CBAM De Minimis Threshold: 0.87% Assessment and the 50-Tonne Test

On 30 September 2026 the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union published its assessment of the CBAM de minimis threshold under Article 2a(3) of Regulation (EU) 2023/956. For the twelve months from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, the assessment indicates that the 50-tonne single mass-based threshold would exempt 0.87% of the emissions embedded in imported goods, which keeps it under the 1% ceiling the Regulation sets.

The percentage is a policy check. The rule underneath it is what an import team works with. Article 2a decides, importer by importer and year by year, whether the de minimis exemption applies to the mass-based goods covered by the threshold. An importer whose cumulative net mass of CBAM iron and steel, aluminium, fertiliser and cement goods does not exceed 50 tonnes in a calendar year is exempt from the Regulation’s obligations in respect of those imports; Article 2a does not apply to imports of electricity or hydrogen. An importer that goes over, in March or in December, becomes subject to every obligation for all emissions embedded in all goods it imported that year: authorised CBAM declarant status, an annual CBAM declaration and the surrender of CBAM certificates.

The assessment also exercises the mechanism that can move the 50-tonne figure. Annex VII to the Regulation contains a recalculation formula, and Article 2a(3) requires a delegated act when the formula’s result deviates from the applicable threshold by more than 15 tonnes. The Commission’s news item reports the 1% result and says nothing about the formula’s output, so importers and their indirect customs representatives keep working with 50 tonnes and with the monitoring, authorisation and penalty rules built around it.

Related reading: CBAM Definitive Period: The 2027 Declaration Deadline for Importers

CBAM de minimis threshold dates for 2026 and 2027

Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 inserted Article 2a and Annex VII into the CBAM Regulation. The dates below come from that amending act and from the Commission’s September news item.

Article 2a(3) adds one more timing rule: an amended threshold applies from 1 January of the following calendar year. The figure an importer measures against cannot change part-way through the year it is tracking.

What the Commission’s 0.87% figure measures

Article 2a(3) gives the Commission an annual task. By 30 April each year it must assess, on the basis of import data for the preceding 12 calendar months, whether the exemption applies to no more than 1% of the emissions embedded in imported goods and processed products. The September news item reports the outcome for April 2025 to March 2026: 0.87%.

Read the denominator carefully. The figure is a share of embedded emissions, the tonnes of CO2e attributed to goods brought in by importers who sit under the threshold. It is silent on how many importers that covers. Recital 5 of Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 describes the policy design as exempting the vast majority of importers while at least 99% of embedded emissions stay inside CBAM. The news item publishes no importer count, no sector split and no recalculated Annex VII value.

Two details of the window matter for anyone comparing the result with their own data. Nine of the twelve months fall before 1 January 2026, the date Article 2a started to apply, so most of the period predates the exemption being measured. The item is also dated 30 September 2026, five months after the 30 April assessment date in Article 2a(3), and it does not say when the assessment itself was completed.

Each importer’s position still turns on its own cumulative net mass, whatever the EU-wide share turns out to be. A result of 0.87% at Union level tells a compliance team nothing about whether its own entity sits at 12 tonnes or at 49.

How Annex VII would recalculate the threshold

Point 1 of Annex VII fixes the threshold at 50 tonnes of net mass. Point 2 sets the method the Commission must use if the figure is to change. In plain terms, the Commission looks for the mass threshold at which the importers whose annual tonnage exceeds it still account for at least 99% of total emissions across the four mass-based sectors: aluminium, cement, fertilisers, and iron and steel. Each importer’s emissions are its imported tonnes per CN code multiplied by an emission intensity for that CN code, summed across its CN codes.

Three refinements sit in the annex text. A margin of 0.25 percentage points is added to the 99% target to capture uncertainty over changes in trade patterns. The result is rounded to the nearest ten tonnes. And the emission intensities are the default values published for the transitional period, without mark-up, counting direct and indirect emissions for cement and fertiliser products but only direct emissions for aluminium and for iron and steel products. Future updates use default values set under Annex IV, again without the mark-up. Our explainer on how CBAM counts indirect emissions in embedded emissions covers why that sector split matters.

The statutory test and the recalculation target are therefore different numbers. Article 2a(3) asks whether the exemption covers no more than 1% of embedded emissions. The Annex VII formula, with its margin, aims to keep 99.25% inside. The September item reports only the first, and it announces no delegated act.

