De minimis is typically used in a legal context in relation to things that are not important or significant enough to be bound by rules or regulations. It is often used in expressions such as the de minimis rule or the de minimis release. Like many other legal terms, de minimis comes from Latin. As far as the law is concerned, the term « de minimis » comes from the extended Latin expression « de minimis non curat lex », which translates to « the law does not care about the little things ». De minimis is a legal principle that allows small or insufficient issues to be exempted from a rule or requirement. It can be used by the courts as an exclusion tool to remove trivial issues from litigation. De minimis is used in particular in the context of taxes relating to amounts below a certain level which do not need to be declared or which are not taxed. When used outside of a legal context, de minimis implies that something is too trivial to consider or worry about, such as some kind of risk. Calling such a risk a de minimis risk does not mean that the risk does not exist, but only that it is minimal enough that you do not have to worry.

De mimimis is most likely to be used in the course or discussion of legal or commercial proceedings. When applied to other things, it is always more likely to be used by lawyers or others familiar with legal jargon. Under U.S. tax regulations, the de minimis rule governs the treatment of small amounts of discounts in the market. According to the rule, if a bond is purchased with a low market discount (an amount less than 0.25% of the face value of a bond multiplied by the number of full years between the bond`s purchase date and maturity date), the market discount is considered zero. If the market discount is less than the de minimis amount, the discount on the bond is generally treated as a capital gain on the sale or redemption and not as ordinary income. [5] According to the Internal Revenue Service guidelines, the de minimis rule may also apply to any benefit, good or service provided to an employee that is so of such little value that it would be inappropriate or administratively impracticable; For example, using a corporate copier to copy personal documents – see de minimis auxiliary service. Cash is not excluded, regardless of the amount. [6] What words are often used to discuss de minimis? In particular, in U.S. state income tax, the term de minimis refers to when withholding taxes should be initiated for a non-resident who works in a state that taxes personal income.

Not all U.S. states levy income taxes, and there is little consistency between de minimis standards for non-residents and those who do. Some states rely de minimis on the number of working days worked (although the definition of what is considered a working day has been controversial[7]), others on dollars earned or a percentage of total income resulting from work in the state, still others use a combination of methods. These inconsistencies have led to repeated attempts to pass the law on simplifying state income tax on mobile labour[8] without success. Following the deregulation of buses in the United Kingdom in 1986, small contracts for complementary local bus services could be awarded by local authorities without a call for tenders. The Ministry of Transport`s Guidelines for New De minimis Rules for Bus Subsidy Contracts (2005) state: « The Transport Act 1985 (as amended by the Transport Act 2000) introduced provisions governing the obligations of local passenger transport authorities to guarantee local bus services when they would not otherwise be complied with. In most cases, these services must be guaranteed by tenders. The Regulation on Service Subsidy Agreements (tenders) gave local authorities the possibility to lease each individual bus subsidy contract in one year up to a certain maximum value, without the need for competitive tendering (de minimis limits). It was also of maximum value that de minimis contracts with a single operator could be leased within one year.

[21] Under EU competition law, certain agreements that infringe Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (former Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty) are considered minor and are therefore accepted. Horizontal agreements, i.e. agreements between competitors are generally minor if the parties` market share is less than or equal to 10 %, and vertical agreements between undertakings operating at different market levels if they are less than or equal to 15 %. [10] Contracts often contain de minimis provisions as preventive measures to limit the applicability of restrictions in a contract where a party`s failure to comply with those restrictions results in only negligible or insignificant consequences. They may also be used to set a threshold for the claim of claims for security, as a trigger for the right to receive compensation loss or damage or a claim for reimbursement under the expense provisions. In criminology, the de minimis or minimalist approach is a complement to a general principle of harm. The general principle of harm does not take into account the possibility of other sanctions for the prevention of harm and the effectiveness of criminalization as a chosen option. These other sanctions include civil courts, tort laws and regulations. Criminal remedies are considered a « last resort » because such acts often violate individual freedoms – imprisonment, for example, prevents freedom of movement.

In this sense, legislation that attaches more importance to human rights, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, falls into the de minimis category. Most direct-acting crimes (e.g., murder, rape, assault) are generally not affected by such an attitude, but in less clear cases, they require a more robust justification. [12] Courts may not retain copyright in modified material in the public domain if the changes are found to be minor. [16] Similarly, the courts have dismissed cases of copyright infringement on the basis that the alleged infringer`s use of the copyrighted work (e.g., sampling) was so insignificant that it was minor.