Is De Minimis Coming Back? What Canadian Sellers Shipping to the US Must Do Now (2026)

Key takeaways

• No, de minimis is not coming back — stop planning around a reversal. The US $800 de minimis exemption (under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C)) was suspended for all countries effective August 29, 2025 by Executive Order 14324 (signed July 30, 2025). So a Canada-to-US parcel has already been dutiable since late August 2025 — this isn't a future deadline.
• The June 24, 2026 news peg: CBP codified it into regulation. Two interim final rules published June 24, 2026 turned a revocable executive-order policy into a rule. 91 FR 37789 indefinitely suspends de minimis for all modes except international postal (effective June 24, 2026); 91 FR 37801 suspends postal de minimis and creates a new postal informal entry process (effective July 24, 2026).
• The postal channel now runs on a bonded process with a clock. The new postal informal entry (19 CFR 145.15) requires a basic importation and entry bond before release, a data set, and duty paid via Pay.gov by the 7th of the month after arrival — for mail valued $2,500 or less in HTSUS chapters 1–97. Compliance date is October 22, 2026 for goods with partner-government-agency data or Chapter 98/99 duties. Public comment is open until July 24, 2026.
• The permanent answer arrives July 1, 2027. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacts a permanent, global statutory repeal of de minimis. Because it's a statute, not an executive order, a future administration cannot easily switch it back on.
• Canadian-origin / CUSMA goods can still be duty-free — but only with a proper claim of origin. De minimis's death removes the "too small to bother with paperwork" shortcut, not your ability to claim preferential treatment; those two are separate.

Is de minimis coming back for Canadian sellers in 2026? No — and here's why

If you sell into the United States from Canada and you've been waiting for someone to "bring back the $800 exemption," the honest answer for 2026 is: it isn't coming back, and you should plan landed cost as permanent. Here's the timeline that settles it, with every date year-stamped so the order is clear.

It already ended — in 2025. Executive Order 14324, signed July 30, 2025, suspended the US de minimis exemption (the $800 duty-free allowance under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C)) for all countries, effective August 29, 2025. That's the key thing many stale write-ups miss: a Canada-to-US parcel has been dutiable regardless of how small the order is since late August 2025. This is the past, not a pending change.

Then, on June 24, 2026, CBP codified it. An executive order can be revoked by the next executive order — which is exactly the reversal sellers were hoping for. But on June 24, 2026, US Customs and Border Protection published two interim final rules that move the suspension into the regulatory code:

• 91 FR 37789 (document 2026-12670) indefinitely suspends de minimis for all modes of transport except international postal, effective June 24, 2026.
• 91 FR 37801 (document 2026-12669) suspends de minimis for international postal shipments and creates a brand-new postal informal entry process to replace it. The postal process is effective July 24, 2026.

Because these are "interim final" rules, they are in effect now but open to public comment until July 24, 2026. Codifying the policy as a rule is the step that makes a quiet executive reversal much harder.

And on July 1, 2027, it becomes permanent by statute. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacts a permanent, global repeal of de minimis on July 1, 2027. A statute is far stickier than an executive order — a future administration can't simply sign it away. So the two milestones lock in different things: the June 24, 2026 regulation locks in the present, and the July 1, 2027 statute locks in the future.

Put together: "Is de minimis still in effect for Canada to the USA?" — no, since August 29, 2025. "Is it coming back?" — no; regulation now, statute in 2027. The planning takeaway is simple and slightly uncomfortable: treat US import duty on your parcels as a permanent line item, not a temporary tax to wait out.

