19 U.S.C. § 58c — Fees for certain customs services

(a) Schedule of fees. In addition to any other fee already allowed by law, the Secretary of the Treasury must charge these fees for customs services (all subject to the inflation adjustment described in (l)): (1) $397 for a commercial vessel of 100 net tons or more arriving. (2) $5 for a commercial truck arriving. (3) $7.50 for each railroad car carrying passengers or freight. (4) $25 total per calendar year for all arrivals by one private vessel or private aircraft. (5) For a passenger arriving on a commercial vessel or aircraft from outside the U.S.: normally $5, but only $1.75 for a passenger arriving on a vessel from certain nearby places listed in (b)(1)(A)(i). (6) $5 for each piece of dutiable mail that a customs officer must prepare paperwork for (except certain Inbound EMS items covered by (b)(9)(D)). (7) $125 per year for each customs broker permit held by a person, partnership, association, or company. (8) $100 for a barge or other bulk carrier arriving from Canada or Mexico. (9) For merchandise formally entered or released: a fee of 0.21 percent of its value, unless adjusted. The Secretary may adjust that rate (never above 0.21 percent or below 0.15 percent) and adjust the dollar caps in (b)(8)(A)(i) (never above $485 or below $21), to cover the Customs Service's likely costs of processing entries, considering whether the fund in (f) has a surplus or deficit. Before adjusting, the Secretary must publish a notice of the planned change in the Federal Register within 45 days after full-year Customs funding becomes law; allow at least 30 days of public comment while consulting the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees; notify those committees in writing of the final decision once that period ends; and then, after another 15 days (not counting days Congress is out for more than 3 days, or weekends when a chamber is out), publish the final adjustment in the Federal Register. The change takes effect for entries made 15 calendar days after that final notice, and stays in effect until adjusted again. Any fee here, adjusted or not, still must stay within the caps in (b)(8)(A). (10) For merchandise informally entered or released — except at a centralized hub facility, an express consignment carrier facility, or a small airport that cleared more than 25,000 informal entries the year before (and except certain Inbound EMS items) — the fee is $2 if it is automated and not prepared by customs personnel, $6 if it is manual and not prepared by customs personnel, or $9 if customs personnel prepared it. Fees for informal entries at those excluded facilities, or for Inbound EMS items, are covered under (b)(9) instead. (b) Limitations on fees. This subsection limits when the (a) fees apply. (1) Except for the lower rate in (a)(5)(B), no fee applies to: a passenger whose trip started in, or started in the U.S. and stayed within, U.S. territories or possessions; a railroad car whose trip starts and ends in the same country with no passengers or cargo on or off in a different country; a ferry, unless it began operating on or after August 1, 1999, and runs south of 27 degrees latitude and east of 89 degrees longitude; or a passenger on a commercial vessel traveling only between U.S. ports. This exemption does not cover a passenger on a vessel that starts and ends at the same U.S. place with no stops in between, and the territory-passenger exemption did not apply in fiscal years 1994 through 1997. (2) No truck fee once $100 total (adjusted for inflation) has been paid for that truck in a calendar year. (3) No railroad car fee once $100 total (adjusted) has been paid for that car in a calendar year. (4) No passenger fee for someone in transit to a place outside U.S. customs territory who is not given customs inspection; and on one voyage touching several U.S. ports, a passenger is charged only once. (5) No vessel fee once $5,955 total (adjusted) has been paid for that vessel in a calendar year; also never for a vessel used only as a tugboat, or for a barge or bulk carrier from Canada or Mexico. (6) No barge or bulk-carrier fee once $1,500 total (adjusted) has been paid for that barge in a calendar year. (7) No truck, railroad car, or private vessel fee if it is being carried, at the time, by another vessel that is not a ferry. (8) The formal-entry fee under (a)(9) cannot exceed $485 or go below $25, unless adjusted under (a)(9)(B) or (l); manual entries also get a $3 surcharge (also adjustable). No fee under (a)(9) or (10) applies to goods under most of Chapter 98 of the tariff schedule (except two subheadings), products of a U.S. insular possession, or products of certain listed countries. In figuring these fees, the Secretary's processing costs exclude air passenger processing, export control, and international affairs, and "manual" entry includes any entry needing customs personnel to type in cargo-selectivity data, unless the filer is a certified automated filer or the port had not yet rolled out that system. The importer of record pays the fee, normally based on the merchandise's value under section 1401a, except: for goods repaired or altered abroad (subheading 9802.00.60), only the value of the foreign work counts; for goods under heading 9802.00.80, the fee is based on full value minus the value of U.S.