Article 2a(3) makes the amendment mandatory where the recalculated threshold deviates from the applicable one by more than 15 tonnes. Article 28 governs the delegated act: the power runs for five years from 20 October 2025, and the act enters into force only if neither the European Parliament nor the Council objects within two months of notification, a period that can be extended by two months at the initiative of either. My reading is that the 15-tonne test works in both directions, since Article 2a(3) speaks of deviation without saying up or down. With rounding to the nearest ten, a recalculated value of 40 or 60 tonnes would leave 50 tonnes in place on the face of the text.

A separate route runs through Article 30(6). The review points listed for the Commission’s report under that article include the application of the single mass-based threshold, including the possibility of increasing it and of introducing a supplementary consignment-based threshold. That is a review topic for a report, with no change to the threshold attached.

Article 2a’s per-importer, per-year test

Article 2a(1) exempts an importer, including one that already holds authorised CBAM declarant status, where the net mass of its imported goods in a calendar year does not cumulatively exceed the single mass-based threshold. The threshold applies to the total net mass of goods under all CN codes, aggregated per importer and per calendar year. Recital 3 of Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 places that cumulation across the iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers and cement sectors together.

That aggregation replaced a consignment-based filter. The previous de minimis rule relied on the derogation for goods of negligible value, up to EUR 150 per consignment, referred to in Article 23 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009. Recital 2 explains why the legislator moved away from it: it appeared insufficient to make CBAM apply to importers in proportion to their impact on the emissions covered. Recital 5 adds that a single annual threshold per importer removes the risk of circumvention through artificial splitting of consignments.

Claiming the exemption happens on the customs declaration. Article 2a(1) requires the importer to declare the exemption in the relevant customs declaration. Irish Revenue’s eCustoms Helpdesk Notification 24/2025, for import declarations from 1 January 2026, lists TARIC document code Y137 as the de minimis exemption code for occasional small imports of up to 50 tonnes net mass per importer and year, alongside Y128 for an importer with a CBAM authorisation and account number and Y238 where an importer has applied for authorisation but has not yet been assigned one.

The person whose tonnage counts is the importer as amended Article 3(15) defines it: the person lodging the customs declaration for release for free circulation in its own name and on its own behalf or, where an indirect customs representative lodges it under Article 18 of the Union Customs Code, the person on whose behalf it is lodged. The definition also covers a bill of discharge lodged under the simplified procedure. Recital 7 confirms that an importer’s imports count whether it declares them itself or through an indirect customs representative.

Article 2a measures each importer separately and contains no rule that adds together the imports of affiliated companies. On my reading, each group entity that imports in its own name runs its own 50-tonne count. The backstop is the anti-avoidance clause in Article 25a(4), covered below.

Treating the 50 tonnes as an allowance per sector or per product line understates the count. Steel, aluminium, fertiliser and cement tonnages are added together before the comparison is made. Which goods enter that sum depends on Annex I; our explainer on the proposed CBAM scope extension to downstream goods follows the file that would widen the list, and how any added goods would interact with the 50-tonne count depends on the text finally adopted.

Crossing 50 tonnes mid-year: every tonne comes into scope

Article 2a(2) is the clause that turns the threshold into a cliff edge. Once an importer exceeds 50 tonnes within a calendar year, it is subject to all obligations under the Regulation in respect of all emissions embedded in all goods imported in that year. The first 50 tonnes are included. Article 6(2)(a) says the same thing from the declaration side: the annual CBAM declaration reports the total quantity of each type of goods imported during the preceding year, including the imported goods below the single mass-based threshold.

For 2026 imports, the price follows the quarter of import. Article 21(1a) prices the certificates corresponding to 2026 embedded emissions at the quarterly average of EU ETS allowance closing prices for the quarter in which the goods were imported. An importer that crosses the line in the fourth quarter therefore carries emissions from the earlier quarters at those quarters’ prices. The certificate count is still reduced for the carbon price paid in a third country in accordance with Article 9 and adjusted for free allocation under Article 31, as Article 6(2)(c) sets out.

From 2027 a quarterly holding rule applies on top. Article 22(2) requires an authorised declarant to hold certificates at the end of each quarter covering at least 50% of the embedded emissions in all goods imported since the start of the calendar year, measured either with default values without the mark-up or by reference to the previous year’s surrendered certificates for the same goods by CN code and country of origin, in both cases taking free allocation into account. Article 22(2a) gives a declarant that crosses the threshold until the end of the quarter following the crossing to meet that requirement.

