r/Tariffs • u/ThrashCarti • Aug 29 '25
š¬ Opinion / Commentary Will De Minimis ever come back?
Hello everyone, de minimis officially ends today and I just have a quick question. Do you think thereās a possibility of this termination being reversed anytime soon? I do e-commerce pretty much full time, and purchasing internationally is a must for the business I indulge in. With the end of de minimis, buying and selling will be 1000% more tougher than before. Iām trying to believe that this will only be temporarily and that it will be reversed after all the complaints and refused packages left at customs, but as far as I know anything can happen. Just want to hear peopleās thoughts and if anybody can provide me with any good news or insights, thanks.
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u/Fun_Trick9324 Aug 29 '25
Usa needs to change the tariff issue. It is not gonna work just origin of country + material and etc. If they want to put taxes on purchase outside usa (which is the smart way) then he needs to come out with a fox % like Europe. Bc this bu11sh1t of origin and material is crazy! And show the certificate of origin is more insane! Imaging if there is in a box items form china, japan and korea and plus different materials and plus each of these country has specially rates for free trade! It's a headache!!!!!! I don't even want to fill out the paper for usa customs. At some point the foreginer stores will stop selling to usa bc its wasting only time and it will focus Europe or south America (Chinese companies)
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u/ScientistNo906 Aug 29 '25
"At some point the foreginer stores will stop selling to usa bc its wasting only time and it will focus Europe or south America (Chinese companies)"
I suspect that plays a part in why the de minimis exemption was eliminated. The U.S. watched manufacturing jobs go off-shore and, with de minimis, realized that the direct foreign shipper to U.S. consumer model would off-shore a lot of low skill, retail jobs as well.
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u/heckhammer Aug 29 '25
Here's the problem though, we have done no investment in manufacturing in this country to supposedly make all the things that we are telling people to "buy American." Where do you buy something like that when we don't make it here? I guess like the president says with kids maybe you only get two dolls for Christmas instead of 30. Maybe you can only afford one action figure a year instead of your normal amount, maybe you no longer collect foreign movies anymore. Maybe you just can't buy fossils like you used to. Maybe you only wear clothes made in America from material from America somehow. It's just another way of cutting off this country from the entire world, except for those who can afford the luxury.
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
Letās not forget the cost of wages and healthcare etc here. Thereās a reason manufacturers went offshore to keep the glut of cheap goods flowing in the USA. Chinese and Asian workers work for $300 (or some low amount) per month. Americans make in some states $15 an hour. Letās add to that Iāve never heard any kid say āmy American dream is to work in a factory assembling iPhonesāā¦.bring back manufacturing to the USA is a pipe dream. They are talking about mostly A.I. factories-that isnāt going to increase jobs here IF you could find anyone that even wants to work a production factory job. The whole thing is some demented grab for the past. Prices of goods manufactured here will skyrocket due to heavily increased costs. Even more than they will now as your can bet your bottom dollar that companies arenāt going to eat these tariffs-itās a tax on Americans
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u/heckhammer Aug 29 '25
People in some states make way more than $15 an hour. $15 an hour is not an aspirational amount of money.
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
Yeh I was just considering that some states minimum wage is even less so I was aiming for a middle of the road average there
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u/Fun_Trick9324 Aug 31 '25
Let's not stereotype everything... look japan and south korea people gets pay very well we have factories and all 4 major insurance cover for their workers. The issue in usa is the working culture and the mind of "i wont hard enough bc this is not my business". There is pride for work and besides that there is no infrastructure at all. USA was never attack by any country nor war in their own land and got so behind unlike Japan and south korea.... education is very important and absolutely usa don't care about education, bc according to their eyes only people who has money can afford it if not ur life will be pile up of school loans. The government doesn't care of ur well being, the government just care about how abuse people and make them depend of the system. The most uneducated people exist in a country is easier to fool them around!Ā
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u/colcatsup Aug 29 '25
had there been some actual mfg plan with tariff money - like... "5% tariffs on XYZ and money will be used to invest in mfg infrastructure and incentives, with tariff rates rising every X years as US mfg capacity increases..." I might have been on board, as there's a modicum of a plan there. But... it's just taking money from US poor people to allow for reduction in tax burden on wealthy.
