Checking Your HTS Codes for Unresolved Duty Rate Spread in the 2026 HTSUS

Find out whether the codes you import under still leave duty unsettled below the 6-digit subheading, using the free checker on this page and the published general (MFN) rates of all 13,801 rate-bearing lines in the 2026 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, Revision 19.

The short answer. US duty is not charged at the 6-digit subheading that most classification guidance stops at. It is charged at the 8- or 10-digit national line beneath it. In 1,144 of 5,641 subheadings (20.3%) those lines carry different general rates, so a correct 6-digit classification can still leave your duty unresolved. The widest gap in the current schedule that reflects a genuine classification choice is 40.5 percentage points, under footwear subheading 6404.11, where lines run from 7.5% to 48% depending on the value per pair and the material of the upper. The remaining 75.2% of subheadings carry one rate across every line, and for those the classification below the subheading cannot change what you pay.

On a code carrying a 40.5-point spread and $250,000 of annual import value, the difference between the cheapest and dearest line is $101,250 a year. The five steps below are how to find out which of your codes are in that position, and what to do about the ones that are.

Free, and no sign-up or account. Three in four codes come back settled — those are the ones you stop worrying about.

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Collect the HTS Codes You Actually Import Under

Work from what was filed, not from what anyone believes is being filed. The two differ more often than importers expect, and the liability for a filed code sits with the importer of record, not the broker.

Pull your ACE entry summary data: every HTS code on your CBP Form 7501 filings for the last twelve months, with the entered value against each. Your broker can export this, and so can you through the ACE Secure Data Portal.
Sort by entered value, descending: spread only matters in proportion to volume. A 40-point spread on $3,000 of annual imports is a curiosity; a 4-point spread on $6 million is $240,000.
Take the first six digits of each code: that is the international subheading, harmonised across all World Customs Organization members. Everything beyond it is a US national line, and that is where the rates diverge.
Keep the duplicates collapsed: twenty part numbers under one subheading is one check, not twenty.

Check Each Code's 6-Digit Subheading for Rate Spread

Enter each code in the checker above. It compares every rate-bearing line beneath that subheading and reports the range.

Read the spread, not the rate: the figure that matters is the gap between the cheapest and dearest sibling line, expressed in percentage points. A subheading whose lines run 7.5% to 48% carries a 40.5-point spread.
Convert it to money immediately: a spread of n points on V dollars of annual value is n × V ÷ 100 per year. The checker does this against the value you enter.
Treat a settled result as a finished job: 75.2% of subheadings carry one rate across every line. If yours is one of them, no amount of reclassification below the subheading changes your duty, and the code can come off your list permanently.
Add the exposed codes to your list: the running total at the top of the list is your programme's unresolved exposure, and it is the number worth walking into a broker meeting with.

Read the Fact That Puts Your Goods on One Line Rather Than Another

Sibling lines are not arbitrary. Each one is selected by a specific physical or commercial fact, and the schedule states it. The checker shows that text beside every line.

Value thresholds: footwear under 6404.11 splits at $3/pair, $6.50/pair and $12/pair. The same shoe crossing a threshold changes line and changes rate.
Material composition: "uppers of which over 50 percent of the external surface area is leather" is a measurement, not an opinion. So is "containing 23 percent or more by weight of wool".
Construction method: knitted or crocheted goods fall in Chapter 61; woven equivalents fall in Chapter 62, at different rates.
Function or intended use: several chapters split on whether an article is designed for a particular machine or sold for general purpose.
Establish the fact before you argue the code: most of these are answerable in an afternoon by someone in the warehouse with a scale, a spec sheet or a supplier email. That single fact is usually what the whole spread turns on.

Rule Out Quota Lines and Specific-Duty Lines Before You Act

Two categories produce large spread figures that are not classification questions at all. Both are flagged in the results, and both change what you should do next.

Tariff-rate quota lines: the largest spreads in the whole schedule — unmanufactured tobacco at 350 points, shelled peanuts at 131.8 — describe the same goods dutiable at one rate inside an annual quota and another outside it. That is a quota-allocation question, not a classification one.
Specific and compound duties: a rate of 87.6¢/kg or "4.4¢/kg + 8.5%" does not sit on a percentage axis. Where a subheading contains such lines the checker counts them and says so, and the percentage spread shown is a floor, not the full exposure.
Chapter 99 remedies are separate: Section 232 and Section 301 duties are added on top of the base rate. They are not a choice between sibling lines and are excluded here deliberately — folding them in would inflate every figure on this page.

Take the Range and the Deciding Fact to Your Customs Broker

This is the step that turns a number into an outcome, and the step where the legal line matters.

