Importing into the US — duty & MPF: can I handle this myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: classification determines the duty rate, valuation determines the base, and the importer of record carries the liability.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
What is the merchandise processing fee and who pays it?
It is a processing charge assessed on entries in addition to duty, and it is payable by the importer of record along with everything else on the entry. Because it is charged separately from duty, it is easy to overlook when a product is being priced, particularly where the duty rate itself is low and the landed cost was built from the duty alone. It is also assessed on a value derived from the declared customs value, so the same valuation errors that affect duty feed into it. Price it in from the start rather than discovering it on a broker's invoice.
Does my transfer price have to match my customs value?
They are not the same measure, but they cannot contradict each other and be defended. The price used for income tax between related parties and the value declared at the border describe the same goods, and both authorities can read the other's file. A price defended as arm's length for income tax purposes and a materially different value declared for customs is a position nobody can hold. The practical answer is to set the two together, document the basis once, and keep the record where both a tax reviewer and a customs officer can be shown it.
We adjusted intercompany prices at year end, do we tell customs?
A retroactive adjustment changes the price of goods that have already been entered, so it can require the entries to be corrected rather than left as filed. The adjustment can move the declared value up or down, and the direction does not determine whether it needs reporting. Groups routinely make the adjustment for income tax purposes and never tell anyone on the customs side, which leaves two inconsistent records of the same transaction. Plan the adjustment and its customs consequence in one exercise, before the accounting entry is posted.
Who is liable if the goods were classified wrongly?
The importer of record. Classification decides the duty rate, and getting it wrong understates or overstates what was owed on every entry filed on that basis, which is rarely one shipment. Responsibility does not move to the broker who keyed it or the supplier who suggested it, even where the description came from them. That is why classification is worth settling once, with the reasoning written down, rather than inherited from whatever code appeared on the first entry. A documented basis is also what you have to show if the classification is later questioned.
Can my freight forwarder act as importer of record for us?
Sometimes it can, and the question is whether it should. The importer of record carries the liability for the declared value, the classification and the charges, so naming a party that does not know the goods puts that responsibility in the wrong place. It also separates the party that pays from the party that has the records to defend what was declared. Where a foreign seller wants control of its landed cost and its own compliance record, the usual answer is to be named itself and to instruct the forwarder accordingly.
Customs has asked how we arrived at our declared values, what now?
Answer from the documents rather than from reconstruction. The request is asking for the basis of the valuation, so what is needed is the pricing policy, the agreements between the parties, and the working that connects the two to the values on the entries. If those were prepared at the time, the response is an assembly exercise. If they were not, the work is to build the basis now and to be straightforward about which parts are contemporaneous and which are later. Do not offer a rationale the documents do not support.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
Is "fund transfer pricing" the same thing as transfer pricing?
No — and if you came here to calculate FTP, this is not it. Fund transfer pricing is a bank's internal allocation of funding costs and benefits between its own business units, a treasury and asset-liability management discipline used to measure branch or product profitability. Tax transfer pricing is about prices between legally separate related parties across borders, and about which country taxes the resulting profit. The words overlap; the fields do not. See our transfer pricing work.