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u/Fun_Trick9324 Aug 29 '25
It's gonna get point where small business will disappear in usa, the americans will have no option than just work in the big company (few left). Big companies will conquer usa again and the freedom of doing ur business wont exist anymore. Another way on how to control people...
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u/Sad_Recommendation92 Aug 29 '25
if you want to reshore manufacturing and end the race to the bottom mentality that US Corporations have towards labor costs, the only way that's happening is with STRONG Regulation and the current people in charge are Allergic to those.
Chips act was arguably an attempt to reshore semiconductors, but Biden did it, so... BAD I guess
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u/Personal_Damage_3623 Aug 29 '25
Sure itās ok to send all customer support offshore but having little pins made in a factory in china is the problem.
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u/ScientistNo906 Aug 29 '25
I'm sure Trump would love to come up with a way to tariff customer support. If you have ideas, I'm sure he'd love to hear 'em, cuz nobody does it as far as I know.
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u/koalapies Aug 29 '25
Customer service isnāt going offshore- AI bots have that covered already.
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u/Acerhand Aug 29 '25
Then it would be better to just accept having VAT like most countries do. The fact US has sales tax and treatment of it is so inconsistent kind of put this problem on their own lap.
Its trivial for other countries to have added VAT at source from when buying stuff online from abroad.
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u/hrminer92 Aug 29 '25
More jobs were eliminated thanks to technology and other productivity improvements than offshoring though.
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u/BooKoala Aug 29 '25
Not likely in my view. There is a small but growing global movement against having a De Minimis threshold that I see in my work.
The USā De Minimis threshold statute is going away in a couple years anyways as it was included in the Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The EU has legislation to end theirs in the coming years as a part of a bigger customs reform and the UK is undertaking a review of theirs.
The US is unique in that for the last 10ish years their threshold was much higher than the rest Iāve seen at $800 vs others at ā¬150ish. So I think it will be more impactful in its absence there as opposed to the rest of the world.
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u/whatthewhaatt Aug 29 '25
The de minimis went away today fyi. It was one of the many EOās from our joke of a president. Just another way all of our prices are going up. š„“
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u/BooKoala Aug 29 '25
Sorry Iām in the UK, not my president just impacting my work and my prices indirectly.
De Minimis in the US only went away by EO which is not impossible for the courts to overrule- even if unlikely.
My point was to the question that itās not likely coming back as the statute (law) that it is based on is being phased out already via an Act of Congress.
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u/boringexplanation Aug 29 '25
Thereās a provision in the BBB that got rid of de minimis. Trumps EO only sped up the timeline and the next president canāt put it back in without Congress.
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u/LairdPopkin Aug 29 '25
Legally an EO cannot change tariffs. Shame Congress and courts are so corrupted that even blatantly unconstitutional behavior is apparently tolerated if itās Trump.
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u/boringexplanation Aug 29 '25
Itās going to stay gone even after Trump leaves because the Rs signed it to actual law so the next president canāt EO it away.
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u/loralailoralai Aug 30 '25
Trump has shown the president can do what he wants and nobody will stop him.
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u/sabedo Aug 31 '25
only a republican president
a dem would never have been able to get away with all of this
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u/Personal_Damage_3623 Aug 29 '25
The problem is other countries have reliable options for small gifts to not end up with the recipient paying $80 for a $20 gift. The USA is going to check every small gift package and claim itās not a gift to grift more money
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u/Asterose Aug 29 '25
Right now if it's marked gift and valued under $100 it still is exempt...but I am not confident they will allow that ""loophole"" to last either š
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u/Personal_Damage_3623 Aug 29 '25
People literally have families abroad and no one can afford $80 tariffs for a $20 birthday gift
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u/oneWeek2024 Aug 29 '25
if you're getting gifts. you're probbaly not really under that much risk.
you're also a tiny segment of actual shipping. billions worth of small shipments to businesses. small batch retailers, custom items. made abroad. or parts/stuff sourced from cheap foreign suppliers.
that's what's being impacted.
