exemption. Regulations carve out only small personal-use amounts for arriving crew members: no more than 50 cigarettes, 10 cigars, 150 milliliters of alcohol, and 150 milliliters of alcoholic perfumery.⁷

Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Goods

Products subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duties cannot clear under Section 321 and cannot be filed as Entry Type 86. They require formal entry with payment of all applicable duties. The February 2026 order confirms that postal shipments subject to these duties must be entered under an appropriate entry type in ACE.¹

Goods Regulated by Other Federal Agencies

Products overseen by partner government agencies such as the FDA, EPA, CPSC, and FCC still have to meet those agencies’ requirements no matter how little the shipment is worth. Before the suspension, these shipments could use Entry Type 86 in ACE, which allowed Section 321 clearance while still submitting required PGA data. The goods could not move into U.S. commerce until CBP and every regulating agency issued a “may proceed” message.⁸

The One-Person-One-Day Aggregation Rule

The statute caps the exemption at goods “imported by one person on one day.” CBP enforces this literally. Automated systems in ACE track shipments by consignee name and actual date of arrival across all U.S. ports over a 24-hour window from midnight to 11:59 PM Eastern. When several shipments arrive for the same person on the same day, CBP processes them in manifest order; once the running total hits the threshold, every later shipment for that person that day loses de minimis eligibility and is held for formal entry.⁹

The rule exists to stop importers from splitting a large order into small packages. With the exemption suspended it matters less day to day, but the aggregation mechanism stays built into CBP’s systems and will apply if the exemption returns.

Documentation You Have to Provide

Whether or not de minimis applies, a commercial invoice with each shipment has to describe the merchandise, list quantities and values, give the eight-digit tariff classification number, and identify the foreign seller or manufacturer.¹⁰

Under the suspension, non-postal shipments that used to clear with minimal paperwork now need a formal or informal entry filed in ACE. That is a real change for e-commerce sellers who previously relied on carriers to handle Section 321 clearance with little importer involvement.⁴

When CBP finds that goods don’t match the invoice, it assesses duties based on what actually shipped. If the mismatch looks like honest error rather than fraud, CBP typically requires a new entry rather than starting forfeiture proceedings.¹¹

Penalties for Misdeclaring Value or Claiming an Exemption You Don’t Qualify For

Under 19 USC 1592, civil penalties scale with culpability:¹²

Negligence: up to two times the lost duties, or 20 percent of dutiable value if the violation didn’t affect duties.
Gross negligence: up to four times the lost duties, or 40 percent of dutiable value for non-duty violations.
Fraud: up to the full domestic value of the merchandise, often far more than the duties owed.

These apply to anyone who enters or tries to enter goods using materially false statements or omissions, whether by undervaluing, misclassifying, or falsely claiming an exemption.

Criminal statutes carry prison time. Entering goods by false statements (18 USC 542) or paying less than the legally owed duty (18 USC 543) can each result in up to two years of imprisonment. Importing merchandise “contrary to law” under 18 USC 545 is a felony punishable by up to 20 years. The Department of Justice has publicly signaled that customs and tariff fraud are enforcement priorities.

The False Claims Act adds another route. In one recent case, two importers paid $6.8 million to settle civil liability after failing to declare the correct country of origin and value on plastic resin entries from China, which caused them to underpay duties for years.¹³

Fixing Past Mistakes Before CBP Finds Them

Importers who realize they got past entries wrong can cut their penalty exposure by filing a prior disclosure with CBP before the agency opens an investigation. A disclosure has to identify the entries, explain what went wrong and when, provide the correct information, and tender the duties, taxes, and fees that should have been paid.¹⁴

The disclosure can be oral or written to a Customs officer. Oral disclosures have to be confirmed in writing within 10 days. Written disclosures go to the Commissioner of Customs with “prior disclosure” printed on the envelope, presented at the port of entry where the violation happened. If the tender amount isn’t known when the disclosure is made, the importer has 30 days after CBP calculates the loss to pay it.

This route matters more now than it did a few years ago. Importers who moved goods under Section 321 during the years of broad availability may find on review that some entries were misclassified or undervalued. Getting ahead of that voluntarily is almost always cheaper than waiting for CBP to catch it.