Four published sources, four different values for the same customs fee. Here is how to build a landed cost anyway.

Key takeaways

• Duty is one line. Underneath it sit the Merchandise Processing Fee, the Harbor Maintenance Fee on ocean cargo, a bond, a broker fee and, for ocean, an ISF filing.
• MPF on formal entries is consistently reported at 0.3464% of customs value, with a floor and a cap. The cap is quoted as $651.50 by one source and $634.62 by another.
• MPF on informal entries is reported at $1.16, $2.49, $2.69 and $2.72 across four sources published within months of each other. All four cannot be current.
• HMF is 0.125% of customs value, ocean only, with no minimum and no maximum. Air, truck and rail do not pay it.
• User fees are calculated on customs value in parallel with duty — they are not a percentage of the duty. Building them as a multiplier of the duty rate overstates them on high-tariff goods and understates them on low-tariff goods.

Most landed cost models stop at duty. That is understandable — duty is the biggest single line and the one everybody talks about. It is also the one line your supplier and your forwarder will both quote you without being asked. The rest arrives on the entry summary, after the goods have shipped.

01The stack, in the order it appears

Line	Basis	Applies to
Duty	Percentage of customs value, set by HTS code and origin	All dutiable goods
Trade-remedy duties (Section 301, Section 232)	Percentage on top of base duty	Specific origins and product groups
Merchandise Processing Fee	0.3464% of customs value on formal entries, floor and cap; flat fee on informal	Nearly every entry
Harbor Maintenance Fee	0.125% of customs value, no floor, no cap	Ocean cargo only
Customs bond	Single-entry, or continuous sized against annual duty	Formal entries; possibly informal
Broker fee	Per entry	Every entry filed by a broker
ISF filing	Per shipment	Ocean shipments

The base matters more than the rate. MPF and HMF are calculated on the entered value of the merchandise — the same base as duty — in parallel with duty, not on top of it. One analysis is explicit that they are not multiplied by the duty rate. A model that treats user fees as a percentage of duty will be wrong in both directions depending on the tariff rate, and the error is largest exactly where the stakes are highest.

02The figures the sources disagree on

This is where a landed cost model quietly goes wrong, and it is worth showing rather than smoothing over.

Figure	Published values found	Sources
MPF, formal, rate	0.3464%	Consistent across all four
MPF, formal, maximum per entry	$651.50 / $634.62	Two 2026 sources
MPF, formal, minimum per entry	$33.58 / $32.71	Two 2026 sources
MPF, informal	$2.69 / $2.72 / $2.49 (manual) / $1.16 (electronic)	Four 2026 sources
Informal, manual variants	$8.06 / $12.09	Two 2026 sources

The rate itself is agreed. Everything bounded by a dollar figure is not.

Some of this is explicable: the fees are inflation-adjusted annually, one adjustment took effect on 1 October 2025, and articles written on either side of that date will differ. Some of it is not explicable — the informal figures split four ways, and at least one source dates the de minimis suspension to February 2026, which does not match the sequence CBP actually published.

The working position: use 0.3464% with a cap, verify the current floor, cap and informal figures against CBP’s own fee schedule or your broker’s entry summary, and treat every blog rate card — including the table above — as a prompt to check rather than a number to model.

03Where the cap changes behaviour

The MPF maximum is one of the few fees where the ceiling matters operationally. At roughly 0.3464%, the cap is reached somewhere around $183,000 of customs value on one source’s arithmetic. Above that point, additional value carries no additional MPF.

That has a real consequence for consolidation. Two shipments of $150,000 each pay MPF twice, uncapped. One shipment of $300,000 pays it once, capped. The saving is not enormous in absolute terms, but it is free, and it points the same direction as the broker-fee and bond arithmetic in our entry types guide.

Below the cap, at the volumes most sellers on this site operate at, the driver is not the cap. It is the per-entry charges: the flat informal MPF, the broker’s fee, the ISF filing. Those are per-shipment, which means the fewer shipments you file for the same goods, the less you pay.

04Building the model

Work in this order, because each step needs the one before it.

1. Customs value. The entered value of the goods. Not what you sold them for, and normally not including freight, insurance or duty.
2. Classification. The HTS code sets the duty rate — see the classification guide. Get this wrong and everything below it is wrong.
3. Origin. Determines trade-remedy duties. A product’s country of origin is where it was substantially transformed, which is not always where it shipped from.
4. Duty. Base rate, plus any Section 301 or Section 232 layer.
5. User fees. MPF on customs value. HMF on customs value if it came by sea.
6. Per-shipment costs. Broker fee, ISF if ocean, bond amortised across the year’s entries.
7. Divide by units. Landed cost per unit is the only number that goes into a pricing decision. Everything above it is intermediate.

Then take that per-unit figure to the margin calculator as your cost of goods, rather than the invoice price from your supplier. The gap between those two numbers is what sank a lot of businesses in the last eighteen months.

05What to do about it

Get a CBP Form 7501 for a recent shipment. It shows entered value, HTS code, duty, MPF and HMF as filed. It is the only source that describes your goods rather than an average. If you use a forwarder or 3PL and have never seen one, ask.

Amortise the annual costs. Continuous bond and any compliance software are annual, not per-shipment. Spreading them across your expected entry count gives a per-unit figure that behaves properly in a margin model.

Recheck in October. The user fees carry an annual inflation adjustment effective 1 October. One analysis notes that several rose by more than 4% at the FY2026 adjustment. Diarise it.

Distinguish quotes from entries. A forwarder’s landed-cost quote is an estimate made before classification. The entry summary is what actually happened. When they disagree, the entry summary is the fact.

Frequently asked

Are MPF and HMF percentages of the duty?

No. Both are calculated on customs value in parallel with duty. Treating them as a multiple of the duty rate produces errors in both directions depending on how high the tariff is.

Does HMF apply to air freight?

No. HMF applies to commercial imports unloaded from a vessel at a US port. Air, truck and rail do not pay it.

Which MPF figure should I use for informal entries?

Published sources give $1.16, $2.49, $2.69 and $2.72 within months of each other. Verify against the current CBP fee schedule or a recent entry summary before modelling — this guide will not pick one for you.

When does the MPF cap start to matter?

Around $183,000 of customs value on one published calculation, using the 0.3464% rate against the reported maximum. Below that the cap is irrelevant and per-entry charges dominate.

Do these fees change?

Yes, annually. The user fees carry an inflation adjustment effective 1 October each year, which is a large part of why published rate cards disagree.

Sources

1. MPF & HMF customs fees: 2026 rates, caps and who pays (0.3464%; max $634.62; min $32.71; informal $2.49 manual / $1.16 electronic; HMF 0.125%), Peacock Tariff Consulting accessed 2026-08-08
2. MPF fee guide 2026: rates and exemptions (0.3464%; min $33.58; max $651.50; informal automated $2.69; manual up to $12.09; effective 1 Oct 2025), FreightAmigo accessed 2026-08-08
3. US customs user fees explained: MPF, HMF, COBRA and APHIS rates for 2026 (fees calculated on entered value, not on the duty; FY2026 adjustments), FreightFigures accessed 2026-08-08
4. Import duty from China to USA: every tariff, rate and fee (informal MPF $2.72; ISF and broker fee ranges; continuous bond sizing), GingerControl accessed 2026-08-08