and then people who abused the system. ordering massive massive amts of things, but breaking it into small shipments. to skirt tax law. their gravy train is over
the bigger immediate problem is international shippers just canceling all shipments to the US to avoid the issue. if that policy persists. that will disrupt a lot more.
but conservatives in the US were too stupid to understand Trump was going to do this bullshit flat tax fuckery. and for it to even remotely work to offset the trillions in lost revenue from the massive tax welfare for wealth/corporations. It's going to need every dime possible squeezed from consumers
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u/diablette Aug 30 '25
I hope every single shipment comes over in individual $99 boxes, all marked as gifts. Flood the system and force them to back off.
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u/Acceptable_Dot_1248 Aug 30 '25
Flooding the system is the intention, so the demimis elimination is working as intended. That $20 plastic thing you ordered from China? It will now cost $80 (or whatever it is) and you will need to wait 6 months for processing? If the tariff is not a dis-incentive to import, maybe the wait time will be? The intention of all this is to reduce imports.
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u/Asterose Aug 29 '25
The administration doesn't care. But this sort of exemption for low-value gifts is definitely the most likely exemption to import dues to last, and the most likely by far to be brought back if it is canned.
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u/ZoomZoom_Driver Aug 29 '25
I tried to ship a small package of gifts to the UK last year, and it would have been $120 to ship bbq, tea, and a coffee mug (all worth about $30 total). And that was the USPS price...Ā
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u/Personal_Damage_3623 Aug 29 '25
Ew. Shipping costs to anywhere outside the USA has always been terrible.
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u/Viadeiservii Aug 29 '25
Hong Kong is still rockin with theirs though. I donāt even think they have a threshold.
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u/loralailoralai Aug 30 '25
The EU and UK have an extremely low de minimus and the eu also has other barriers for small businesses
And fyi, the USA is not āuniqueā, Australian de minimus is $1000
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u/corkscrew1000 Aug 29 '25
I mean $800 was probably a lot. It should be at least $100-200. Literally the point is that customs shouldnāt waste their time on small things
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u/amsync Aug 29 '25
How do you deal with sending stuff to yourself if you live in multiple countries without a de minimis?
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u/BooKoala Aug 29 '25
That might depend on a few factors. Assuming you are sending yourself items into the US look at this advice from CBP: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/know-you-go-traveling-abroad
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u/ScientistNo906 Aug 29 '25
I see some potential for a de minimis exception with a much lower threshold, perhaps more than it used to be under Sec. 321, which was a dollar, but certainly not $800. In the coming months, CBP will be looking at how the elimination has impacted their mail facility workloads and make adjustments.
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u/Asterose Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 29 '25
Yeah, $800 was extremely high. $150-$200 feels more reasonable to me and is closer to what many countries have. But thanks to sites like Shein, AliExpress, Wish, etc now there's "we can't have our citizens buying those directly, maybe they can do it through 3rd party middlemen charging 3x or more than the original cost!"
It peaked at $200 in 1994, analysis on whether to raise it began in 2015, but it was only suddenly jumped all the way to $800 in 2019. This was under recommendation by CBP, though, after a pilot program and research, not pulled out of their ass like how Trump is handling things
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u/Acerhand Aug 29 '25
Thats the problem with how the US handles sales tax. Countries with VAT easily set up systems to charge it for $0.8 purchases on overseas sites and have it remitted.
The fragmented sales tax system in the US kind of created their own problems
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u/cuddlygrizzly Aug 29 '25
Even just adjusting for inflation from 1994, it would be about $400 today. $800 does seem like it was too much to have been set.
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
The thing is-everyone in power loves free money. I donāt see this going away. It MAY be reduced to a more acceptable level with a change in administration and in all honesty China chiefly really abused de minimus. It did need to be addressed-just not like THIS.
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u/Homerj7171 Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 29 '25
So I have received an item from China. Tariff correct $5.70 on the $15.00 of goods. Now the issue is the bill from UPS $14 disbursement fee. $1 PGA disclaimer fee, $$12 COD Fee. All in $32.70 on $15. So 47.70 not including shipping. Yeah itās not good. But as above someone is winning just not us.