Once the threshold is crossed, embedded emissions for the whole year can be determined from actual emissions, verified by an accredited verifier under Article 8, or by reference to default values under Article 7(2). Our note on CBAM verification and the accredited verifier register covers the verification side of that choice.

Customs enforce the crossing as well. Article 25(1) bars customs authorities from allowing the importation of goods by anyone other than an authorised CBAM declarant, without prejudice to Article 2a. Recital 9 spells out the consequence: where customs become aware that an importer has exceeded the threshold, they should not allow further importation by that importer until the end of the calendar year, or until it obtains authorised status.

When the authorisation application has to be in

Article 5(1) requires an importer established in a Member State to apply for authorised CBAM declarant status before importing goods into the customs territory of the Union. Article 5(1b) adapts this for the de minimis regime: where Article 2a applies, the importer submits the application where it expects to exceed the threshold. Recital 10 sets the timing expectation. The status should be obtained before the threshold is exceeded, and an importer not authorised by then is exposed to penalties.

For 2026, Article 17(7a) built a bridge. An importer or indirect customs representative that applied by 31 March 2026 may provisionally continue importing until the competent authority decides. If the application is refused, the competent authority has one month from its decision to establish the emissions embedded in goods imported between 1 January 2026 and the decision date, using customs information and default values, and those emissions feed the Article 26(2a) penalty. On the text, the bridge covers applications submitted by 31 March 2026 and no later ones, so an importer applying now needs the grant in hand before its cumulative tonnage passes 50.

The application asks for a forecast. Article 5(5)(g) requires the estimated quantity of imports by type of goods, with the Member States of import, for the calendar year of application and the following year, and point (ga) asks for the authorised economic operator certificate number where the applicant holds AEO status. Where the applicant was not established throughout the two financial years preceding the year of application, Article 17(5) requires a guarantee sized at the value of the certificates that would be surrendered for the forecast imports, after the free allocation adjustment. Article 17(7) releases it immediately after 30 September of the second year in which the declarant has surrendered certificates.

The text limits the cost of applying early. Article 2a(1) keeps an authorised declarant exempt in any year it stays within 50 tonnes, and Article 23(2) provides that where a declarant has been buying certificates on the expectation of exceeding the threshold and does not exceed it, all of those certificates are repurchased on request.

Indirect customs representatives carry their own trigger

Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 rewrote Article 5 so that an indirect customs representative’s status does not depend on the exemption. Article 5(1a) requires an indirect customs representative to obtain authorised status before importing goods, and it acts as authorised declarant where an importer appoints it and it agrees, whether or not the importer is exempt under Article 2a. Where the importer is not established in a Member State, Article 5(2) requires the indirect customs representative to hold the status, again irrespective of the exemption. Where the representative acts as authorised CBAM declarant on behalf of an importer, Article 5(2a) gives it the importer’s obligations for the goods it imports on that importer’s behalf.

The threshold itself stays with the importer. Recital 7 states that an importer’s imports count irrespective of whether the importer or an indirect customs representative declared them. Where a represented importer exceeds the threshold, each representative acting as authorised declarant submits a CBAM declaration for the goods it imported for that importer, including goods below the threshold, and surrenders the matching certificates. An importer that spreads its clearances across two representatives can therefore cross 50 tonnes without either representative seeing the crossing in its own records.

Article 25a(3) closes part of that gap after the event. When a competent authority decides that a represented importer has exceeded the threshold, it must inform the indirect customs representatives appointed under Article 5(1a) or 5(2). Because the threshold aggregates the importer’s goods across its customs declarations and representatives, the importer should maintain a consolidated running total rather than relying on any one representative’s records.

Monitoring, the 90% list and artificial splitting

Article 25(2) requires customs authorities to send the Commission, periodically and automatically, information on goods declared for importation, including the EORI number or other declared form of identification of the importer or authorised declarant, the CBAM account number of the authorised declarant, the eight-digit CN code, the quantity, the country of origin, the date of the customs declaration and the customs procedure. Where the importer has no EORI number, the customs authorities also communicate its name, address and, where available, contact information. Article 25a(1) gives the Commission the task of monitoring compliance with the single mass-based threshold, and competent authorities in the importer’s Member State may do the same. For the customs-data side of import compliance more broadly, see our explainer on the EU customs reform and the data hub timeline.

