Duty-free commercial samples still exist. The clearance shortcut that used to carry them into the United States does not. Since 29 August 2025 a $60 sample has to be entered like any other commercial shipment, and most suppliers learned that from a broker's email rather than from a rule change.
That single change rewrote how samples should be shipped, because "small and cheap" stopped being a customs strategy. Below are the four routes a sample can actually take, what each one demands from your paperwork, and a matrix that tells you which route you are in before the box leaves the factory.
What duty-free commercial samples actually means at customs
A commercial sample is an article shipped only to solicit orders for goods of the type it represents — not to be sold, not to be used, and in most customs regimes deliberately marked or damaged so that it cannot be.
That last clause is the one suppliers skip. Duty-free treatment does not follow from low value alone. In the two markets that matter most to exporters, it follows from the article being made useless for anything except showing.
| Question | United States | European Union |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | HTSUS 9811.00.60 | Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, Article 86 |
| Qualifying test | 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" | Samples "of negligible value" that "can be used only to solicit orders for goods of the type they represent" |
| Duty rate | Free | Free of import duties |
| Treatment of the article | Required unless the sample is worth $1 or less | Authorities may require the article to be rendered permanently unusable — torn, perforated, or clearly and indelibly marked |
| Use after arrival | Only for soliciting orders for products of foreign countries | May not be sold or transferred |
| Declaration | Formal or informal entry required | A customs declaration must always be submitted, even when the goods are free of charge |
Here is the sentence worth remembering: a commercial sample is not a small shipment, it is a shipment that has been deliberately made worthless for anything except showing.
Get that straight and most sample arguments resolve themselves. A buyer who says "just mark it a sample, value one dollar" is asking for a false declaration. A buyer who says "cut a corner off the fabric and stamp it SAMPLE" is asking for exactly what the rule contemplates.
The de minimis door closed. The duty-free line did not
Two different things get confused, and confusing them is what strands boxes.
Executive Order 14324 of 30 July 2025 suspended the administrative exemption at 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C) for goods of all countries as of 12:01 a.m. on 29 August 2025. CBP's guidance to filers, CSMS #66065494, is blunt about the mechanics: ACE rejects all Section 321 manifest filings, ACE rejects entry type 86 cargo release transactions, and filers must instead submit a formal or informal entry with all applicable duties, taxes and fees paid. On 24 June 2026 CBP wrote the suspension into its regulations indefinitely — every shipment valued $800 or less arriving by any mode other than the international postal network must now use formal or informal entry procedures.
Read that closely, because it does not say duty-free commercial samples became dutiable. HTSUS 9811.00.60 still reads "Free". What ended was the clearance path, not the tariff treatment. The cost of a sample moved out of the duty column and into the brokerage-and-data column, which is the column suppliers do not budget for and cannot fix once the box is in the air.
Scenario A: the buyer will never resell it
This is the ordinary case — a swatch, a cut section, a single hinge, a tile with a corner broken off. The route is HTSUS 9811.00.60 and the price of admission is that the article must be visibly unsuitable for sale.
What that means in the factory: cut, drill, punch or indelibly stamp the article before it is packed, and do it somewhere a customs officer will see without unpacking the whole carton. Marking the outer box is not the same as treating the article. If your product is a fabric, cut it into a size no one could sew with. If it is hardware, drill it. If it is a finished consumer item that mutilation would ruin, you are not in Scenario A — you are in Scenario B.
The commercial invoice carries the claim. Brokers routinely want the words on the document itself rather than buried in an email — the subheading, the fact that the goods are samples for soliciting orders, and a real value. That last point is not a formality: the tariff's $1 threshold is an alternative test, not a value you are allowed to invent for a $180 sample you mutilated. You claim the treatment, or you claim the dollar value. Not both.
Duty-free commercial samples on this route still cost you the entry and the classification work behind it, so the description you supply is doing real work. Give the broker the model number, the material and the actual dimensions rather than "furniture parts", and use the same numbers that appear on your export spec sheet and on the carton. A sample whose invoice says one thing and whose export carton shipping marks say another is the fastest way to earn a document review.
