On April 22, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will publish in the Federal Register a temporary final rule [USCBP-2020-0017; CBP Dec. 20-05] implementing the Executive Order issued on April 18, 2020, entitled “National Emergency Authority to Temporarily Extend Deadlines for Certain Estimated Payments” authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to exercise the authority under section 318(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the designee of the Secretary of Homeland Security — CBP, is amending the CBP regulations by adding a new 19 C.F.R. 24.1a, to temporarily postpone the deadline for importers of record with a significant financial hardship to deposit certain estimated duties, taxes, and fees that they would ordinarily be obligated to pay as of the date of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, for merchandise entered in March or April 2020, for a period of 90 days from the date that the deposit would otherwise have been due but for this emergency action. This temporary postponement does not permit return of any deposits of estimated duties, taxes, and/or fees that have been paid. This temporary postponement also does not apply to entries, or withdrawals from warehouse, subject to certain specified trade remedies, and any entry summary that includes merchandise subject to those trade remedies is not eligible under this rule.
This emergency action is being taken in response to the extraordinary challenges facing U.S. individuals and businesses during the COVID-19 national emergency (which significantly affects the trade community), and is consistent with the Secretary of the Treasury’s decision to postpone due dates for Federal income tax payments under section 7508A(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (available at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus).
This temporary postponement does not permit return of any deposits of estimated duties, taxes, and/or fees that have been paid. This temporary postponement also does not apply to any entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, or any deposit of estimated duties, taxes, or fees for the entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, where the entry summary includes any merchandise subject to one or more of the following: antidumping duties (assessed pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1673 et seq.), countervailing duties (assessed pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.), duties assessed pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1862), duties assessed pursuant to Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2251 et seq.), and duties assessed pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411 et seq.). Accordingly, CBP anticipates that importers will file separate entries when a shipment contains both merchandise that is eligible for temporary postponement and merchandise that is ineligible (because of the above-specified trade remedies).
To qualify for this temporary postponement, an importer must demonstrate a significant financial hardship. An eligible importer’s operation must be fully or partially suspended during March or April 2020 due to orders from a competent governmental authority limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings because of COVID-19, and as a result of such suspension, the gross receipts of such importer for March 13-31, 2020 or April 2020 are less than 60 percent of the gross receipts for the comparable period in 2019. An eligible importer need not file additional documentation with CBP to be eligible for this relief but must maintain documentation as part of its books and records establishing that it meets the requirements for relief.
CBP notes that for some types of entries, the time of entry is contingent (in part) upon the deposit of estimated duties, taxes, and fees. See, e.g., 19 CFR 141.68(b). To ensure clarity in the application of the temporary postponement vis-à-vis the time of entry, this emergency action 7 includes a waiver of the regulatory requirement to deposit estimated duties, taxes, and fees for the purpose of establishing the time of entry in those instances where it would otherwise be required under 19 CFR 141.68. The time of entry can thus be established in the absence of the deposit of estimated duties, taxes, and fees postponed in accordance with this emergency action.
Effective date: April 20, 2020. Comments must be received by May 20, 2020
