A federally permitted 10 percent indirect cost rate that organisations without a negotiated F&A rate may elect to use on US federal awards, applied to modified total direct costs (MTDC).

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A community-based research non-profit charges 10 percent de minimis on its NIH grant, applied to MTDC.
Is an instance
A new university research office uses the de minimis rate during its first three years while preparing a full F&A rate negotiation.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
An institution with a current negotiated 55 percent F&A rate cannot elect 10 percent de minimis.
Not an instance
A flat 10 percent administrative fee charged by a foundation outside US federal rules is not the de minimis rate.

Editorial commentary

Under Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.414(f), recipients that have never received a negotiated indirect cost rate may use the de minimis rate — currently 15 percent of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC), raised from 10 percent effective for awards issued on or after October 1, 2024 — indefinitely or until a rate is negotiated. The rate is used most commonly by small non-profits, community organisations, and new academic spin-outs that have not yet built the cost accounting infrastructure for a full F&A rate proposal. No formal election is required. It is termed ‘NIH’ colloquially but applies to all US federal agencies.

References

US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.414(f) (as revised April 2024, effective Oct 1, 2024).

Also known as

10 percent de minimis · De minimis indirect rate

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="De minimis rate (NIH)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/de-minimis-rate-nih" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/de-minimis-rate-nih",
  "name": "De minimis rate (NIH)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/de-minimis-rate-nih",
  "description": "A federally permitted 10 percent indirect cost rate that organisations without a negotiated F&A rate may elect to use on US federal awards, applied to modified total direct costs (MTDC).",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-finance#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/de-minimis-rate-nih",
  "sameAs": [
    "10 percent de minimis",
    "De minimis indirect rate"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T04:13:16",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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