Examination of the Potential Impact on the Space Gits crowd-funding campaign by the announced suspension of the De Minimis Exemption by the US

August 1, 2025

You might be tuned into the news around the announced suspension of the “De Minimis Exemption”.

In this post, I’m going to speculate in a little detail, in order to share my best guess on what the impact on US backers of the Space Gits crowd funding campaign is. If you are outside the US, this stuff doesn’t apply to you, unless you are an self-published indie designer, in which case, I’m sorry and I hope this imperfect analysis helps your own analysis.

Disclaimer: All of the below is just my inexpert and non-legal reading of the publicly available statements. It is not advice, and is likely to be incorrect, or superseded but subsequently announced changes to policy, rates or process.


I’m a US backer, how much extra will I have to pay?

I don’t know.

My best guess is that you’ll pay an additional cost of around 20% of your pledge value, and that additional cost will be announced to you via a sticker slapped on the package by the carrier, or a notification to pay the carrier before the package is released.

Are US backers getting a bad deal here?

Not really.

For context, UK and EU backers already pay around 20% extra in sales tax (also known as value-added tax or VAT) and thus currently have to pay more for the rulebook and miniatures than US backers. I don’t see that extra money, it goes to the backer’s government. Trump’s tariffs essentially do the same thing: they charge YOU an extra ~20% for the things you buy, and that money goes to your government. The extra cost obviously sucks, but it’s effectively just a new US federal sales tax on imported products, paid for by the consumer (as sales tax is). I realise that’s not much of a consolation, but it might be a useful way to think about it.

How did you reach your “best guess”?

My books and miniatures are manufactured in the EU. The EU has just agreed a deal with the US for 15%. There is no information yet on whether or not there will be an additional handling fee, best to assume there will be, hence adding 5%.

Could you use a US-based shipping to avoid the tariffs?

No.

I have a US-based shipping option available to me, as I’m working with GamesQuest as my fulfilment partner, but I don’t believe it resolves anything, as the US is taxing goods manufactured outside of the US, so they’d attract tariffs as they were bulk-shipped to a US warehouse for onward distribution.

Do you think books will be exempt?

According to the current US duty system, books (HS 4901.99.00) and miniatures (assuming HS 9503.00.00 “reduced-scale (“scaleˮ) models and similar recreational models”) are rated 0% and so may be excluded, or they may still attract the flat rate, it’s not been made clear by the US yet to the best of my understanding.

Wait, I thought the White House announced a flat $80-200 tariff?

I don’t believe that will apply to you, if your pledge value is less than $540, and I’ll explain my reasoning. However, honestly, I don’t know for sure, and I haven’t yet found anyone else that knows for sure either.

The White House announcement for the suspension of the De Minimis Exemption contains the following text:

  • For goods shipped through the international postal system, packages will instead be assessed duties according to one of the following methodologies:
    • Ad valorem duty: A duty equal to the effective tariff rate imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that is applicable to the country of origin of the product. This duty shall be assessed on the value of each package.
    • Specific duty: A duty ranging from $80 per item to $200 per item, depending on the effective IEEPA tariff rate applicable to the country of origin of the product. The specific duty methodology will be available for six months, after which all applicable shipments must comply with the ad valorem duty methodology.  

As a game designer, the lack of consistency and specificity in this text bothers me. Under what circumstances will either method be selected? Will the “Specific Duty” method be exclusively selected for the first 6 months, then the “Ad valorem duty” method exclusively after that? The first bullet says “each package”, the second says “per item”… does that mean the second applies multiple times if a package contains multiple items?

Digging into the text of the executive order, we find the following:

~Sec~. ~3~.  ~Duty Rates for International Postal Shipments~.  (a)  Transportation carriers delivering shipments to the United States through the international postal network, or other parties if qualified in lieu of such transportation carriers, must collect and remit duties to CBP using the methodology described in either subsection (b) [Ad valorem duty] or (c) [Specific Duty] of this section. Each transportation carrier shall apply the same methodology across all covered shipments during any given period but may change its methodology no more than once per calendar month, or on another schedule determined to be appropriate by CBP, upon providing at least 24 hours’ notice to CBP.

The meaning of this clause is unclear to me, but it suggest that the decision of which method to apply is in the hands of the carrier. If it were me, I’d therefore create a policy that said “charge Ad valorem duty, unless Specific Duty would be cheaper”.

The executive order is clearer about the way the duty applies:

(b)  A duty equal to the effective IEEPA tariff rate applicable to the country of origin of the product shall be assessed on the value of each dutiable postal item (package) containing goods entered for consumption.

So the Ad valorem duty applies to the value of the whole package. Makes sense.

(c)  A specific duty shall be assessed on each package containing goods entered for consumption, based on the effective IEEPA tariff rate applicable to the country of origin of the product as follows:

Here, the “Specific duty” applies to the whole package once, meaning that you can effectively say “charge Ad valorem duty on the whole package, unless Specific Duty for the whole package would be cheaper”. Makes sense, as it provides a cap.

As my goods are manufactured in the EU, and the EU currently has a deal for a tariff rate of 15%, clause 3(c)(i) applies:

(i) Countries with an effective IEEPA tariff rate of less than 16 percent:  $80 per item;

So its essentially: 15% of the valuable of the package, or $80, whichever is less. A package worth $540 would attract a duty of $81, so that’s the upper end of the package values that would use Ad valorem duty. Every package worth less than $540 would pay the percentage rate, every package worth more than $540 that would use the flat rate.

Disclaimer: All of the above is just my inexpert and non-legal reading of the publicly available statements. It is not advice, and is likely to be incorrect, or superseded but subsequently announced changes to policy, rates or process.

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