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Buy Parts or Supplies From Overseas by Mail? Customs Pushed a Tariff Paperwork Deadline to Jan. 20

U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave mail importers until Jan. 20, 2027, before packages carrying Section 232 or 301 tariffs, or other agencies' import rules, need formal entry or the new electronic mail entry. A separate proposal, open for comment until Dec. 7, would go further.

By Sally5 min read

  • tariffs
  • imports
  • de minimis
  • customs
  • international mail
  • small importers
  • CBP

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has given small importers who buy by mail another three months. In a final rule published Oct. 22, CBP pushed back to Jan. 20, 2027, the date when mail packages carrying certain tariffs or other agencies’ import rules have to come in through formal entry or a new electronic filing [1]. If you run an online shop, a repair business or a small manufacturer and your supplies arrive through a foreign post office, this is your deadline.

What changed on Oct. 22

Some background first. “De minimis” is the rule that used to let packages worth $800 or less into the country without duty. CBP suspended it indefinitely for mail starting June 24, 2026, and set up a new informal entry process for mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less [3]. That followed a 2025 executive order and its February 2026 revision, Executive Order 14388, which kept the suspension going for every country [3, 5].

The June rule carved some packages out of that informal process [3]. They’re the ones that:

  • carry duties under Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 of the tariff schedule (Chapter 99 duties include Section 232 and 301 tariffs [2]);
  • are subject to another federal agency’s import requirements (CBP calls these Partner Government Agency, or PGA, requirements); or
  • claim duty-free treatment under Chapter 98 or a free trade agreement [1, 3].

Those packages were supposed to need formal entry, the full customs filing, by Oct. 22, 2026 [3]. The new rule moves that compliance date to Jan. 20, 2027 [1]. CBP said importers, brokers and logistics companies need time to update systems and procedures, and that “Failure to afford the public extra time to comply with these requirements could lead to disruptions in the flow of important international postal shipments destined to Americans” [1]. BDO, an accounting firm, described it as a 90-day push [7].

Nothing else in the process changes while the clock runs. The current informal mail process stays in place, and anyone who’s ready can comply early [1, 6].

The second option: Entry Type 13

Formal entry isn’t the only route. CBP is testing an electronic informal entry for mail, called Entry Type 13, in its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system [2]. The test opened Sept. 22, 2026, for mail shipments of $2,500 or less, and it’s the path for low-value mail that carries tariffs outside chapters 1 through 97 [2]. CBP’s examples are goods subject to Section 232, Section 201 or Section 301 duties [2].

The same day as the delay, CBP loosened the test. Filers can now send an Entry Type 13 without complete electronic PGA data while they work on submitting it, and CBP will announce in a later notice when that temporary leeway ends [2].

So come Jan. 20, a tariff-hit mail package worth $2,500 or less goes through either formal entry or Entry Type 13 [1, 7].

Does this apply to you?

Only if you import goods through the international postal network. Packages that come by other modes, such as express carriers, fall under a separate CBP rule [3]. Within mail, the date matters for the three kinds of goods listed above.

Say you run a hypothetical two-person bike repair shop that orders $400 of replacement parts from an overseas supplier, shipped by post. Suppose the parts carry Section 232 duties. Through Jan. 19, the package can still come in through the current postal informal process [1, 3]. From Jan. 20, someone has to file formal entry or an Entry Type 13 in ACE [1, 2]. For an Entry Type 13, the filer must be the owner or purchaser of the goods, which here is the shop, or a licensed customs broker it appoints [2].

Now a hypothetical online yarn shop that buys $150 batches of yarn from a supplier abroad, mailed in. Suppose the yarn carries no extra tariffs, no other agency rules and no trade agreement claim. The Jan. 20 date doesn’t touch it [1]. But the de minimis exemption is still gone, so duty is owed [3]. Under the current postal process, whoever files (the shop as purchaser, or a broker) needs a customs bond and sends CBP a spreadsheet of each package’s details, with payment through Pay.gov, by the 7th of the month after it arrives [3]. A package that lands April 15 is due May 7 [3].

If you aren’t sure whether your supplier or a broker has been handling this, ask. The answer decides who has to be ready by Jan. 20.

What the October proposal would add

Here’s the short version: the delay is temporary, and a bigger change is in the works. On Oct. 8, CBP proposed a “Low-Value Shipments” rule that would make Entry Type 13 the required filing for low-value mail up to that same $2,500 line, move filing to before the package arrives, and require a bond for every Entry Type 11 and Entry Type 13 filer [4]. Entry Type 11 is the informal entry used for shipments that don’t come by mail [4]. BDO reads the proposal as reaching nearly all international mail packages, other than letters and flats [7].

The agency’s own small-business analysis is worth reading, because it doesn’t play down the cost. CBP estimates brokers would start charging an extra $30 to file a postal entry, which across 28,860,463 projected postal entries in 2027 comes to $865.8 million [4]. “CBP expects that the small U.S. businesses that have filed IMD worksheets would face a significant economic impact under the rule,” the proposal says, referring to the monthly spreadsheet filers; six of the nine it could look up qualified as small [4].

The bond requirement could sting infrequent importers most. CBP counted 59,148 importers of record who brought in unbonded Entry Type 11 shipments and would likely pick a single transaction bond. For them, bond costs would have equaled 72.66% of the duties, taxes and fees on those entries, and CBP says that group is “likely to include many small businesses” [4]. CBP said it can’t certify that the proposal won’t have a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses [4].

That’s a change in tone from June. For the interim rule, CBP said it didn’t prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis, the small-business review, because it skipped the proposal stage [3].

What to do before Jan. 20

Start with an inventory. List what came in by mail since June, and mark anything a supplier or broker has told you carries Section 232, 301 or 201 duties or falls under another agency’s import rules [1, 2]. Then confirm who’s filing. BDO suggests importers settle filing responsibilities with their brokers and carriers, check classification and valuation data, and test systems [7]. If your supplies are plain goods with no extra tariffs, your near-term job is simpler: make sure the duty is being paid by whoever files [3].

If you’re also an importer by other routes, the supplier paperwork questions Customs raised in September are still open, with their own comment date.

What I’m keeping an eye on

Comments on the low-value shipments proposal, due Dec. 7, 2026, under docket USCBP-2026-0298 [4]. If the bond or pre-arrival filing rules would change how you buy, CBP is asking for data on exactly that [4].

When CBP ends the PGA leeway in the Entry Type 13 test. The agency says it will say so in a future notice [2].

— Sally