Who this affects: Canadian sellers shipping low-value parcels into the US

This lands hardest on the sellers who built their US shipping around the old exemption:

• Anyone who relied on "it's under $800, so it ships clean." That model is gone. Every low-value parcel into the US now needs entry treatment — either a formal entry or the new postal informal entry.
• Direct-to-consumer and dropshipping operators sending a steady stream of small US-bound orders. The per-parcel duty and the new filing mechanics are now part of your unit economics. If you're building that kind of flow, the address and account side is covered in Canadian dropshipping business address.
• Marketplace and Amazon sellers shipping across the border, where the platform, the carrier, and CBP all want consistent customs data tied to a real business.
• Etsy sellers specifically have their own layer on top of this: Etsy runs a mandatory DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) flow for US-bound orders. We keep those platform-specific mechanics in Etsy's DDP rule for Canadian sellers rather than re-covering them here.

One clarification that saves a lot of confusion: Canadian-origin goods can often still enter the US duty-free under CUSMA — de minimis and preferential origin are two different things. Losing de minimis removes the paperwork shortcut, not the duty-free claim. But that claim only works if you actually certify origin correctly; the rules of origin and how to stay duty-free are covered in CUSMA and your small business. (And note: an FTA duty-free claim is one of the categories excluded from the new postal informal entry — more on that below.)

What to do now: pick your channel (postal vs courier)

For a Canadian seller, the first real decision is how the parcel clears US customs — because the June 2026 rules treat postal and courier shipments differently. Here's the practical comparison.

Two implications stand out for a small Canadian seller:

Postal is now real customs work, not a mailbox drop. The new postal informal entry brings a customs bond, a data transmission, and a Pay.gov payment on a monthly cadence. It exists precisely because de minimis is gone — mail used to skip most of this. If you sell Canadian-origin goods and want the CUSMA duty-free treatment, note that the postal informal entry doesn't cover FTA claims — those push you to formal entry, so the "just mail it" route and the "claim it duty-free" route can pull in opposite directions. Plan the two together.

Courier shifts the mechanics to the carrier — for a fee. With UPS, FedEx, or DHL, their brokerage typically handles the entry and fronts the duty, then bills you the duty plus a brokerage charge. It's less hands-on than filing postal entries yourself, but the cost is visible and per-parcel.

There's also a future-state option worth knowing about but not waiting for: CBP will run a voluntary test of a new electronic informal entry — "Entry Type 13" — in ACE starting September 22, 2026 (for mail valued $2,500 or less). It's a fully-electronic path that may simplify things later, but as of mid-2026 it's a voluntary pilot, not mandatory — so it shouldn't hold up your decision for the July and October 2026 clocks.

This is general information about a customs and regulatory change, not customs, legal, or tax advice — confirm the specifics for your goods and situation with CBP, the CBSA, or a licensed customs broker before you rely on it.

The importer-of-record decision

Once de minimis is gone, someone has to be the importer of record (IOR) on every US entry — the party legally responsible for the declaration and the duty. For a Canadian seller, this is a decision, not a default, and it generally comes down to three broad options:

• You act as the US importer of record. As a general principle, a non-resident Canadian seller can be the US IOR, but it comes with obligations — notably a customs bond and a US-facing filing process (which is exactly what the new postal informal entry formalizes for mail). This keeps the customer experience clean because the duty is handled before delivery.
• You let the customer be on the hook (DDU / delivered duty unpaid). The parcel ships without duty prepaid, and the buyer gets billed on arrival. It's the least work for you and the worst experience for the customer — surprise fees at the door drive refused parcels and chargebacks.
• You pay a broker to run a DDP flow. A customs broker or your courier's brokerage handles the entry and the duty as a delivered-duty-paid shipment, and you pay for that service. This is the "outsource the mechanics" route.

Treat the above as the general shape of the decision, not a recommendation for your specific goods or volume — the right answer depends on your product classification, your margins, and your shipping mix, which is a conversation for a customs broker.

The setup layer underneath: your Canadian business address

Here's the part that survives whichever channel and IOR route you pick — and it's the part worth getting right once.

