Customs duty versus brokerage fee
Short answer
Duty and federal processing fees go to the U.S. government. Brokerage, disbursement, and advancement fees go to your carrier. They appear on the same invoice and are frequently confused, but only one of them is set by law.
Government charges are the duty on your goods plus the Merchandise Processing Fee, and the Harbor Maintenance Fee where the shipment arrived by vessel. For fiscal year 2026, MPF on a formal entry is 0.3464% of the entered value with a minimum of $33.58 and a maximum of $651.50, and a $4.03 surcharge if the entry is filed manually. Informal entries — generally shipments under $2,500 — are not charged by percentage at all; they carry a fixed fee of $2.69, $8.06, or $12.09 depending on how the entry was processed. Applying the formal minimum to an ordinary low-value parcel is a common and expensive error.
Carrier charges are separate and set by each carrier's published schedule. A courier that advances duty to CBP on your behalf typically charges either a flat fee or a percentage of the amount advanced, subject to a minimum. Those figures are published and checkable.
Common questions
Sources
- FR
- 90 FR 34665
- effective
- 2025-10-01
- retrieved
- 2026-08-09
FY2026 MPF: formal 0.3464% ad valorem, min $33.58, max $651.50, $4.03 manual filing surcharge. Informal fixed fees $2.69 / $8.06 / $12.09. MPF value base excludes duty, freight, and insurance.