Parcel Duty

What your AliExpress order owes at the US border

The $800 duty-free allowance ended on 29 August 2025. Every parcel is assessed now, whatever it cost — a $12 top included.

Look at the total before you pay. If it carries a line for import charges, duty or tax, the parcel is being shipped duty-paid: it clears customs in the shop’s name and the courier should not ask you for anything at the door.

If there is no such line, the parcel arrives unpaid. The courier settles with customs and then bills you — the duty, plus a brokerage fee of its own that no carrier publishes as a rate. On a small parcel that fee is often the larger half of the bill.

What the border itself charges

These are this site’s own figures for a parcel shipped from Vietnam, priced by the same engine as the calculator below. Duty, the forced-labour surcharge and the US processing fee are in them; the courier’s brokerage fee is not.

Worked examples

  • A gadget, $15.00$4.57 to $13.97
  • A gadget, $50.00$8.94 to $18.34
  • A gadget, $150.00$21.44 to $30.84

The spread is the schedule’s own, in two places. Where the tariff depends on construction the schedule describes by tariff line rather than by name, both ends are shown. And the US processing fee on a parcel of this size runs from $2.69 to $12.09 whatever is inside, which is why even a duty-free gadget lands on a range.

If it shipped from China

Then this site gives you no number, and the sites that do are giving you the wrong one. Chinese goods owe the 2026 forced-labour surcharge and, stacked on top of it, the 2018 Section 301 lists — 25% on Lists 1 to 3, 7.5% on List 4A — assigned tariff line by tariff line across thousands of lines we do not hold. Priced on the surcharge alone, a $1,000 laptop comes out at $125 where the real figure is nearer $375. Being silent is better than being wrong by three times.

If it shipped from inside the United States

Then there is nothing to assess and nothing more to pay. Goods sitting in a US warehouse were imported by the shop, which paid the duty when it stocked them, and it is already in the price you saw. The first tracking scan tells you which case you are in: a domestic origin means the parcel never crossed a border on your account.

Price your own order

Set the value, the origin and what the goods are. Every line says which rule produced it and when that rule took effect.

Declaration

In the parcel

Assessment

You will owe $27.69 to $37.09

Charged on $200.00, goods only, shipping excluded

Sample parcel · type over it for your own figures
Base tariff$0.00

0% on this product under the US tariff schedule.

Forced-labour tariff$25.00

12.5% added on top of the base tariff, in force since 24 July 2026.

US processing fee$2.69 to $12.09

US merchandise processing fee on an informal entry: $2.69 when the courier files electronically, up to $12.09 when customs prepares it.

Rates as of 2026-09-08

  • The $800 duty-free allowance ended on 29 August 2025. A parcel is no longer exempt just for being cheap.
  • Couriers add their own brokerage fee on top. It varies by carrier, so it is not included here.
  • Duty-free covers finished devices. Cables, cases and spare parts usually are not.

Keep the paperwork

This assessment as a one-page PDF: every charge, the rule behind it and the source, ready to show the carrier.

Questions people ask

Will the courier charge me again at the door?
Only if nothing was collected at checkout. A parcel shipped duty-paid has already cleared in the shop’s name and is settled. A parcel shipped unpaid has not, and the courier will bill you for the duty plus its own brokerage fee before it hands the parcel over.
How much is it on a small order?
Less than people fear on the duty, and more than they expect on the fee. The US processing fee runs from $2.69 to $12.09 on a parcel of this size whatever it is worth, so on an order under about $30 the fee is usually the larger part of the bill.
My item has a 0% tariff. Do I still pay?
Yes. Most consumer electronics carry no base tariff at all and still owe the forced-labour surcharge and the processing fee. A duty-free gadget is not a free gadget.
Is there a value below which nothing is charged?
Not since 29 August 2025. The $800 allowance that used to cover almost every order of this kind was withdrawn, and no replacement threshold took its place.

What changed, and when

These rules moved four times in a year. That is why every result above carries the date it was calculated on.

  1. The US $800 duty-free allowance ends

    Low-value parcels stop being exempt. Everything entering the US becomes dutiable, whatever it cost.

  2. The Supreme Court strikes down the IEEPA tariffs

    A temporary Section 122 surcharge of 10% replaces them while a permanent answer is worked out.

  3. The EU drops its €150 exemption

    Parcels under €150 now pay a flat €3 instead of nothing, charged per product category, not per parcel.

  4. Section 122 expires, Section 301 replaces it

    New forced-labour tariffs of 10% or 12.5% cover 60 economies. Unlike the surcharge, this one has no end date. EU goods get a combined 10% ceiling rather than a surcharge on top.

  5. Not in force yet

    A Union-wide customs handling fee starts

    The EU adds its own handling charge on top of whatever the carrier already bills. Not counted in the estimates above.

Other shops

Other origins

Other things people ship