Do I owe duty on samples imported to the US?

Status, and the date it was taken: as of 19 August 2026, the $800 commercial de minimis exemption is suspended, and the June 2026 rules described below are interim final rules — their comment periods closed on 24 July 2026 and no final rule had issued when this page was last verified, so the text can still change. Two things on this page can change without warning and are dated wherever they appear: whether a suspension is still in force, and any rate. CBP can lift the de minimis suspension on its own determination, and this page cannot tell you it has not. Everything else is written against your shipment and against fixed statutory dates you can check, so it stays correct however long this page sits here.

Method, so you can weigh it: verified 19 August 2026 against the Code of Federal Regulations as published on 14 August 2026, the 2026 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (Revision 16), and CBP's own rulemakings and messages to the trade. Every citation below points to a primary source you can open.

Yes, unless you claim an exemption. The $800 de minimis exemption was suspended on 29 August 2025 and was still suspended when this page was verified — see the status block above — and Congress repeals the commercial exemption on 1 July 2027. While it is suspended, a commercial shipment needs a formal or informal entry (19 CFR 143.21(a)). Samples can still enter free under HTSUS 9811.00.60 if each is worth under $1 or is mutilated — or duty-deferred under a temporary import bond or an ATA carnet if they are re-exported.

First, the two things you are most likely to have been told — both wrong

“If it is under $800 you can use Entry Type 86 and it comes in free of duties, taxes and fees”

This is still published on major logistics sites, undated, and it is wrong twice over.

Entry Type 86 was a filing mechanism, not a duty exemption. It let a broker file a low-value shipment electronically instead of clearing it off the manifest. The duty-free treatment came from the statute — 19 U.S.C. §1321(a)(2)(C) — never from Type 86 itself.

And Type 86 no longer exists. CBP terminated it three separate times on the record: “type 86 entries may no longer be utilized” (90 FR 42418, 2 September 2025); “ACE will reject all entry type 86 cargo release EDI transactions” (CSMS #66065494, 28 August 2025); “CBP has also suspended the Entry Type 86 Test” (91 FR 37789, 24 June 2026).

What replaced it: Entry Type 11 informal for non-postal shipments up to $2,500 (19 CFR 143.21(a)), or formal entry. For mail, a new postal informal process from 24 July 2026.

“The tariff executive orders were struck down, so de minimis is back”

Also wrong, and this one is subtler. The IEEPA duties were terminated in February 2026. But the de minimis suspension no longer depends on them.

It rests on CBP's own regulation — 19 CFR 10.151(b) for non-postal and 19 CFR 145.31(b) for mail — issued under CBP's independent authority in 19 U.S.C. §1321(b). CBP said so explicitly in the rule itself:

“Should the Executive Order be amended or removed prior to the statutory repeal of de minimis, CBP's regulatory suspension would remain in effect and take on the effects of the suspension of de minimis that would have otherwise belonged to the Executive Order…” — 91 FR 37789

Suspended, not repealed — the distinction matters. A suspension can be lifted by CBP when it determines the exemption “is no longer inconsistent with the purpose of 19 U.S.C. 1321(a), no longer jeopardizes the revenue, and no longer facilitates unlawful importations.” Do not plan around that happening.

What happens on 1 July 2027, precisely

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21 §70531(b), repeals the commercial de minimis: “The amendments made by this subsection shall take effect on July 1, 2027.”

It strikes only subparagraph (C) of 19 U.S.C. §1321(a)(2) — the “$800 in any other case” provision. It does not touch:

  1. (A) bona fide gifts, $100
  2. (B) personal and household articles accompanying a traveller, $200

So “de minimis is repealed in 2027” is imprecise. The commercial privilege is repealed; the gift and traveller exemptions survive.

The three ways a sample can still come in without duty

None of these were touched by the de minimis suspension. Reading the executive orders and CBP's rule (91 FR 37789) on 19 August 2026, we found no reference in them to Chapter 98, samples, or carnets — which fits the structure: Chapter 98 is a set of tariff classifications, while §321 was a separate administrative exemption. Killing one did not kill the other. If anything, these routes matter more while the exemption is suspended.

1. HTSUS 9811.00.60 — free, permanent, no re-export

“Any sample … valued not over $1 each, or marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treated so that it is unsuitable for sale or for use otherwise than as a sample, to be used in the United States only for soliciting orders for products of foreign countries.”

Read the “or”. The $1 test and the mutilation test are alternatives, not both. A sample worth under $1 qualifies as it is. A sample worth more qualifies if it is properly mutilated. Guidance telling you a sample must be both under $1 and mutilated is misreading the tariff text.

This is a duty-free consumption entry — no bond, no re-export obligation, no time limit.

What it does not cover: alcoholic beverage and tobacco samples, which go to 9811.00.20 and 9811.00.40 with a one-sample-per-quarter cap; un-mutilated samples over $1 each; samples soliciting orders for domestic products; anything intended for sale or giveaway. And it exempts duty only — quota, AD/CVD, partner-agency requirements and marking rules all still apply.

