So tariffs are hitting the USA.
De minimis is ending...
Here is what we know...
"De minimis" is a customs threshold that lets goods below a certain value enter a country without duties, taxes, or full customs formalities. For the USA and Australia, that threshold has been $800 since 2016. With all of our items falling under that threshold very easily.
But.... The current administration of the USA has ended the De Minimis for any imports internationally.
From August 29th 2025 the import tax / tariff to be paid for shipping an item from Australia to the USA is 10% of the item/s value.
So what does that mean for our USA customers?
At the moment we haven't been given a whole heap of info from Australia Post either, other than "things are changing August 29th".
Australia Post are trying to work out with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on how things need to work.
So far, we have been told - "CBP has indicated that the duties and taxes will be collected on goods prior to entering the USA. CBP has not yet advised the preferred method for duty and tax collection or how this should be conducted. Australia Post is investigating paying duties and taxes through an approved third-party platform provider on behalf of their merchants (Me, Darque Path). These duties and taxes, including a handling fee, would be charged to our merchant senders (That's me, Darque Path)."
So the break down...
- CBP want Australia Post to ensure import tariffs / taxes are paid when I purchase the shipping label from Australia Post. But Australia Post don't know how that's going to look yet because CBP haven't told them how to do this.
- For existing orders placed before the change; prior to 26th August 2025 - We will absorb the cost. Particularly because we know our shipping/turn around time means an order placed before the change comes into effect would likely still be affected by it when shipping time comes.
- For orders placed after August 26th 2025 - Over the next few days we will be looking at how much of the tariff cost we can absorb and/or if we need to slightly increase the cost of postage to the USA specifically, to cover the 10% tax / tariff that we would be paying in advance for you, under the CBP regulations which the USA administration has in place for Australia.
The frustrating truth;
Real Talk…
Money wise what does it look like...
A $50 item becomes a $55 item
(50 for the item and 5 for the tax/tariff).
A $75 item becomes a $82.5 item
(75 for the item and 7.5 for the tax/tariff).
As much as I would love for Darque Path to take the whole cost of the tax / tariff, we just viably can't. We are a small, handmade business, running on 2 people with 1 helper for a day and a half each week. We keep our prices as low as possible, (lower than most around the world) because we want our 'sculptures' to be as affordable as possible. This is a choice we made to be better for our customers - make it affordable, make it safe and make it beautiful.
Due to that our profit margin is quite low. The small amount of profit we do get needs to pay for more silicone, more pigments, electricity to run the vacuum pump, to keep a roof over our heads so we have somewhere to make orders, our website etc; you get the drift. All of those small things that just add up.
I have to admit this scares us. I can only imagine how scary it looks for you all in the USA right now facing higher costs.
We will do what we can to carry as much of the tariff cost as we can, but I don't know exactly what that looks like at the moment.
As soon as I know something, or have to make any changes to future orders I will let you all know.
Manda xx