On April 20, 2020, the Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be postponing for 90 calendar days the deadline for payment for the deposit of certain estimated duties, taxes, and fees for importers experiencing a significant financial hardship due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This temporary postponement applies to formal entries of merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption (including entries for consumption from a Foreign Trade Zone) in March or April 2020.  CBP will not return deposits of estimated duties, taxes, and fees that have already been paid.

In addition to the instructions provided in CSMS #42423171, the following payment instructions are provided for entries that qualify for the temporary 90-day postponement period.

- Filers can submit payment for single-pay entry summaries within the 90-day postponement period. For example, a single-pay entry summary with a payment due date of 4/30/2020 may be paid up to 7/29/2020.

- Filers can submit an entry summary with a statement date up to 90 days in the future. As such, statements may be scheduled up to 90 days in the future.

·  If the entry was originally scheduled for and is due on the April Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) on 4/21/2020 and the desire is to still pay it on a PMS, it can be scheduled as late as the July PMS which will be due on 7/22/2020.

·  If the entry was originally scheduled for and is due on the May PMS on 5/21/2020 and the desire is to still pay it on a PMS, it can be scheduled as late as the August PMS which will be due on 8/21/2020.

- For ACH Daily Statements, filers can submit an entry summary with a statement print date up to 90 days in the future and follow up with the ACH Debit authorization or ACH Credit payment.

- For ACH Debit PMS paid via ACH Debit, filers will still need to place the entry summary on a Periodic Daily Statement (PDS) and submit the ACH authorization before the preliminary Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) prints (default is the 11^th working day of the month). If the importer/filer wants to schedule on a PMS more than two months out, they will need to either:

o Schedule their Periodic Daily Statement (PDS) print date further out. (For example, preliminary print date in May can be scheduled for a July monthly statement)

o Submit a statement update to reschedule the entry summary print date for April with a July statement date. This will be allowed on an ACE SU transaction.

o In both cases, the statement authorization must be submitted before the July PMS prints

o   As an example,  

§ Entry summary submitted 4/20/2020

§ PDS can be scheduled to print 5/15/2020 for a July PMS

§ Or, entry statement can be updated via an SU transaction to change the statement date to an April date for a July PMS

§ Must be authorized before July PMS prints

 - For ACH Credit PMS, filers will still need to place the summary on a PMS daily statement and submit the ACH authorization before the 11^th working day of the PMS. The filer can initiate the ACH Credit payment up to the 90 day postponement.

PENDING ACH DEBIT AUTHORIZATIONS

Any debit authorizations that have already been submitted to CBP will be sent for withdrawal on the regular schedule. Under certain conditions, if an importer or filer realizes they do not want their account debited on the same day they transmitted the authorization, they can negate debit authorizations through the RM transaction in ACE. Authorizations submitted on a previous day have already been processed and cannot be negated.

For debit authorizations submitted a previous day for a PMS daily statement, the authorization cannot be negated, but the entry can be rescheduled for a future statement via the SU transaction in ACE.

It is important that importers and filers follow the above two options when addressing pending authorizations and refrain from requesting their financial institution prevent payment to CBP.   Situations in which a financial institution prevents payment to CBP will result in bounced payments and will prevent importers/filers from paying these same statements via ACH Debit on a future date. This will cause unnecessary debit vouchers and may include the assessment of interest and liquidated damages.    

For status updates regarding an ACH application already submitted please contact ach-customs@dhs.gov or call 317-298-1200, extension 1098

For status updates regarding Periodic Monthly Statement activation requests already submitted please contact periodicstatement@dhs.gov or call 317-614-4545

Questions from the importing community concerning ACE Daily Statement and/or Periodic Monthly Statement processes should be referred to their CBP Client Representative.

Related Messages: CSMS #42423171