adjective

de minimis

day MIN-ih-miss

De minimis (adjective) means Too small or trivial to be worth taking into account, especially in law, tax and accounting, where amounts below a set threshold are ignored. Example: “The auditors treated the discrepancy as de minimis and moved on.”

adjective

Too small or trivial to be worth taking into account, especially in law, tax and accounting, where amounts below a set threshold are ignored.

"The auditors treated the discrepancy as de minimis and moved on."

"Imports below the de minimis value enter without duty."

noun

A threshold below which a rule, tax or reporting duty does not apply.

"The government lowered the de minimis for parcel imports to eight hundred dollars."

How to Use De minimis

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishSo small that the rules just ignore it.

When to use it

Formal and largely technical: law, tax, customs, compliance and accounting.

Easily confused with

immaterial → nominal →

Common pairings

de minimis threshold de minimis exemption de minimis amount de minimis rule

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The auditors treated the discrepancy as _____ and moved on.

Etymology

From the legal maxim de minimis non curat lex, 'the law does not concern itself with trifles'.

Origin: Latin

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a de minimis threshold mean in practice?

It is a cut-off point below which something is officially ignored. A parcel worth less than the de minimis value, for example, passes through customs without duty or a formal declaration.

Is de minimis the same as immaterial?

They overlap. Immaterial is the accountant's word for an amount too small to change anyone's judgement; de minimis is the lawyer's word for an amount a rule deliberately disregards. De minimis usually implies a stated numerical threshold.