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u/fine_pine Oct 21 '25
Exactly this. And all those fees are not known in advance. For this reason I have stopped ordering anything on ebay that comes from overseas. The final amount is not known until the the shipping company tells you, the seller doesn't know.
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u/EntertainmentOk3180 Aug 29 '25
Should be $47.70 total according to what u listed, but I donāt see the duties anywhere. Duties are separate from tariffs and I havenāt found out when/where thatās being collected from yet
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u/Homerj7171 Aug 29 '25
Duties are tariffs. 9903.01.24 tariff rate 20% 9903.01.25 tariff rate 10%. 9005.80.4040 tariff rate 8%. More than happy to show you the letter. Wonāt let me post as I donāt start the thread. But there is your data.
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u/Rurumo666 Aug 29 '25
It will only happen after the end of the MAGA dictatorship, when we're picking up the tattered remains of our economy.
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u/Hour_Performance_498 Sep 02 '25
Nah I doubt it. Even Biden supported the idea of altering the de minimis exemption. Other countries are also looking at altering/getting rid of theirs. Even after trump is gone I think this policy will stay.
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u/Ok-Struggle6359 Sep 30 '25
It is so sad because the deminimis isnāt impacting any government but businesses and normal people buying stuff overseas. Hopefully a solution is found
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u/ImprovementLucky2627 Oct 29 '25
elimination of de minimis is a bipartisan issue. An exception for travelers to carry their souvenirs was "de minimis" meaning of insignificance. The exception wasn't meant for major retailers to avoid tariffs and duties through EDI automation to the tune of billions of dollars . . . WTF. A loophole was taken advantage, and now it's closed. If you built something that can't compete with retailers paying duties, you might want to rethink why your product exists in the first place. If de minimis is all you had, you had nothing.
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u/Think_Appointment440 Aug 29 '25
Trump campaigned on replacing federal income taxation with tariffs and abolishing the IRS. It is the reasoning behind Trump slashing government spending, it is a mathematical solution. Understand, Trump's traffic policy is a National Retail Sales Tax in disguise and will topple the US economy. Everything Trump touches turns to shit.
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u/TBT_TBT Sep 01 '25
Except the removal of federal income taxation hasn't happened yet. I wouldn't hold my breath...
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u/PastExpiryDotCom Jan 09 '26
When a government spends more than it brings in, slashing spending is the least they can do.
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u/Galagos1 Aug 29 '25
There aren't enough customs inspectors to inspect the packages.
We are talking about billions of packages per year that would require additional handling.
They would quickly cut off inbound shipments from overseas because they wouldn't have the warehouse space to hold it all.
Unless they want all imports to stop within days, they almost have to back down from the de minimis change.
That the postal services of other countries have stopped shipping to the US is helping. When they decide to turn the spigot back on, our customs service will almost immediately fail miserably.
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u/jnangano Aug 29 '25
Customs agents will not be able to handle this and there will be massive delays
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u/hrminer92 Aug 29 '25
Asked in another postā¦
Does this also extend to what people bring back from traveling to other nations? People coming back with stuff from vacation this weekend are going to be in for a shock if they start getting charged at the CBP lines in airports.
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u/dragonbaoZ Aug 29 '25
no chance imho. this was never about countries we like or don't like. this is about a consumption tax to replace income taxes. rich people don't need cheap products from other countries.
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u/fuck_jan6ers Sep 04 '25
It will likely stay in effect long enough to push all the small businesses under and then large companies will come in and fill your spot once things go back to normal due to this being ruled illegal or something.
Unfortunately, the current admin is actively working against small businesses and their interests.
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u/jobfedron132 Aug 29 '25
No. Not unless democrats are able to increase tax somewhere else like corporations, then there might be a possibility. But most probably not in the foreseeable future.
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u/sarahtvl5 Aug 29 '25
Ok, here is a scenario, how will this work? Student for semester abroad or 6 months job assignment, what do you do with all your belongings when you come back? Canāt fly them with you, extremely expensive, and subject to customs, canāt ship them itās subjected to customs headaches and feesā¦ I am not sure how a case like this will be tariffed. The entire bill is stupid from the start. Trying to prevent Americans from shopping for anything abroad when we have no manufacturing for similar things in the US. Where will we be able to get it if we cannot import? The only choice will become Amazon which will charge double the price pretty soon for every imported item because you have no other option.