If your goods originate in Canada or Mexico, two extra conditions apply that are not in the tariff text itself (19 CFR 182.111 for USMCA, 181.62 for the NAFTA legacy rule): value is judged “individually or in the aggregate as shipped”, and mutilation must happen before arrival in the United States. You cannot mutilate at the FTZ or in your own warehouse.

2. Temporary importation under bond — HTSUS 9813.00.20

For “samples solely for use in taking orders for merchandise” that you will send back out. Free under bond, exported within 1 year, extendable in two further one-year periods on CBP Form 3173 to a maximum of 3 years (19 CFR 10.37).

The bond amount is where most published guidance is wrong. The general TIB bond is double the duties and fees — but 19 CFR 10.31(f) carves samples out specifically: for 9813.00.20 “the bond required to be given shall be in an amount equal to 110 percent of the estimated duties and fees.” Liquidated damages follow the bond rather than the general rule: 19 CFR 10.39(d) sets damages at double the estimated duties “unless a different amount is prescribed by § 10.31(f)” — and for samples, a different amount is prescribed.

Available only where goods are “not imported for sale or for sale on approval.” You must file a declaration to that effect (19 CFR 10.31(a)(3)(iii)).

3. ATA carnet

Valid 1 year, and the period cannot be extended (19 CFR 114.23(a)). Two hard limits people trip on: carnets are not accepted for importations by mail (19 CFR 114.31(a)), and anything not eligible for a TIB is not eligible for a carnet either (114.31(b)). Valid in the states, DC and Puerto Rico only — not Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa or the Northern Marianas.

One correction worth making: the United States does not accept carnets under an exhibitions-and-fairs category. 19 CFR 114.22(a) lists exactly two conventions — professional equipment, and commercial samples and advertising material. Goods going to a US trade show still travel on a carnet, but they travel as commercial samples or professional equipment.

Does a Chapter 98 sample claim also escape the tariffs?

Usually yes, with a caveat in every case.

  1. Section 301 forced-labour duties (10–12.5%, effective 24 July 2026; rate read 19 August 2026 and not re-checked since — confirm it against the current HTSUS before you rely on it): the additional duties “shall not apply to goods for which entry is properly claimed under a provision of chapter 98 … and whenever CBP agrees that entry under such a provision is appropriate” — excepting subheadings 9802.00.40/.50/.60 and heading 9802.00.80 (CSMS #69326983).
  2. Section 232: Chapter 98 duty-free provisions generally escape it, except those under 9819, 9820, 9822 and any Chapter 98 duty-free status based on a free trade agreement. A TIB is allowed, but the bond must be large enough to cover the Section 232 duties.
  3. IEEPA duties: moot. Terminated 20 February 2026 by Executive Order 14389 (91 FR 9437).

Note the hedge that appears in all of them: “whenever CBP agrees.” A Chapter 98 claim is a claim, not an entitlement.

So what actually determines whether you pay

  1. Mode. Non-postal goes to Entry Type 11 informal (up to $2,500) or formal. Mail goes to the postal informal process — but 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(vi) requires formal entry for any Chapter 98 duty-free claim, with a delayed compliance date of 22 October 2026. On and after that date, a Chapter 98 sample claim by mail needs a formal entry.
  2. Which provision you claim, and whether CBP agrees it fits.
  3. Value and mutilation — under $1 each as shipped, or properly mutilated; and for Canadian or Mexican origin, mutilated before arrival.
  4. Intent. Anything for sale, sale on approval, giveaway, or consumption falls out of all three regimes and pays ordinary duty.
  5. Origin, which drives Section 232 and Section 301 exposure.

Two honest caveats

Whether CBP accepts a given mutilation method is discretionary. We could not find a general implementing regulation for 9811.00.60 outside the Canada and Mexico rules: searching 19 CFR part 10 on 19 August 2026 did not surface “9811” or “soliciting orders”. We did not run a positive control to prove that search could see text known to be present, so treat it as we did not find one — not as proof none exists. The tariff text says “marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treated so that it is unsuitable for sale”; it does not tell you what satisfies that. If a sample is valuable enough for the answer to matter, that is a binding-ruling question, not a judgement call.

And the June 2026 rules were interim final rules when this page was last verified — see the status block at the top for the date and what that means for you.

Every citation on this page points to a primary source you can open: the Federal Register, the eCFR, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, and CBP's own messages to the trade. If you find something here that is wrong, it will be corrected and the correction dated.

Correction note, 19 August 2026. An earlier version of this page described a CBP informed-compliance publication on commercial samples, including its revision date and a marking instruction. That description could not be substantiated at source and has been removed rather than left standing. The regulatory and tariff citations on this page were each verified against the eCFR and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule directly. We would rather this page be shorter and checkable than fuller and partly unsourced — that is the whole point of it.