A spread is not a menu: you cannot choose a rate. You classify the goods correctly under the General Rules of Interpretation, and the correct classification determines the rate. Selecting a line because it is cheaper, on goods that do not answer its terms, is misclassification under 19 U.S.C. § 1592.
What is lawful is tariff engineering: changing the product itself — its materials, its value, its configuration — before import, so that it correctly classifies under a different line. The facts must change first, not the paperwork.
Bring the evidence, not the conclusion: "here are the five lines under this subheading, here is the fact that selects between them, and here is what we have measured" is a reasonable-care conversation. "Can we use the 7.5% line" is not.
Consider a binding ruling where the money justifies it: CBP will issue a binding classification ruling on request, and it is the only answer that removes the question permanently.

The Widest Duty Rate Spreads in the 2026 US Tariff Schedule

The 25 subheadings where the gap between the cheapest and dearest rate-bearing line is largest, from all 5,641 subheadings in the current schedule. Tobacco and peanut lines at the top are tariff-rate quotas rather than classification choices, as described above. Select any code to load it in the checker.

Subheading	Spread	General rate range	What it covers
`2401.10`	350.0pp	0% – 350%	Tobacco, not stemmed/stripped:
`2401.20`	350.0pp	0% – 350%	Tobacco, partly or wholly stemmed/stripped:
`2401.30`	350.0pp	0% – 350%	Tobacco refuse:
`2008.11`	131.8pp	0% – 131.8%	Peanuts (ground-nuts):
`6402.99`	45.0pp	3% – 48%	Other:
`6402.91`	42.0pp	6% – 48%	Covering the ankle:
`6404.11`	40.5pp	7.5% – 48%	Sports footwear; tennis shoes, basketball shoes, gym shoes, training shoes and the like:
`6404.19`	40.5pp	7.5% – 48%	Other:
`6401.92`	37.5pp	0% – 37.5%	Covering the ankle but not covering the knee:
`6401.99`	37.5pp	0% – 37.5%	Other:
`6406.10`	33.6pp	0% – 33.6%	Uppers and parts thereof, other than stiffeners:
`6402.19`	32.0pp	0% – 32%	Other:
`7013.99`	31.4pp	6.6% – 38%	Other:
`1604.14`	30.1pp	4.9% – 35%	Tunas, skipjack tuna and bonito (Sarda spp.):
`0712.90`	29.8pp	0% – 29.8%	Other vegetables; mixtures of vegetables:
`6109.90`	29.4pp	2.6% – 32%	Of other textile materials:
`6204.63`	28.6pp	0% – 28.6%	Of synthetic fibers:
`0807.19`	28.2pp	1.6% – 29.8%	Other:
`6103.10`	28.2pp	0% – 28.2%	Suits:
`6203.43`	27.9pp	0% – 27.9%	Of synthetic fibers:
`6203.49`	27.9pp	0% – 27.9%	Of other textile materials:
`6211.20`	27.9pp	0.7% – 28.6%	Ski-suits:
`6204.69`	27.5pp	1.1% – 28.6%	Of other textile materials:
`6404.20`	27.5pp	10% – 37.5%	Footwear with outer soles of leather or composition leather:
`6103.49`	27.3pp	0.9% – 28.2%	Of other textile materials:

How These Duty Spread Figures Are Computed

Scope is the 6-digit subheading. If you enter a longer code we take its first six digits, because that is the level at which international classification agrees and national lines diverge.
General (MFN) ad-valorem rates only. Preferential rates under a trade agreement are not shown.
Chapter 99 is excluded. Section 232 and Section 301 remedies sit on top of a base rate; they are not a classification choice, and folding them in would inflate every spread on this page.
Specific and compound duties are counted, never scored as zero. A rate of 87.6¢/kg is real exposure that does not live on a percentage axis. Where a subheading contains such lines the result says so, and the spread shown is an understatement.
Quota lines inflate the extremes. The very largest spreads in the schedule — unmanufactured tobacco at 350 points, shelled peanuts at 131.8 — are tariff-rate quotas, where the same goods are dutiable at one rate inside the quota and another outside it. That is a quota question, not a classification question, and it is flagged in the results.
Your list stays in your browser. The codes you save are kept in local storage on this device — there is no account and we cannot see your list. We do record which subheadings get checked, and the order of magnitude of the values entered against them, so we know which parts of the schedule matter to the people using this. The figures you type are never recorded exactly.

Vectelos is a software tool, not a customs broker, and nothing here is legal or customs advice. Rates are taken from the published Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States and are verified line by line against the USITC source, but the schedule is revised frequently — it was revised seven times in the eight weeks to 9 September 2026 — and the classification of your goods is a determination only you and your broker can make. Always confirm against the current schedule before filing an entry.