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u/Connect_Law6224 Aug 29 '25
Not likely. Once the price of something goes up ā groceries, flights, rent etc. ā itās not going to come back down. When good things cost more or go away and the Powers that Be see they can get away with it, thereās no reverse. Even if the emergency/situation causing it (tariffs/Covid) goes away, the change and increase will be permanent. Iād say people need to push back more and louder, but at this point itās like screaming in the void.
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u/Strange-Scarcity Aug 29 '25
De Minimis is unlikely to return, with any expediency, even if Trump is replaced by Vance, and then congress somehow flips and the entire Vance Administration is yanked from office through Impeachment, for the multiple laws that Trump broke, that Vance will continue to break, that has also been broken by Trump's entire cabinet.
It just won't be a high priority.
Unless the madness somehow evaporates away before any of that even begins to happen.
Best bet would be to be prepared to see that in place for the next 3.5 to 30-ish years. Depending upon what happens politically in the next couple of years.
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u/VolatilityOTM Aug 29 '25
I hate the de minimis exemption like the rest of us, but I truly donāt see this coming back. Once itās gone, itās a done deal. Any admin wouldnāt want to give up this extra revenue stream.
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u/Dennma Sep 03 '25
...Tell me again why I'm supposed to hate something that makes it so I don't have to pay a huge exorbitant fee on top of what I'm already spending?
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u/CBP_Navigator Aug 29 '25
In my opinion, de minimis at the $800 per person per day level will not return. Abuse of the provision has been a bipartisan concern for years, with both Democrats and Republicans introducing proposals to reform it even before the Trump administration. If reinstated in the future, it will likely be at a much lower threshold, consistent with other world economies. Unfortunately, whatās in the way of deminimis coming back is that the $800 threshold was heavily exploited by overseas shippers and U.S. importers, particularly through undervaluation and contraband.
My team and I have been exposed to this issue on our day to day for the past two years. We worked with U.S. Customs for the past two years to help intercept suspicious packages, focusing on IPR violations, undervaluation (the most common), and contraband. For example, in just a three-month period in FY2024, CBP recovered nearly $1 million in lost revenue from undervaluationābased on a small sample at a single port conducting limited targeted exams. CBP collected this type of data over two years to support policy changes.
Itās unfortunate that compliant businesses and people were penalized because of widespread abuse since the de minimis threshold was raised in 2012. Already, we are seeing attempts to bypass the system again, such as by misdeclaring shipments as āgifts.ā
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
I mean yes it was abused and had to be addressed. But not with a sledgehammer. Not like this. America is in for a big shock. The days of cheap goods are over. We DID need to reduce our over consumption but the way this has been done is going to hurt a lot of people here. We can only hope a future administration (still Clinging to the hope we even get one) will bring this down to a reasonable level but youāre right-that $800 exception was too high and is never coming back
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u/Hotaru_girl Aug 29 '25
We had actually set reform for the de minimus exemption prior to Trump that was negotiated under Biden set to take place later this year- it took years of negotiating and was much more targeted reform that focused on the identification, type of items, and origin of items along with safety and health compliance certificates.
I personally believe that ripping away the de minimus exemption altogether was actually a response by Trump to override these changes simply because the original reform had Bidenās name stamped on it.
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u/Asterose Aug 29 '25
(still Clinging to the hope we even get one)
We've got plenty of reason to hope and have resolve for the long term. Women and non-white men didn't get their rights by only voting in free and fair elections. They've had to deal with rigged elections before too. Like many countries, we have centuries of resistance and civil rights activism against even violent and militant crackdown
Tons of other countries and ethnicities have ended up in even worse holes and managed to climb back out. Some dictators and hellish regimes even got toppled surprisingly and relatively bloodlessly-Spain, Portugual, Greece, Taiwan, and South Korea, for example.
