What you pay in duty on clothes shipped to the US now

The 800 dollar exemption is gone. It ended at 12:01 eastern daylight time on 29 August 2025, when Executive Order 14324 suspended duty free de minimis treatment for every country, and on 24 June 2026 Customs and Border Protection wrote that suspension into its own regulations with no expiry. A parcel of clothes enters as an import now, whatever it cost.

What follows is the arithmetic on one coat, every rate and fee read at a government source in August 2026.

Two rules now, and the box decides which

Merchandise arriving by courier falls under the interim final rule of 24 June 2026, which leaves entry type 11, the ordinary informal entry, as the route for anything worth 2,500 dollars or less. The carrier's broker files it, advances the duty, and bills you before the box arrives.

Mail runs on a slower clock. The companion rule took effect on 24 July 2026, with 22 October the compliance date for the new data at 19 CFR 145.12 and a test of the new mail entry, type 13, opening on 22 September. Until that machinery runs, dutiable mail is assessed by hand and billed on delivery.

The rate is set by the fibre, not the label

Customs does not ask what the coat cost or whose name is in it. It asks what it is made of, and across outerwear the spread is wide enough to change a purchase.

Take one heading, 6202, women's and girls' overcoats. Wool sits at 6202.20.11 and carries 41 cents a kilogram plus 16.3 percent. The same coat in cotton, at 6202.30.20, is 8.9 percent. In man made fibres, at 6202.40.20, it is 27.7 percent, and if that synthetic coat carries 36 percent or more wool it jumps to 43.5 cents a kilogram plus 19.7 percent. Seventy percent silk or more enters free. All from the general column of the 2026 tariff schedule, read this August.

Knitwear runs it in reverse. A sweater wholly of cashmere is 4 percent at 6110.12.10. The same sweater in merino is 16 percent, in cotton 16.5. The most expensive knit in the shop is the cheapest at the border.

One coat, all the way through

A wool overcoat, 590 euros on a European site, 1.4 kilograms, by courier. The seller should strip its own value added tax on export. At 20 percent that takes it to 491.67, and at the European Central Bank reference rate for 28 August 2026, 1.1643 dollars to the euro, the customs value is 572.45.

Duty first. Sixteen point three percent of 572.45 is 93.31, and the specific half, 41 cents a kilogram across 1.4 kilograms, adds 57 cents. Duty is 93.88.

Fees next, and smaller than the internet believes. Under 2,500 dollars this is an informal entry, exempt from the 0.3464 percent and 33.58 dollar floor of a formal one. The merchandise processing fee is a flat 2.69 dollars for an automated informal entry, plus 1.34 for the express consignment carrier facility fee, once per air waybill. Both rise on 1 October, to 2.77 and 1.38.

Government total: 97.91 dollars, 17.1 percent on top of the customs value, and a floor rather than a ceiling: Executive Order 14324 subjects a parcel to all applicable duties, taxes, fees, exactions and charges, so any tariff against the country of origin sits on top of the schedule rate. The coat lands at 670.36 before postage, and before the courier's charge for fronting the money, which every carrier publishes and none waives.

Change one word in the description and hold the rest still. Cotton, and duty falls to 50.95, so the bill is 54.98. Man made fibres, and it climbs to 158.57, so the bill is 162.60. Seventy percent silk, and you owe 4.03, all of it fees. Same price, same weight, same afternoon.

One variable costs more than the fibre. If the seller charges its domestic value added tax anyway, the customs value becomes 686.94, duty rises to 112.54, and the coat lands at 803.51. A European sales tax on a garment leaving Europe costs 133.15 dollars here, the refund trap seen from the receiving end.

Customs does not price the label. It prices the fibre, and then it weighs it.

What survived, and what has not arrived

Two exemptions came through untouched, and the rules say so: bona fide gifts of 100 dollars or less, and personal and household articles accompanying a traveller. The suitcase kept its privileges. The parcel lost them, which is why carrying it home still survives the arithmetic when shipping does not.

Now the prospective part. A flat per parcel charge on postal items is trailed for 1 November 2026, and it appears in neither interim final rule of 24 June 2026, where it would have to live. Treat it as announced, not in force. What is on the record are the dates above and section 70531 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which terminates the exemption from 1 July 2027.

One charge nobody mentions until it lands: the United States Postal Service collects a fee of its own from the addressee on every item where duty is collected, under section 712 of the International Mail Manual, and it does not refund it when Customs refunds the duty.

Before you press buy

Ask the seller two questions, neither about shipping speed. Whether it strips its own value added tax on export, worth 133 dollars on the coat above. And whether it ships delivered duty paid or leaves you to settle with the carrier, because those are two prices and only one is on screen.

Then classify it yourself. Search the fibre and garment type at hts.usitc.gov, read the general column, and multiply by the price before foreign tax. Add four dollars of fees, then the carrier's disbursement charge. If the coat is wool, weigh it. None of it transfers north, where Canada assesses its own way.

The smaller the parcel, the worse the ratio: a 180 dollar cotton blouse collects 27.72 in duty at 15.4 percent, plus four dollars of fees, and used to arrive with none. The coat you try on in a shop crosses no border, and the only number on it is the one on the ticket.

Common questions

Do I have to pay duty on clothes shipped to the US now?

Yes, on a commercial parcel: since 29 August 2025 there is no value below which clothing enters the United States free of duty, and Customs and Border Protection made that suspension indefinite on 24 June 2026. What you pay is set by fibre and garment type, not by price. A woman's wool overcoat is 41 cents a kilogram plus 16.3 percent, a cotton one 8.9 percent, a synthetic one 27.7 percent, plus four dollars in fees.

What happened to the 800 dollar exemption?

Executive Order 14324 suspended it for every country from 29 August 2025, and it has not come back. Customs and Border Protection replaced it with a regulatory suspension on 24 June 2026 carrying no end date, and section 70531 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act terminates it from 1 July 2027. Bona fide gifts and goods a traveller brings in personally were left alone.

How much duty will I pay on a designer coat from Europe?

Budget between 9 and 28 percent of the coat's price before foreign tax, decided by its fibre, plus a few dollars in fees and any tariff running against the country of origin. On a 590 euro wool coat with the seller's value added tax stripped, that came to 93.88 dollars of duty and 4.03 in fees on a customs value of 572.45 dollars, checked August 2026.

within opens Toronto's boutique shelves on October 1. Until then, the quizzes will read your taste.