CBP – Retroactive collection of additional MPF : Sanders Brokerage

CBP – Retroactive collection of additional MPF

Posted by stevelsanders98230 on Friday, September 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

To update this post, CBP has moved forward to issuing duty increase bills to importers on most of the previously uncollected MPF. In mid 2011 the Office of International Trade through instructions of Congress implemented the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011 (TAA). Part of this act increased the Merchandise Processing Fee collection rate from .21% (0.0021 of the value) to .3464% (0.003464 of the value) of the goods being imported. Sadly Customs (CBP) took over a month to impart the programing corrections to their operating system. Therefore brokers and importers were forced to pay the lower MPF rate. Customs (CBP), at this time is coming back and issuing additional duty increase bills for the previously uncollected Merchandise Processing Fees (MPF).

Their collection process is in full swing. Importers receiving duty increase bills are advised to pay the bills as quickly as possible. Delaying payment or not issuing payment to the U.S. Government could cause CBP (Customs) to revoke your import privileges.

To reiterate we provide these bullet points:

Please pay the invoice within time frames to avoid added interest charges or loss of import privileges.
Invoices being processed for payment past the due date must include any additional interest fees noted.
Checks must be drawn on U.S. banks (this is our understanding).
Checks must be made payable in U.S. Funds.

The remainder of this posting is from our original posting on June 19, 2012.

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Following is a quote from the CBP message system dated June 15th, 2012. (Posted by Sanders Brokerage Services)

The purpose of this memorandum is to announce that the Office of International Trade will begin billing for the increase in merchandise processing fee (MPF), as established by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011 (TAA), retroactively effective on October 1, 2011. CBP automated system programming was completed in November 2011 and ACS began accepting the new MPF rate on November 5, 2011. CBP could not begin the retroactive billing process for merchandise entered between October 1, 2011 and November 4, 2011 until the refund processing was completed for the Generalized System of Preferences, Andean Trade Preference Act, and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act retroactive renewals.

The Entry, Summary, and Drawback Branch (ESD) will script liquidate entries with a future liquidation date to generate a bill for the additional MPF due. Differences of less than $20.00 are de minimis, and as such will not be processed for retroactive MPF. Entries which are flagged for reconciliation shall have the MPF increase accounted for via the reconciliation entry. Once the scripting begins, ESD will post weekly results on CBPnet Secure at the following link: https://cbpnetsecure.cbp.dhs.gov/sites/ot/tpp/tfa/Pages/Welcome.aspx. Entries for which CBP system successfully generated a bill will be listed in the file titled, “MPF Increases”. This list is being provided to the ports for use as back-up documentation in relation to the B12 report (Bulletin Notice of Entries Liquidated – by Batch and Sequence). Entries that failed the scripting process will be available via the same link, in the file titled, “MPF Script Errors”. Ports must manually liquidate all entries that are included in this list.

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Value Information Tips

When you ship or send goods to the U.S.A., the question of "valuation" may arise. What you need to know is that the issue of how to value your goods for export to the U.S.A. are part of a very complex law in our U.S. Customs Regulations (CBP).
The U.S. valuation law is very similar to the valuation law first developed and implemented by Canada Customs. The basic bottom line concept on most imports deals with the goods being valued (appraised) at the actual transaction value. That is, the price paid or payable for the merchandise. Transaction value is commonly used in arms length (unrelated) sales where a specific relationship did not impact the price paid or payable for the goods.
The term Related means within the sale of the goods, that actual family relations are involved, or that there are mutual owners in the selling company and purchasing company. CBP feels that family relationship or mutual owners in the seller and the buyer could impact the value paid or payable for the goods..
In related sales, transaction value can still be used, provided it can be proven (via a test case) that the relationship did not impact the price paid or payable for the merchandise.
Further protocol flow of the valuation law is a bit more complex and deals with terms and concepts such as "Transaction Value of Identical or Similar Merchandise", "Computed Value", "Deductive Value", and "402f" (Customs last method of appraisement) when other valuation concepts determined.
The bottom line in this law is making sure that the U.S. Government is receiving it's full amount of duty money's and fees. Undervalued importations could result in a loss of revenue to the U.S. Government to which the government could pursue full reimbursement and penalty actions.
Please remember that declaring a proper value on your shipment for U.S. Customs purposes is a matter of law.

Sanders Brokerage