What an import invoice has to state

The document that speaks for the shipment

When goods arrive from abroad, a written description arrives with them. That description is the invoice, and its contents are set by statute rather than by the seller.

Section 481 of the Tariff Act lists ten items. The first is the port of entry the goods are headed for. The second covers the sale itself: when it happened, where, and between which parties.

The third is the one that carries the most weight. It calls for a detailed description of the merchandise. That means the commercial name by which each item is known, the grade or quality, and the marks, numbers or symbols the seller uses in the country of exportation.

The rest are arithmetic. Quantities in the weights and measures of the country of shipment or of the United States. The purchase price of each item. The kind of currency. All charges upon the merchandise, itemized by name and amount. And any rebates, drawbacks or bounties allowed on exportation, listed separately.

The customs regulation that implements the statute adds one more item. The country of origin of the merchandise is required, and so is a line for goods or services furnished for the production of the merchandise that were not included in the invoice price. The regulation calls those assists, and gives dies, molds, tools and engineering work as examples.

None of this is optional detail. It is the record on which the goods are examined, classified and valued.

One practical requirement sits alongside the list. Each invoice has to state in adequate detail what merchandise is contained in each individual package, which is the packing list requirement in a single sentence.

The lines that name people, prices and discounts

Several requirements exist because a price with no context cannot be checked.

The statute and the regulation both distinguish a purchase from a shipment made on some other basis. Where goods were bought, the purchase price in the currency of the purchase is what goes on the document.

Every discount from list price that has been or may be allowed has to be set out in detail, for each class or kind of merchandise. Charges have to be itemized by name and amount, including freight, insurance, commission, cases, containers, coverings and cost of packing.

Where the shipment was not bought, the regulation asks for a value anyway. It asks for the price the manufacturer or seller would have received, or was willing to receive, in the ordinary course of trade and in the usual wholesale quantities in the country of exportation.

The regulation also requires a name. Each invoice has to identify a responsible employee of the exporter, one who has knowledge of the transaction or who can readily obtain it.

Language is fixed too. Every invoice and attachment has to be in English, or carry an accurate English translation containing enough information to examine the merchandise and determine duties.

When there is no commercial invoice

The rules anticipate the shipment that arrives without proper paperwork, and they do not simply wave it through.

A short list of shipments does not require a commercial invoice at all. It includes merchandise not intended for sale or any commercial use in its imported condition, goods returned after being sent abroad for repair, and goods consigned to a federal agency. Even then, the importer has to present any invoice, memorandum invoice or bill that is available.

Where nothing is available, a pro forma invoice is filed. That is the importer's own statement of value, filed in a prescribed form that opens with the words that the filer is not in possession of a commercial seller's or shipper's invoice.

Where a required invoice is missing and no waiver is granted, the entry documentation is accepted only on conditions. There are four of them, and they are cumulative.

Customs has to be satisfied that the failure to produce the invoice was due to a cause beyond the importer's control. The importer files a written declaration that it cannot be produced, together with any seller's invoices available or a pro forma invoice.

The documents filed have to contain information adequate for examining the merchandise, determining estimated duties and compiling statistics. And a bond is filed in an amount equal to one and one-half times the invoice value of the merchandise.

That bond is a promise to produce the missing document. The real invoice is then due within one hundred and twenty days of the filing, or within fifty days where the invoice is needed for statistical purposes.

The same duty, written smaller, for the mail

Parcels moving through the international post are covered by their own part of the customs rules, and it asks for the same two things in miniature.

The first is a customs declaration on the form provided by the foreign post office. The regulation calls for a clear and complete one, giving a full and accurate description of the contents and value, securely attached to at least one mail article of each shipment.

The second is a commercial document. Each shipment has to carry an invoice or bill of sale giving an accurate description and the purchase price, attached to the outside of the article or enclosed in it.

Where the goods were not purchased or consigned for sale, a statement of the fair retail value in the country of shipment takes the invoice's place.

The consequence of omitting them is stated in the same part. Where a mail article is found on examination to contain merchandise subject to duty or tax and is not accompanied by an appropriate declaration and invoice, the merchandise is subject to seizure and forfeiture.

The same provision covers a mail article found to contain material prohibited from importation, or imported contrary to law. A missing document and a prohibited content are treated under one sentence.

What an invoice settles, and what it does not

An invoice describes goods. It does not make them admissible.

Drugs, devices and cosmetics are governed on entry by section 801 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and by the regulations issued under it. The customs regulations say so directly, and they add that no article of that kind will be released except in accordance with the laws and regulations applicable to it.

So a shipment can carry a perfectly compliant invoice and still be held, because the two questions are separate. One is whether the description is complete and the value is right. The other is whether the article may come in at all.

For a reader looking at an overseas listing, the useful part is what the paperwork implies about the seller. A description that names the goods accurately, states a real price, and identifies a country of origin is the description the law contemplates. A parcel described as a gift, or as something other than what is inside it, is a different document making a different statement.

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 U.S.C. 1481 — Invoice; contents, read in full for the ten statutory items, the rule for shipments not purchased, and the authority to accept electronic equivalents — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States Code, September 2026
2. 19 CFR 141.86 — Contents of invoices and general requirements, read in full including the country of origin item, the English language requirement, the itemization of discounts, and the named responsible employee of the exporter — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
3. 19 CFR 141.83, 141.85, 141.91 and 141.92 — Type of invoice required, pro forma invoice, entry without required invoice, and waiver of invoice requirements — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
4. 19 CFR 145.4 and 145.11 — Declarations of value and invoices for mail importations, and the seizure and forfeiture consequence for dutiable merchandise arriving without them — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
5. 19 CFR 12.1 and 12.3 — Cooperation with certain agencies, and the rule that no food, drug, device or cosmetic will be released except in accordance with the laws and regulations applicable to it — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026