-made components; for U.S. farm products processed in a foreign trade zone, only the container material's value counts; and for other foreign-trade-zone merchandise, only the value of its foreign-status portion counts. For duty-free goods under 9802.00.60 or 9802.00.80, the Secretary may collect the fee using the importer's own aggregate business records instead of tracking each entry. Merchandise counts as entered or released once it is permitted or released under section 1448(b), entered or released from customs custody under section 1484(a)(1)(A), or withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption. (9) This covers items valued at $2,000 or less (or a higher amount the Secretary sets by regulation), other than transportation-and-exportation items at hub, express, or small-airport facilities. A small airport must make its usual reimbursement under section 9701 of title 31 or section 58b, plus an annual payment to the Treasury, in place of the (a)(10) fee, equal to that reimbursement. An express consignment carrier facility or centralized hub facility must pay $0.66 per airway bill or bill of lading (adjustable), plus the regular (a)(9) fee for anything formally entered. Starting in fiscal year 2004, the Secretary may adjust that per-bill amount once a year, between $0.35 and $1.00, after Federal Register notice and public comment. This per-bill payment is the only reimbursement required for these facilities, aside from office space, equipment, and security costs Customs may require, and it is paid quarterly by the carrier. Half of what is collected goes to the Customs User Fee Account to reimburse the government's costs at these facilities; the other half goes to the Treasury in place of the (a)(10) fee. "Centralized hub facility" and "express consignment carrier facility" take their meaning from Customs regulations, and Customs may still process informal entries there during normal hours, subject to these reimbursement rules. A "small airport or other facility" is one covered by section 58b that cleared over 25,000 informal entries the year before. For Inbound Express Mail (EMS) items: $1 per item, plus the (a)(9) fee if formally entered — again, the only reimbursement required. Half of that dollar is paid quarterly by the Postal Service to Customs and deposited in the Customs User Fee Account; the Postal Service keeps the other half to cover its own costs. Starting in fiscal year 2021, the Secretary, with the Postmaster General, may adjust the $1 amount once a year to match actual costs, consistent with U.S. international agreements. (10) The (a)(9)/(10) fee on Canadian-origin goods follows Article 403 of the U.S.-Canada Free-Trade Agreement while that agreement is in force. No such fee applies to goods qualifying as originating goods under the USMCA implementation law or Annex 6-A of the USMCA; the exempted service cannot be funded from the Customs User Fee Account. (11) through (21) The same exemption — no fee under (a)(9) or (10), and no funding of the exempted service from the Customs User Fee Account — also applies to goods that qualify as originating goods (or otherwise duty-free) under each of these: the U.S.-Israel exemption under the Customs and Trade Act of 1990, and the free trade agreement implementation acts with Chile, Singapore, Australia, Bahrain, Oman, Peru, Korea, Colombia, and Panama, plus section 4033 of this title. (c) Definitions. "Ferry" means a vessel used only for trips of 300 miles or less that carries only passengers, or vehicles or railroad cars that carry, or have carried, passengers or goods. "Arrival" means arriving at a U.S. port of entry within the customs territory. "Customs territory of the United States" has the meaning given in general note 2 of the tariff schedule. "Customs broker permit" means a permit issued under section 1641(c). "Barge or other bulk carrier" means a vessel that is either not self-propelled, or that carries unpackaged bulk goods. (d) Collection. Anyone who issues a ticket for travel into U.S. customs territory by commercial vessel or aircraft must collect the (a)(5) passenger fee when the ticket is issued, and list it separately as a "Federal inspection fee." If a ticket is issued abroad without collecting that fee, the carrier must collect it when the passenger leaves U.S. customs territory and give a receipt. Whoever collects the fee must send it to the Treasury within 31 days after the calendar quarter ends. The Treasury must publish the due date for the broker-permit fee in (a)(7) in the Federal Register at least 60 days ahead; a broker's permit can be revoked or suspended for nonpayment only if that notice was given, and the broker's underlying license can never be revoked merely for nonpayment of this fee. (e) Provision of customs services. Airport passenger customs services must be adequately provided for scheduled flights at no extra cost to airlines or passengers beyond the (a) fees, except that Customs may assign staff, even using unbudgeted overtime funds, to a late-arriving charter flight if the charter airline asks at least 4 hours ahead and pays the overtime cost. This subsection does not apply to airports covered by section 58b, and one of its rules (about foreign-trade-zone funding) also does not apply near section 58b facilities. Likewise, at foreign locations where a customs officer is stationed, services for scheduled flights must be adequately provided without extra reimbursement from airlines beyond the (a) fees. All customs services — including normal and overtime clearance and preclearance — must be adequately provided on request for clearing commercial vessels, vehicles, or aircraft and their passengers, crew, and cargo; for preclearance abroad; and for inspecting or releasing commercial cargo. "Adequately provided" means timely, considering unavoidable weather or mechanical delays, the need for fast passenger and baggage clearance, how perishable the cargo is, late-night or early-morning arrivals from other time zones, available staff and resources, and the need for enforcement checks. While the (a) fees are in effect, no other charges may be collected for cargo inspection, clearance, or customs