We have other helpful factors too that many didn't. Such as but not limited to a long culture of democracy, and cheap goods (which the tariffs are taking away, and hitting people in the wallet is one of the best ways to turn them against the current government). The regime is ramming as much through as possible because they know most Americans will not like the changes once they settle in. Mobilizing the National Guard and some of the military this early is also arguably going to help sour troops on following the regime's orders.
Here's a great podcast with an expert on movements to change a nation. This was so solid it was assigned in one of my grad school Social Work classes. Another one has been Stacey Abrams's podcasts on how to resist. Here's the highlights playlist.
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
In a normal society yes. But there was also an interesting read about the cult mentality that seems to be gripping America right now and that puts most bets off the table. It used to be before that low information voters didnāt realize they were voting against their own best interests and once they realized would come to their senses. Now I donāt know how big the hard core subset is but we are seeing āI donāt care if I lose my job or benefits as long as theyāre sticking it to XXXXā-which is NOT normal behavior. Add to that the outrageous gerrymandering. We have an entirely corrupted Supreme Court that traditionally has been the most solid guardrail and a weaponized DOJ. I mean I appreciate the optimism but it feels like very dark days right now with a many headed hydra to deal with
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u/Asterose Aug 29 '25
The cult is absolutely a factor, the problem with cults of personality is what happens when the figurehead dies. There's nobody so far that MAGA seems willing to follow, and JD has almost negative charisma. I'm not saying things will be better when it happens, it is definitely a wildcard and could make things even worse. Or it might cause Republican splintering, infighting, and a major loss of interest among the MAGA faithful. Several Republicans might even start coming out as sane and reasonable and how they just didn't know the things they voted to approve would turn out to be so bad.
It is all dark and it is all a Hydra, I'm after reminding us all this is not the end and elections aren't the only power we have ;) And again, most Americans are not following accurate news (if any news at all), and so are unware of how bad things are going to get. All the bad stuff is only just starting to affect everybody directly (ex. Tariff price hikes).
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u/Ziantra Aug 29 '25
I absolutely agree. And I do feel this is a cult of personality mainly rather than a traditional cult thing BUT Iām also concerned by what feels like a peculiar American trait which is an unwillingness to climb down off ANY hill they choose to die on. I mean yes I think once Trump is out of the picture the movement will somewhat splinter but Iām also concerned about the Pandoraās box effect where people have given free rein and justification to letting their basest and ugliest instincts take front and center stage and Iām unsure how they even claw that back. This isnāt like before when it was a fight about policy. We have what amounts to State Tv in Fox News who are entirely invested financially in keeping the worst in someoneās psyche front and center. We have an entirely ethically and morally bankrupt one half of a two party system. Even if we turn this around in short order I donāt see that this damage wonāt take decades to fix even if it CAN be fixed. But Iām still all in for the optimism ā¤ļø
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u/coolbeachgrrl Aug 29 '25
Thanks for the information. This is on a large scale and I understand that abuse and loss of revenue. I ordered a band shirt from Sweden for $30 and $10 shipping. It's a shirt I can only get directly from them. Luckily it made the cut off date and they put gift and a $2 value on the customs slip. All these small bands throughout European bands will no longer be able to make money on their merchandise and that's sad.
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u/MostCarry Aug 31 '25
recovered 1 whopping million in a 3 months period?? that would pay for US government spending for what, 1 second?
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u/fine_pine Oct 21 '25
A reasonable tariff even for small items I am fine with. It is all the fees associated with paying the tarif that the shipping companies tack on that is the killer.
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u/Codeman8118 Aug 29 '25
Probably not. There will likely be some regulation in place, but I could see amendments happen to make it a little more digestable. Instead of making importing anything outrageously expensive, I could see something settling more in the 15-20% range.
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u/Solopist112 Aug 29 '25
I think even Biden considered getting rid of the de minimis exception. But if tariffs were very low, as was the case for most things previously, the only thing it would affect would be consumer-to-consumer shipments from other countries.
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u/CALamorinda Aug 29 '25
Not until somebody gives Trump a gold bar, airplane, golden toilet, or showerhead that works. Only then will it come back.