Scenario B: the buyer has to test it, so it cannot be mutilated
A buyer's QC lab needs a whole chair to load-test. A hardware buyer needs a lock cylinder that actually turns. You cannot drill it and you cannot cut it, so the second half of 9811.00.60 is unavailable and the $1 test is absurd. Two honest routes remain.
Pay the duty on a normal entry. Declare the real transaction value — if the sample is free, declare the value it would have if sold — and let it clear as ordinary merchandise. For most sample-sized shipments the duty is small next to the freight, and you have bought certainty.
Or use temporary importation under bond, if the article is genuinely coming back. The tariff schedule has a line for exactly this: HTSUS 9813.00.20, "Samples solely for use in taking orders for merchandise", admitted "Free, under bond, as prescribed in U.S. note 1 to this subchapter". The bond exists because the article is expected to leave again, which makes this a fit for a showroom set or a demonstration unit and a poor fit for a sample the buyer intends to keep and destroy in testing.
The choice between the two is commercial, not legal. If the sample is a sales cost you already wrote off, pay the duty. If it is a $4,000 machine going out for a two-week trial, bond it. Suppliers go wrong by treating an expensive test unit as a giveaway, then arguing with a customs officer about an invented value.
Scenario C: the sample is going into the EU
Article 86 of Regulation 1186/2009 admits samples of negligible value free of import duties, and lets national authorities require the article to be rendered permanently unusable first. Three practical differences from the US route.
A declaration is always required. Finnish Customs states it plainly: a customs declaration must always be submitted for samples, even if the company did not pay for the products and even if the goods are of negligible value. "Free of charge" never means "no paperwork".
The relief carries a restriction that outlives clearance. Goods declared under Article 86 may not be sold or transferred. If your buyer plans to showroom the sample and sell it at the end of the season, Article 86 was the wrong declaration.
Quantity is part of the test — the relief covers the quantity needed for seeking orders. Ten pieces of one SKU is a small order, and it will be treated as one.
Trade fair goods sit elsewhere in the same regulation: small samples made outside the EU and intended to advertise goods at an exhibition fall under Articles 90 to 94, with their own conditions on value and quantity relative to the size of the event. And duty relief is not automatically VAT relief — the two are decided separately, so confirm the import VAT treatment with the destination authority before promising a buyer a free landed sample.
Scenario D: the sample goes to a fair and comes home
For a set of display samples that will cross several borders and return, an ATA Carnet is usually cheaper than four separate temporary entries. The International Chamber of Commerce describes it as an international customs document permitting duty-free and tax-free temporary import for up to one year, accepted in roughly 80 countries and customs territories, with no deposit left with customs during temporary admission.
It fits exhibition sets and demonstration equipment, and it does not fit anything you intend to hand to a buyer — the carnet's whole logic is that the goods leave again in the same state.
Decision matrix
| Your situation | Route | Treat the article? | What you actually pay | What breaks it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cut, swatch or part the buyer keeps (US) | HTSUS 9811.00.60 | Yes — cut, drill or stamp before packing | Entry and brokerage, no duty | Untreated article, invented $1 value |
| Working unit the buyer will test and keep (US) | Normal entry, duty paid | No | Duty plus entry | Declaring a giveaway value |
| Expensive unit going back after a trial (US) | HTSUS 9813.00.20, under bond | No | Bond plus entry | No re-export, no proof of it |
| Negligible-value sample into the EU | Reg. 1186/2009 Art. 86 | Often required by the authority | Entry, duty relieved | Selling or transferring it later |
| Exhibition set crossing several borders | ATA Carnet | No | Carnet fee and guarantee | Leaving goods behind in a market |
What actually goes on the paperwork
Nearly every sample that stalls does so on description, not on duty. The entry needs a description precise enough to classify, and the person writing it is usually a coordinator who has never seen the product.
