In accordance with Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) requirement that importers maintain all records pertaining to an importation for a period of 5 years from the date of importation, Deringer encourages all of our customers to use the end of the year as a time to review their internal compliance procedures.
Records pertaining to an import include, but are not limited to, commercial invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, and any other documentation that is required or used to create the entry and entry summary, the ACE transmission to CBP. While CBP rarely asks for copies of these documents at the time of importation, the importer is required to maintain these records and produce them upon request. For questions about exactly what documents are of concern to CBP, review the included link (19CFR Part 163), referred to as the “(a)(1)(A)list,” or a list of potential documents required to support an importation. Further record keeping guidance can be found in CBP’s Informed Compliance Publication.
With the advent of ACE, CBP has adjusted its policy as it pertains to the paper Customs Form 7501 (referred to as entry summary) and the Customs Form 3461 (referred to as the release document). Full paperless transactions are an important part of the new ACE process. This means that for ACE cargo release and ACE entry summary filing, there is no need to generate a CBP Form 3461/7501 nor is one required to be presented.
Because these forms no longer exist based on an electronic transmission via ACE, CBP has issued record keeping guidelines to assist the importer in complying with record keeping requirements as it pertains to these obsolete forms when transmitting entry/entry summary data via ACE. This link contains a copy of CBP’s policy “record keeping in ACE“ as it relates to the old paper forms which are now completely electronic.
Deringer encourages all our clients to consider applying for an ACE portal account as a means to partner with us in your compliance, and to ensure you have access to certain electronic records to reproduce the entry/entry summary data using an ACE report. Deringer also offers various methods for you to obtain documentation we used to create your entry summary. For example, you can elect to have your documents pushed to you via FTP, or you can log on to our system and pull down the documents you require for a specific transaction.
Deringer is proud to serve as your Customs Broker, and, as such, we want to be your partner in compliance. To learn more about these tools, or to further discuss record keeping in ACE, please call (518) 298-8281 or send an email to Deringer’s Compliance Department.