The same paragraph tells the Commission to exchange with competent authorities, via the CBAM registry, the information needed to monitor importers, including a list of importers that exceed 90% of the threshold. That list is an exchange between authorities. Article 25a contains no step that warns the importer at 90%, so an importer that wants advance notice has to build it from its own declarations.

Where the Commission considers, on the basis of a preliminary assessment and customs data, that an importer has exceeded the threshold, Article 25a(2) has it pass that information and its reasoning to the competent authority of the importer’s Member State. The competent authority may ask the importer or the Commission for documentary evidence and, if that is insufficient, may request more from the customs authorities. Where the competent authority concludes that an importer that is not an authorised CBAM declarant has exceeded the threshold, Article 25a(3) requires it to adopt a decision without undue delay. The decision must state its reasons, give information on the right of appeal and tell the importer which obligations apply, including, where applicable, the obligation to obtain authorised status before importing any further goods.

Article 25a(4) is the anti-avoidance clause. In deciding whether the threshold was exceeded, the competent authority disregards a practice, arrangement or series of them put in place for the main purpose, or one of the main purposes, of falling below the threshold, where it is non-genuine, meaning it cannot be regarded as put in place for valid commercial reasons related to the importer’s economic activity. An importer found to have used one is treated as having committed a serious infringement for the purposes of Article 17(2), point (a), and Article 26(2a). Article 27(2)(b) separately lists artificially splitting imports, including via non-genuine arrangements, to avoid exceeding the threshold as a form of circumvention, and Article 25a(5) requires the Commission to identify threshold risk factors at least once per calendar year and pass them to competent authorities and, where relevant, customs.

Penalties for crossing without authorisation

Article 26(1) sets the baseline for an authorised declarant that fails to surrender enough certificates by 30 September: a penalty for each certificate not surrendered, identical to the EU ETS excess emissions penalty in Article 16(3) of Directive 2003/87/EC, as increased under Article 16(4) of that Directive, applicable in the year of importation.

Article 26(2a) extends the Article 26(2) penalty to importers other than authorised declarants that exceed the threshold. The entirety of the emissions embedded in the goods that importer imported in the calendar year is taken into account, and Article 26(4a) requires the competent authority to compute the number of certificates that should have been surrendered from the net mass of the goods and default values, taking the free allocation adjustment into account. Paying that penalty releases the importer from the obligation to submit a CBAM declaration and surrender certificates for those imports.

That release is specific to the unauthorised importer. For an authorised declarant penalised under Article 26(1) or 26(1a), Article 26(3) keeps the obligation to surrender the outstanding certificates in place after payment.

The competent authority may reduce the Article 26(2a) penalty where the importer exceeded the threshold by no more than 10% of it, which on a 50-tonne threshold means up to 55 tonnes, or in the Article 17(7a) refusal cases. A reduced penalty must remain effective, proportionate and dissuasive and cannot be lower than the Article 26(1) penalty. The reduction is discretionary, and an overshoot inside that 10% band still counts as exceeding the threshold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an importer with exactly 50 tonnes of CBAM goods in a year exempt?

Yes, on the wording. Article 2a(1) exempts an importer where net mass “does not cumulatively exceed” the threshold, and Article 2a(2) attaches the obligations to exceeding it. A year that closes at exactly 50 tonnes sits inside the exemption; anything above it does not.

We hold authorised declarant status but stayed under 50 tonnes in 2026. Do we file a declaration, and what happens to certificates we bought?

Article 2a(1) extends the exemption expressly to importers that hold authorised status, so the Regulation’s obligations do not attach for a year in which the threshold was not exceeded. Certificates bought on the expectation of crossing are repurchased on request under Article 23(2). For 2026 there is a timing wrinkle: Article 23(2a) allows certificates purchased in 2027 for 2026 emissions to be repurchased only in 2027, and Article 23(1) sets the repurchase request deadline at 31 October.

Does moving imports to a newly created group company mid-year restart the count?

The new company is a separate importer with its own count under Article 2a(1). Where the move has the main purpose, or one of the main purposes, of staying below the threshold and lacks valid commercial reasons, Article 25a(4) lets the competent authority disregard it, and Article 27(2)(b) treats artificial splitting of imports as circumvention.

We import hydrogen and a few tonnes of cement. How does the threshold work for a mixed position?

