|
It seems that Customs is indeed asking more claimants for copies of imports and exports lately. In some cases they are asking for a few items on every claim filed. There are a couple of different reasons: (1) Customs is getting most imports paperless at the port of entry. They no longer have the cashier copy to request so they can verify that your calculations are correct. (2) They have never had your export documents and always had to ask for them but they do seem to be asking more often.
As for reasons, we can only speculate. Possibly Customs needs to liquidate drawback claims faster as they have fewer offices now and claims are stacking up. With the advent of Informed Compliance they expect claimants to do a better job of preparing drawback claims and seem to be willing to do a spot check of some documents on the claim and if all is well, they move the claim along. Customs may be trying to weed out the marginal filers by keeping them on their toes. The theory being that you keep filers alert to the fact that they must really document what they're doing with the money Customs gives them. This being so, the filers with sloppy recordkeeping procedures may just go away and the Customs workload falls. Customs themselves is overseen and/or audited by other agencies. They must show themselves as adequately policing the drawback community and this is simply how they do that. No one is singled out for a document request over anyone else, unless perhaps that company or others in that industry have had repeated problems.
Back to top
|