Three fields decide the outcome. The value must be the real transaction value, or the value the goods would have if sold. The description must name material, model and size — "aluminium extrusion profile, 40 x 40 mm, 6063-T5, 300 mm length" survives review in a way that "metal sample" does not. The quantity must look like soliciting orders rather than stocking a shelf.
This is also where the sample and the sales documents have to agree. If the invoice says 300 mm and the drawing you emailed says 305 mm, you have handed a customs officer, a QC inspector and eventually a claims department the same discrepancy to point at. The fix is not a nicer photo. It is locking the real, measured dimensions onto the image the buyer looks at — measure to the true edge, label each dimension once, export the same diagram at whatever size each channel needs — so the invoice line, the carton mark, the quotation and the approval sheet all quote one number. A tool that draws a plausible arrow on a photo invents a number that reads fine and matches nothing; a diagram built from measured geometry cannot, because the number comes from the measurement.
Suppliers running a tight made-to-measure order process already have most of this. If the sample ships in its own carton, size that carton against standard carton box sizes rather than whatever is on the floor, so dimensional weight does not quietly cost more than the sample.
Pre-shipment sample checklist
- Decided which of the four routes this sample is on, before packing
- Article treated (cut, drilled, punched or indelibly stamped) if the duty-free claim depends on it
- Treatment visible without unpacking the whole carton
- Commercial invoice states the goods are samples for soliciting orders, plus the tariff subheading being claimed
- Declared value is the real transaction value, or the value if sold — never a habitual $1
- Description names material, model and measured dimensions, matching the spec sheet and the carton marks
- Quantity is defensible as a sample rather than a small order
- For the EU: confirmed the goods will not be sold or transferred after clearance
- For a returning exhibition set: carnet issued and every item listed on the general list
- Buyer told in writing who is the importer of record and who pays the entry
FAQ
Can I still ship duty-free commercial samples to the US?
Yes. HTSUS 9811.00.60 still carries a Free rate for samples valued not over $1 each, or marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treated so they are unsuitable for sale, imported only to solicit orders. What changed on 29 August 2025 is that the shipment needs a formal or informal customs entry regardless of value, so duty-free no longer means paperwork-free.
Does a sample under $800 still clear without an entry?
No. Executive Order 14324 suspended the de minimis exemption for goods of all countries from 12:01 a.m. on 29 August 2025, and CBP made the suspension indefinite in its regulations on 24 June 2026: shipments valued $800 or less arriving by any mode other than the international postal network must use formal or informal entry procedures.
Do I have to mutilate a sample to get duty-free treatment?
Only if the sample is worth more than $1 and you are claiming the US sample provision. The treatment — marked, torn, perforated or otherwise made unsuitable for sale — is the alternative to the $1 value test, not an extra step on top of it. In the EU, the authorities may require samples to be rendered permanently unusable by tearing, perforating or indelible marking.
Do free samples need a customs declaration in the EU?
Yes. Finnish Customs states that a declaration must always be submitted for samples, even when the company paid nothing for the products and even when they are of negligible value. Relief under Article 86 is claimed in that declaration, and it comes with a restriction: the goods may not be sold or transferred afterwards.
What value should I put on a sample I gave away for free?
The value the goods would have if sold, not zero and not a symbolic $1. An obviously understated value is what turns a routine sample entry into a penalty conversation.
Sources & References
- USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule — subheading 9811.00.60, samples valued not over $1 each or treated so as to be unsuitable for sale, duty Free
- USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule — subheading 9813.00.20, samples solely for use in taking orders, free under bond
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CSMS #66065494 — guidance on the suspension of duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries, effective 29 August 2025
- Federal Register, 24 June 2026 — Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal Network
- EUR-Lex — Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, Articles 86 to 94 on samples of negligible value and goods for trade fairs
- Finnish Customs — Samples of goods: declaration always required, and the sale and transfer restriction on Article 86 relief
- International Chamber of Commerce — ATA Carnet: duty-free and tax-free temporary import for up to one year in around 80 countries and customs territories