The records an importer has to keep

Who carries the duty

The obligation runs to a list of people rather than to one. It covers an owner, importer, consignee, importer of record, entry filer, or other person who imports merchandise, files a drawback claim, or transports or stores merchandise carried or held under bond.

It also reaches a person who knowingly causes the importation, transportation or storage of bonded merchandise. Agents of any of those people are covered, and so is any person whose activities require the filing of a declaration or entry.

The regulation defines that knowingly-causes clause narrowly, and it uses a worked example to do it. A person who orders merchandise from an importer in a domestic transaction knowingly causes the importation in only two situations. One is where the terms and conditions of the importation are controlled by that person. The other is where they supplied technical data, molds, equipment, materials or components, knowing those would be used in the manufacture of the imported goods.

The example printed in the rule is a consumer who buys an imported automobile from a domestic dealer. That person would not be required to maintain records. A transit authority that prepared detailed specifications from which imported subway cars were manufactured would be.

One more exclusion is written out. After clearing the customs facility, a traveler who made a baggage or oral declaration is not required to keep supporting records. That relief covers non-commercial merchandise within a personal exemption, or merchandise covered by a flat rate of duty.

What counts as a record

The definition is deliberately broad. Records means any information made or normally kept in the ordinary course of business that pertains to a listed activity.

The listed activities include any importation, declaration or entry, and the transportation or storage of bonded merchandise. They also include the filing of a drawback claim, the collection or payment of duties, fees and taxes, and a long series of trade-agreement certifications. It closes with a catch-all covering any other activity required under the laws or regulations customs administers.

The kinds of thing that count are then spelled out. Statements, declarations, documents, electronically generated or machine readable data, electronically stored or transmitted information, books, papers, correspondence, accounts, financial accounting data, technical data, and computer programs necessary to retrieve information in a usable form.

That last item is unusual and deliberate. Where records are only readable through software, the software itself falls inside the definition of a record.

Inside that broad category is a narrower one with sharper teeth. Entry records are records required by law or regulation for the entry of merchandise, whether or not customs required their presentation at the time of entry. That subset is published as a list in an appendix to the part.

The appendix carries a caution about its own reach. It pertains only to records required for the entry of merchandise. Other records that pertain to an importation are still subject to examination and to a summons, even though they are outside the administrative penalty provision.

Five years, with named exceptions

The general period is five years from the date of entry where the record relates to an entry, or five years from the date of the activity that required creating the record.

Several shorter periods are carved out. A drawback record is kept until the third anniversary of the date the claim was paid. Packing lists are kept for sixty calendar days from the end of the release or conditional release period, or from redelivery where a demand has been issued.

A consignee who is not the owner or purchaser and who appoints a customs broker keeps records for informal entry merchandise for two years. Records for articles admitted free of duty under the small-value administrative exemption are kept for two years.

Records have to be kept as original records, whether paper or electronic, unless an alternative storage method has been adopted. Doing that requires thirty calendar days of advance written notice to a named audit office, and the office may reply that certain records may not be converted.

Where an alternative method is used, entry records still have to be held in their original format for one hundred and twenty calendar days from the end of the release or conditional release period.

The rules also name the case where conversion is put on hold. Suppose an alternative storage method would cover records about goods under seizure or detention, or records relating to a matter under inquiry, investigation or proceeding. The responsible office may then instruct in writing that those records stay as originals until it says otherwise.

Producing them, and what a failure costs

A demand can arrive in writing, orally or electronically, and an oral demand has to be followed by a written or electronic one.

Entry records are produced within thirty calendar days of receiving the demand, or within any shorter period customs prescribes where the records are needed for a determination about the admissibility or release of merchandise.

The penalties are calibrated to the state of mind. A willful failure to maintain, store or retrieve a demanded record carries a penalty, for each release of merchandise, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars or seventy-five percent of the appraised value, whichever is less. Negligence carries a penalty not exceeding ten thousand dollars or forty percent of the appraised value, whichever is less.

Four defenses are named. Loss of the record through an act of God or other natural casualty beyond the person's fault. Substantial compliance shown by other evidence. That the record was presented to and retained by customs at entry or in response to an earlier demand. Or certification in a voluntary compliance program, where the violation was a first and non-willful one.

A separate consequence attaches to preferential duty rates. Where the demanded record relates to eligibility for a special rate, the entry is liquidated or reliquidated at the general rate.

Two further points bound the penalty. It is in addition to any other penalty provided by law, with two named exceptions. And a penalty imposed under the section may itself be remitted or mitigated under the Tariff Act, which is the same relief route that applies to a seizure.

The voluntary program, and the summons that survives it

A certification program exists for recordkeepers, and it changes the penalty rather than the duty.

To be certified, a recordkeeper has to be in compliance with applicable laws and demonstrate several things. Understanding the legal requirements and the retention periods. Procedures for explaining them to the employees involved. Procedures for preparing, maintaining and producing records. A designated dependable individual responsible for compliance. An acceptable record maintenance procedure. And procedures for notifying customs of any variance or violation and taking corrective action.

The benefit is stated as an alternative to a penalty. Where a certified participant fails to produce a demanded entry record, customs issues a written notice of violation instead of a monetary penalty. Two provisos apply: the participant is generally in compliance, and the failure was neither willful nor repeated.

That notice has prescribed contents and a required reply. It states that the requirements were violated, identifies the record demanded and not produced, and warns that future failures may bring penalties and removal from the program. Within a reasonable time the recordkeeper has to say what steps it took to prevent a recurrence.

One sentence limits the whole arrangement. Participation has no limiting effect on the authority to use a summons, court order or other legal process to compel production of records.

Sources

Each document below is named as it names itself, with the date printed on that document rather than the day it was read.

1. 19 CFR 163.1 — Definitions, read for the meaning of records, the nineteen listed activities, and the definition of entry records and the (a)(1)(A) list — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
2. 19 CFR 163.2 — Persons required to maintain records, including the domestic transaction test with its automobile and transit authority examples, and the exclusion for certain travelers — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
3. 19 CFR 163.4 and 163.5 — Record retention period with its five exceptions, and methods for storage of records including the thirty-day advance notice and the hundred-and-twenty-day original-format requirement — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
4. 19 CFR 163.6 — Production and examination of entry and other records, the thirty-day production window, the willful and negligent penalty ceilings, and the four grounds for avoiding a penalty — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
5. 19 CFR 163.12 — Recordkeeping Compliance Program, the six certification requirements, the notice of violation issued in lieu of a penalty, and the sentence preserving the summons power — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026