Be clear about one thing first: Auteur gives you a Canadian address in Toronto or Vancouver — not a US customs address, and we are not your US importer of record. Nothing about a virtual mailbox changes how your parcel clears US customs. What it does fix is the layer that every one of these customs decisions quietly leans on: the identity of the Canadian business behind the shipments.

When de minimis dies and your parcels start carrying entries, bonds, and origin claims, you're no longer running a hobby — you're running a cross-border export business, and a real business needs one stable Canadian commercial address that its records agree on:

• The business identity behind your CRA export/import program account. Formal exporting gives your Business Number a customs-facing program account; the address on it should be a consistent commercial one, not a home you might move out of.
• Your GST/HST file. Cross-border selling doesn't erase your domestic sales-tax obligations, and the address the CRA holds should match what your marketplace and your customs paperwork show.
• Marketplace verification. Amazon and other platforms can ask you to verify the business behind the store; a stable commercial street address is what passes that check cleanly. The Amazon-specific setup is in Virtual address for Amazon Seller Central in Canada.
• Returns and correspondence. DDP and IOR flows generate real mail — carrier notices, broker documents, returned parcels — that needs to land somewhere professional and monitored.

A virtual mailbox in Canada Post Unit/# format gives you one Canadian street address that works across all of those. And because Canada uses self-certification for identity — there's no US-style Form 1583 to notarize — setup is straightforward.

FAQ

Is de minimis still in effect for Canada to the US? No. The US $800 de minimis exemption was suspended for all countries effective August 29, 2025, then codified into regulation on June 24, 2026, and it is scheduled for permanent statutory repeal on July 1, 2027. A Canada-to-US parcel is generally dutiable now regardless of how small the order is.

Is de minimis coming back? No. What sellers hoped for was an executive-order reversal, but the June 24, 2026 CBP interim final rules moved the suspension into the regulatory code, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes it a permanent, global statutory repeal on July 1, 2027. A statute can't be undone as easily as an executive order, so the practical planning answer is to treat US import duty as permanent.

What is "the Canadian de minimis" — is that the same thing? No, and this trips people up. Canada has its own CAD $40 / $150 courier low-value-shipment thresholds for goods coming into Canada — under CUSMA, a courier shipment from the US or Mexico is exempt from duty and tax up to CAD $40, and exempt from duty (though sales taxes still apply) up to CAD $150. That's a separate rule from the US $800 exemption for goods going into the US — and it's also distinct from Canada's traveller personal exemptions (roughly CAD $200 after 24 hours and CAD $800 after 48 hours abroad), which are a different regime again. The change discussed here is the US exemption ending; the Canadian import thresholds are unaffected.

Do I need a customs bond to ship low-value mail into the US now? For the new postal informal entry (mail valued $2,500 or less, effective July 24, 2026), yes — 19 CFR 145.15 requires a basic importation and entry bond, single-transaction or continuous, to be secured before the entry is accepted and the parcel released, and duty is paid via Pay.gov by the 7th of the month after arrival. If your goods fall into an excluded category — quota, AD/CVD, Chapter 98/99, PGA data, or an FTA duty-free claim like CUSMA — you use formal entry instead. Confirm your product's path with a customs broker.

Bottom line

De minimis for Canada-to-US parcels ended on August 29, 2025, was codified by CBP on June 24, 2026, and becomes a permanent statutory repeal on July 1, 2027 — so it is not coming back, and the smart move is to price and plan every US-bound parcel as dutiable. Your near-term decisions are the channel (the new bonded postal informal entry with its July 24 and October 22, 2026 clocks, versus a courier's brokerage) and the importer-of-record route (you, the customer, or a broker-run DDP flow).

Whatever route you choose, the layer underneath is the same: run this as a real Canadian export business with one clean commercial identity. Auteur can't clear your US customs — but it can give you the Toronto or Vancouver address your CRA export account, GST/HST file, marketplace verification, and cross-border correspondence all point at. Reserve a Toronto or Vancouver address and set that foundation once, so the customs work sits on a stable business instead of your home address.