The Regulation does not spell out the mixed case. Article 2a(4) removes imports of electricity and hydrogen from the Article altogether, and the Annex VII methodology counts only the four mass-based sectors, so my working reading is that hydrogen tonnage does not count toward the 50 tonnes while the hydrogen import itself remains fully in scope. A mixed position of this kind is worth confirming with the competent authority before relying on the exemption for the cement.

Does an appeal against a decision that we exceeded the threshold pause its effect?

No. Article 25a(3) provides that an appeal against a decision determining that the importer has exceeded the single mass-based threshold does not have suspensive effect. The obligations notified in the decision, including, where applicable, obtaining authorised status before importing further goods, apply while the appeal runs.

Our indirect customs representative has not agreed to act as authorised declarant. Who carries the obligation?

For an importer established in a Member State, Article 5(1) requires the importer to apply for authorised status itself, and where Article 2a applies, Article 5(1b) ties that application to an expectation of exceeding the 50-tonne threshold. Recital 8 of Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 states that the indirect customs representative should not be subject to penalties where it acts for an importer established in a Member State and has not agreed to act as authorised declarant. For an importer established outside the Union, Article 5(2) places the status requirement on the indirect customs representative regardless.

Related Articles

• CBAM Definitive Period: The 2027 Declaration Deadline for Importers: the Commission’s August 2026 guidance on declarant authorisation, emissions methodology and the free allocation adjustment.
• CBAM Verification: Accredited Verifiers Register From September 2026: how accreditation and verifier registration feed the first CBAM declaration in 2027.
• CBAM Indirect Emissions: What the DG TAXUD Study Means for Importers: which goods carry indirect emissions in the embedded emissions calculation today.
• CBAM Scope Extension: What the June 2026 Council Agreement Means for Declarants: the Council’s position on downstream goods and anti-circumvention.
• EU Customs Reform: The Data Hub Timeline for Importers and Traders: the phased timeline for the EU Customs Data Hub and what it changes for import reporting.

Key Takeaways

• Run the count on net mass, per importer and per calendar year, adding iron and steel, aluminium, fertiliser and cement goods across every CN code; electricity and hydrogen sit outside it.
• Set an internal alert well below 50 tonnes: the Regulation’s 90% list goes to competent authorities, and nothing in Article 25a sends it to the importer.
• Where the forecast for the year points above 50 tonnes, Article 5(1b) calls for the authorisation application; the Article 17(7a) provisional-import bridge is closed to new applicants.
• Collect tonnage per importer from every indirect customs representative, because the threshold aggregates across all of them.
• Use Y137 only while the importer does not expect to exceed the 50-tonne threshold. Where an importer already holds authorised CBAM declarant status and becomes aware that it will exceed the threshold during the year, the Commission’s current Q&A says Y128 should be used from that point, together with the CBAM account number.
• An unauthorised crossing is penalised on the whole year’s embedded emissions, computed from net mass and default values.
• Watch the Official Journal for a delegated act amending Annex VII; any new figure would apply from 1 January of the following calendar year.

Sources and References

• European Commission, Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, “CBAM De Minimis Threshold Assessment” (30 September 2026): taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
• Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 October 2025 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/956 as regards simplifying and strengthening the carbon border adjustment mechanism (OJ L, 2025/2083, 17.10.2025): eur-lex.europa.eu
• Regulation (EU) 2023/956 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism: eur-lex.europa.eu; consolidated version of 20 October 2025: data.europa.eu
• European Commission, CBAM legislation and guidance: taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
• European Commission, CBAM definitive regime: taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
• European Commission, Taxation and Customs Union, “CBAM Questions and Answers”: taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
• Revenue (Irish Tax and Customs), eCustoms Helpdesk Notification Ref 24/2025 on Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (11 November 2025): revenue.ie
• Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union (EU ETS Directive): eur-lex.europa.eu
• Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 laying down the Union Customs Code: eur-lex.europa.eu
• Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty: eur-lex.europa.eu

The 2026 tally to reconcile before September 2027

For 2026 imports, the remaining work is a reconciliation. Each importer of CBAM goods needs a calendar-year net-mass total across the four sectors, built from every customs declaration lodged in its name or on its behalf, and a documented answer on whether it stayed within 50 tonnes or crossed. Where an importer crossed, the authorised declarant files the first CBAM declaration and surrenders certificates by 30 September 2027, and the Commission’s next assessment under Article 2a(3) falls due by 30 April 2027.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.