Buh bye, de minimis!

[BRT]

It never made sense to me that you could have some item worth less than $800 shipped directly to you from overseas and pay no duty, but the same item that arrived in a shipping container with hundreds like it has some amount baked into its retail price. It was a loophole. Good riddance.

And the US government subsidized the postage. I'm gonna miss it, but it needed to go.

 

[wdeutsch]

It never made sense to me that you could have some item worth less than $800 shipped directly to you from overseas and pay no duty, but the same item that arrived in a shipping container with hundreds like it has some amount baked into its retail price. It was a loophole. Good riddance.

I think it probably makes a lot of sense when you think about the cost to the government to process individual personal items vs. a shipping container. I'm not sure where the cutoff is for it to be worth a customs agent's time to collect duty on individual private shipments, but when I order $100 worth of service kits from overseas, it's *definitely* costing the government more in customs agent salary (let alone facility costs, accountant salary, and banking costs) to get $10-20 worth of duty from me. If I had to guess, I'd bet some previous administration had an economist do the math and figured out the juice wasn't worth the squeeze on individual packages wort less than around the $800 mark.

Not saying it makes sense from a logical standpoint, but from an economic one, it may well.

 

[lexvil]

Never thought so many cheap people would let the cult tell them paying more for less is ok.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It's interesting to me how they blame and take it out on the American people for buying stuff made over seas, like somehow it's our fault that stuff isn't made in the US.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think it probably makes a lot of sense when you think about the cost to the government to process individual personal items vs. a shipping container. I'm not sure where the cutoff is for it to be worth a customs agent's time to collect duty on individual private shipments, but when I order $100 worth of service kits from overseas, it's *definitely* costing the government more in customs agent salary (let alone facility costs, accountant salary, and banking costs) to get $10-20 worth of duty from me. If I had to guess, I'd bet some previous administration had an economist do the math and figured out the juice wasn't worth the squeeze on individual packages wort less than around the $800 mark.

Not saying it makes sense from a logical standpoint, but from an economic one, it may well.

Oh, I completely understand the logic. I'm sure the de minimus exception made good financial sense at one time. But in recent years we have had T*mu, Shein, etc., shipping tens of thousands of little packages to individuals' homes in the US. That added up. It became a loophole for shipping stuff duty-free direct-to-consumer that had traditionally been shipped by the containerload, with duties paid by the importer and passed on down the distribution chain to the consumer.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Interestingly, it was just 9 years ago that Congress increased it from $200 to $800, keeping it in line with the duty free allowance for travelers coming back from foreign countries.

Erik

 

[Mark Sallows]

<<—licensed customs broker of 12 years experience

The $800 duty free exemption (per day) on personal imports to the US (ecommerce mainly) went away in May for stuff made in China. It goes away for every other country Aug 29.

Text of the EO:
Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries

more distractions from the real problem! SMH

 

[scrane]

Never thought so many cheap people would let the cult tell them paying more for less is ok.

Was “cult” a misspelling?

 

[lexvil]

Was “cult” a misspelling?

Nope

 

[BRT]

Oh, I completely understand the logic. I'm sure the de minimus exception made good financial sense at one time. But in recent years we have had T*mu, Shein, etc., shipping tens of thousands of little packages to individuals' homes in the US. That added up. It became a loophole for shipping stuff duty-free direct-to-consumer that had traditionally been shipped by the containerload, with duties paid by the importer and passed on down the distribution chain to the consumer.

With the US taxpayer paying the postage. Don't forget that part. We are paying the postage to move jobs out of the USA.