personnel connected to vessel, vehicle, or aircraft arrivals or departures, for preclearance abroad, or for supervising a foreign trade zone or bonded warehouse. (f) Disposition of fees. The law creates a "Customs User Fee Account" in the Treasury's general fund. All (a) fees go into it, except the part directly reimbursed to specific appropriations and amounts sent to the Customs Commercial and Homeland Security Automation Account. Money in the User Fee Account pays the Customs Service's costs for customs revenue functions and automation, and nothing else; if the account runs short, customs duties make up the difference, also for no other purpose. These purpose limits can be changed only by a law that specifically says so, and the Secretary cannot cut staffing for commercial clearance while the account has a surplus. The Secretary must directly reimburse specific appropriations, from the (a) fees excluding the (a)(9)/(10) processing fees, first for: overtime pay, premium pay (capped at the extra cost above what the pre-1993 system would have paid), matching retirement contributions on that overtime, free preclearance services, and foreign-language pay awards. Next, if money remains, it funds salaries and equipment that improve service for the fee-payers under (a)(1) through (8), split in proportion to what they paid, but only above the highest amount ever appropriated for that between 1990 and now. After that, up to 50 full-time preclearance positions can be funded, and that transfer takes priority over some of the earlier reimbursements. Reimbursements happen at least quarterly, can rely on estimates trued up later, and follow normal budget-apportionment rules. Since fiscal year 1991, the overtime and preclearance reimbursement is based on projected actual need, and only leftover money funds the salary and equipment purpose above; leftover amounts from 1989 and 1990 remain available for that purpose too, except that $30 million stays in a permanent contingency fund for years when collections fall short. Each year, the Secretary must calculate the difference between what overtime would have cost under the old, pre-1993 law and what it actually costs now, plus language-pay awards, and transfer that amount, or $18 million, whichever is less, from the User Fee Account back to the Treasury's General Fund, at least quarterly. None of this stops the government from using other appropriated money for these same costs. The law also creates a "Customs Commercial and Homeland Security Automation Account." In fiscal years 2003 through 2005, $350 million per year from the (a)(9)(A) fee went into it. At least $153,736,000 was authorized for 2016 through 2018 to finish building the Automated Commercial Environment computer system, available until spent. When adjusting the (a)(9)(A) fee for 2006, the Secretary had to reduce it by however much the Account collected in 2003 through 2005 beyond what was actually appropriated from it. And $50 million of what was collected under (a)(9)/(10) in 1999 was made available for automated commercial systems, available until spent. (g) Regulations and enforcement. The Secretary may issue rules needed to carry out this section. Rules for collecting and sending in the (a)(5) passenger fee must match the rules for the similar tax under title 26, subchapter C of chapter 33, except where those rules conflict with this section. Otherwise, ordinary customs administrative and enforcement law applies to these fees as if they were customs duties, except drawback rules, including that penalties tied to a percentage of "duty" are instead tied to that percentage of the fee, and courts and agencies treat these fees as duties for jurisdiction purposes. (h) Omitted. The statute marks this subsection as omitted; it has no current text. (i) Effect on other authority. This section does not limit the Secretary's power to charge fees under section 58a, except for services already covered by an (a) fee. (j) Effective dates. These rules generally apply to customs services provided starting 90 days after April 7, 1986. The (a)(5) passenger fee applies only to tickets issued after that same 90-day mark. Fees under (a)(9) and (10) cannot be charged after December 31, 2031, and fees under (a)(1) through (8) also cannot be charged after that date. From fiscal year 2006 on, while (a)(1) through (8) fees are allowed, the Secretary must set each fee reasonably related to the actual cost of that service, never more than 10 percent above the amount the statute states; keep total collections from exceeding the actual costs described in (f)(3)(A) for that activity; only collect a fee to the extent it will be spent on those costs; and only spend a collected fee on the costs tied to that same activity. (k) Advisory committee. The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection must set up an advisory committee of representatives from the airline, cruise ship, and other transportation industries who might pay these fees. It is not subject to the usual termination rule in section 1013 of title 5. It must meet regularly and advise the Commissioner on inspection timing, staffing levels, fee levels, and whether proposed fees are appropriate. The Commissioner must consider the committee's views. (l) Adjustment of fees for inflation. Starting April 1, 2016, and at the start of each fiscal year after that, the Secretary must adjust the (a) fees and the dollar limits in (b)(2), (3), (5), (6), (8), and (9) to reflect the rise in the Consumer Price Index compared to fiscal year 2014. When calculating the adjustment, the Secretary rounds any increase to the nearest dollar and may ignore increases under 1 percent. "Consumer Price Index" means the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.