Import Recordkeeping

Title 19 Part 163 of the Code of Federal Regulations provides recordkeeping requirements for importers, brokers and other entities involved in importing.  Importers and brokers must maintain records for five years from the date of entry, or five years from the date of the activity, that created the record.   There are some exceptions to this general rule found in Part 163.  Importers should also check with the other government agencies that they work with for their specific record retention requirements.

What are import-related documents? Some of the documents importers and brokers must maintain include entry summaries, commercial invoices, emails and any other document created that relates to the import shipment. Almost anything can be a record. Even if a document is not required to be produced at the time of entry, the document must still be maintained for post-entry audits.  Importers and brokers might consider using a checklist to keep track of records.

CBP usually requests information by entry number; however, importers should cross-reference the entry number with their internal reference such as invoice number for ease of retrieval. Given an entry number, the importer should be able to produce any of the required documents related to the entry.  If CBP requests payment records to foreign suppliers for a specific entry, could you produce them?

Penalties for failure to maintain proper records range from $10,000 per incident to $100,000 per incident. Penalties for willful failure to maintain, store or retrieve records will be up to the lesser of $100,000 or 75% of the appraised value of the merchandise per entry.  Penalties for negligence in maintaining, storing or retrieving records will be up to the lesser of $10,000 or 40% of the appraised value per entry.

Click HERE to read detailed regulations on recordkeeping. 

 

Quiz

During an audit of Acme Importing, CBP discovered that Acme was negligent in maintaining records on 5 of the 100 import entries reviewed.  CBP assessed recordkeeping penalties for negligence on the five entries. Given the following values for each entry, what is the total amount of penalty Acme can expect to receive?

Entry 1                        $15,000

Entry 2                        $45,500

Entry 3                        $20,000

Entry 4                        $12,500

Entry 5                        $18,000

Answer:
 

$111,000 x 40% = $44,400