De-minimis: the same box, taxed differently
De-minimis is the value below which a country does not bother collecting duty. It varies enormously, it is the single largest driver of what your parcel costs on arrival, and almost nobody checks it before buying.
The thresholds are not close to each other
The United States sets its de-minimis at $800, among the most generous in the world. Most of the European Union sits near $165. Canada is $20 for postal shipments.
The practical consequence: an identical $700 order arrives duty-free in Boston and attracts duty plus 23% VAT in Dublin. Nothing about the goods changed.
Duty and tax are separate charges
Duty is a percentage of the goods value, set by the product’s classification. VAT or GST is a consumption tax charged on the goods plus the duty plus, in some countries, the freight.
Several countries apply a low duty-free allowance but charge VAT from the first unit. Australia collects GST on low-value imports through the seller. Knowing which of the two applies matters more than the headline rate.
Our calculator shows duty and destination tax separately, then a landed total, before you pay for shipping.
Splitting orders to stay under a threshold
Customers ask about this constantly. Deliberately splitting a single order across shipments to avoid duty is, in most jurisdictions, evasion rather than planning, and customs authorities look for exactly this pattern.
What is legitimate: shipping genuinely separate purchases separately when they happen to fall below a threshold. What is not: invoicing one order as three.
Gifts are not a loophole
Most countries offer a smaller allowance for genuine person-to-person gifts, typically well below the commercial threshold, and require the sender and recipient to be individuals.
Declaring a commercial purchase as a gift to dodge duty is the most common reason a parcel is seized rather than merely taxed. We will not mark a declaration as a gift when it is not one.
In short
- De-minimis ranges from $20 to $800 across our destinations.
- Duty and VAT/GST are separate; some countries charge tax below the duty threshold.
- Splitting a single order to dodge duty is evasion, not planning.
- Mis-declaring a purchase as a gift is the leading cause of seizure.
Put this to use
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