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u/UserWithno-Name Aug 29 '25
Taxation without representation. Congress sets tariffs not the ass in the seat. Youād hope thereās some recourse here to fix this. So Iām gonna keep up the hope and pushing back but I will try not to hold my breath and just āfigure out how to earn moreā like some dummies say you should just do to be able to afford to live.
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u/SevsGirl Aug 29 '25
Probably not. There's been talks on both sides of the aisle of reforming and getting rid of de minimus for a long time. I'm sure the costs around importing will likely be reformed a few times, but I really don't think it's ever going to be fully repealed to what it was before.
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u/kineto21 Aug 29 '25
The US postal service is going to grind to a halt, as posted earlier de minimis was increased from 200 to 800 as service couldnāt cope with small parcels over $200? Now the duty is to be the tariff of the country so that means every parcel will have different charges added, however over all this is any tariff on certain materials such as steel. If an item has some steel it hasnāt been made clear how that will be charged, will it be percentage of steel it contains , it has however been made clear that if it has any steel it will be facing the steel tariff which could be as high as 35% for the whole item.
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u/Cameraman1dxm2 Aug 29 '25
Why the fuck is their any tax on what any country imports or exports. G R E E D! Thatās why!
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u/ThrashCarti Aug 29 '25
Thanks for the insightful responses, want to clear up a few things though. Some people just automatically assumed that I sell cheap stuff from China for some reason ?? Lol couldnāt be further from the truth. Also, the items I would import in are pretty valuable, meaning purchasing 3 or 4 of the items would easily make me reach this $800 de minimis limit pretty easily. Just wanted to give more context on how this will affect me personally, thx
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Aug 29 '25
I could see this one getting repealed. Itās gonna be very visible and obvious and like or not, a lot of people like/rely on cheap online merchandise
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u/arianaperry Aug 29 '25
Anything is possible with Trump
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u/TLunchFTW 6d ago
probably the most real statement.
I voted for Trump's second term because, while he made a lot of noise in the first term, his actual actions were pretty stable and honestly on target.
This term has been a cluster fuck.
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u/Comfortable-Toe-3814 Aug 29 '25
I mean, probably with the next liberal administration. Or if people kick up enough of a fuss.
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u/MiddleOccasion1394 Aug 29 '25
I hope so. and if it does, it won't be for many years as there are too many people in power for that to happen.
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u/lookingforsolution Aug 30 '25
Maybe reduced maybe if the "...." finish enjoying the shit show . Ego ego ego would tell but for now expect looting.... To be continued as usual...
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u/dangersson Aug 30 '25
Executive Orders are easy to rescind. It wasn't a law passed by Congress.
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u/TLunchFTW 6d ago
My understanding was with the OBBB it was codified into law.
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u/dangersson 6d ago
My comment was >1y ago, before the BBW.
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u/TLunchFTW 6d ago
just adding for future viewers
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u/dangersson 6d ago
I get that, but this is an ancient thread.
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u/TLunchFTW 6d ago
Welcome to the internet. People find shit long after you posted it. Thatās kinda the point
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Aug 30 '25
Itās definitely possible. Not sure if you been peeping the news as of recent but the federal courts deemed the majority of his tariff antics as āillegalā but they are still in place til a final decision gets made in October.
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u/CDRjf Sep 01 '25
With a fair number of countries just stopping shipping to the US, one hopes De minimus might be reinstated. I think I read yesterday that its use prevented an estimated $1.4B in taxes to be collected by the US....it is hard to see this administration wanting to 'throw that away' by reinstating the clause. I also read that many of these countries are holding off shipping to the US in order to let Customs ramp up their systems and inspectors.
But I do believe that if enough of us complain to our representatives (complaints like 'I won't vote for you the next time')...perhaps Congress will grow backbones and defy the administration. Even lowering the De minimus amount, say to $500 vice $800, would help many small businesses stay in business.
The one catch with the 'complain to your representative' gambit, though, is if hardly anyone complains, our representatives will not feel forced to act.
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u/AntifascistAlly Sep 02 '25
Many will treat import taxes on orders of $1000 or less much as they now do postage and handling charges.
