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Splitting a genuine order into separate parcels is fine as long as every parcel is declared truthfully. Deliberately breaking one shipment into pieces to slip under a duty threshold is different: customs agencies treat that as structuring, a form of duty evasion, and they can aggregate the parcels and penalize you. Since the US suspended its de minimis duty-free rule in 2025, splitting saves nothing on US-bound parcels anyway.
This is general information, not legal advice.
| Legitimate | Not legitimate |
|---|---|
| Shipping two separate orders on different days because that is when they were placed. | Taking one commercial shipment and dividing it across parcels to keep each under a duty threshold. |
| Sending part of an order early because one item was in stock and the rest was back-ordered. | Declaring each parcel at an artificially low value to dodge duties. |
| Using different carriers for different items for genuine logistical reasons. | Labeling commercial goods as gifts to exploit a gift exemption. |
| Each parcel carries its own accurate commercial invoice. | One invoice split across parcels so none shows the true total. |
Customs agencies see patterns, not just parcels. The same sender shipping to the same recipient at the same address, day after day, in small parcels, is a visible pattern in their data. Manifests, commercial invoices, and payment records can be matched across shipments, and officers are trained to ask why one order arrived in six boxes. When they decide parcels are really one shipment, they aggregate the values and assess duties on the total, plus penalties for the evasion attempt. The savings you chased become the most expensive part of the shipment.
At minimum, the goods can be seized until the correct duties and fines are paid. Fines typically exceed the duty you tried to avoid, often by multiples. Repeat or large-scale structuring can draw criminal investigation, and importers caught once get flagged for closer inspection on every future shipment. The risk compounds: one penalty makes all your later imports slower and more scrutinized.
Declare honestly and plan around the real rules. If duties make small frequent shipments uneconomical, consolidate into fewer, larger shipments; the per-unit cost of one proper customs entry usually beats several shady ones. For business sellers, delivering duty-paid (collecting the duty at checkout so the buyer never faces a surprise bill) removes the incentive to game thresholds in the first place. And remember the US-specific reality: with de minimis suspended since August 2025, there is no low-value duty-free lane left to aim for on US-bound parcels.
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