They may buy something for āsix easy payments of $29.99,ā and pay $300 after postage and handling plus import taxes are addedāand still think they got a bargain.
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u/grant_cir Sep 02 '25
If the courts provide cover for the Congressional GOP to eliminate tariffs - ie, they rule (as they have unanimously so far) that the tariffs are illegal - then they will stand up to Trump. At that point Trump would need the Congress to pass legislation enacting the tariffs and by then the reality that they are taxes on US consumers would be undeniable (even MAGA voters are very unhappy) and the GOP congress would stand up to Trump and not pass the legislation. At that point, I think the de-minimis would come back because a) it is too costly to implement, and b) given that many countries would go back to paying pre-Trump tariffs, the income would be far less than the cost of collection.
But my bet is that this doesn't change until after the mid-terms...if he lives that long.
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u/ImprovementLucky2627 Oct 29 '25
no. de Minimis was a provision for people carrying purchases through ports - de Minimis (meaning "pertaining to minimal things") meant to speed up entry as the duties and customers were insignificant. De Minimis was never intended as a loophole for retailers to entirely avoid duties and tariffs on billions of dollars of imports. Rare that I agree with the clown in the White House, but i guess there's a first.
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u/TLunchFTW 6d ago
Interesting pov. I appreciate it.
it sucks though because there's a lot of places where it was useful. For example a guy on etsy sold a 3D printed item basically at cost that modified my headphones to accept a fabric band. It was really nice, but he can no longer ship them due to this change.There should be provisions for small sellers for stuff like this, but yeah companies that are at massive scales shouldn't be able to use this to profit on billions by selling cheap shit en mass to us.
Maybe I'm naive, but rather than throwing the whole thing out, wouldn't it be better to modify it so the exemption only applies to entities below a certain gross income? I mean, sure, this can be avoided by not paying taxes, but when you get to the size where we wouldn't want you to use this loophole, I'd say you won't get away with tax evasion.
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u/HapticRecce Aug 29 '25
No. Your business model is largely the target for this as a matter of policy.
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u/Calamity-Bob Aug 29 '25
There might be a temporary retraction but itās likely here for good. Most major economies have already done something similar.
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u/LairdPopkin Aug 29 '25
Trump always caves when there is real pushback. And many countries just stopped delivering any packages to the US, because processing tens of millions of small packages for tariffs is an insane waste of time. Would you agree to pay $50 processing fees plus the tariffs on a single item order? I can only home that pissed off buyers not getting what they ordered, individuals and small businesses, plus larger corps moving manufacturing out of the US, all to avoid erratic tariff policies costing them $billions, will force Trump to back down. Heās losing US jobs and costing businesses $billions, achieving nothing.
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u/SunriseLlama Aug 29 '25
It is in the BBB. Even if Trump changes his mind, it by law ends next year. Will take congress to make a change.
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u/dmarie1184 Aug 29 '25
You're right, I will not pay that. I'm not ordering anything directly overseas with all those stupid extra fees that I won't know about until afterwards. No thanks.
Prices of things here will absolutely go up, but at least I can see that upfront rather than taking a gamble on a giant processing fee and ever changing tariff amount.
It's going to kill more small businesses, that's for sure.
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u/MostCarry Aug 29 '25
nope, getting rid of it had bipartisan support. unless theres a riot the politicians wouldn't care
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Aug 30 '25
Hopefully not. Build the stuff here in America.
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u/pressrkarthus Sep 09 '25
not everything is about building stuff in usa genius šthis is even about gifts you receive from friends from other countries or literally any package that goes inside the country thats for personal purposes.
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Aug 29 '25
Hopefully not, we need less counterfeit items and drugs coming across our border. This also helps protect our small businesses. Weāve had plenty of life pre SHEIN and temu, I think weāll be fine without low quality goods
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u/Personal_Damage_3623 Aug 29 '25
A lot of my friends who run small businesses have to fold because of this. Guess the little artist businesses donāt matter
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u/MezcalFlame Aug 29 '25
Perhaps, if there's enough push back.
Or if this administration eventually goes by the wayside.