Drawback: practice questions

A retailer imports goods, sells them at retail, and accepts them back as returns, then plans a drawback claim under the returned retail merchandise provision. Under 19 CFR 190.45, the entry designated for drawback must cover merchandise imported within what period before the exportation or destruction?

1. Within 180 days before the exportation or destruction
2. Within 1 year before the exportation or destruction ✓
3. Within 3 years before the exportation or destruction
4. Within 5 years before the exportation or destruction

Why: Eligibility under 19 CFR 190.45(b)(2)(i) requires designating an entry of merchandise that was imported within 1 year before the date of exportation or destruction of the returned merchandise under CBP supervision. That one-year window is dramatically shorter than the five-year horizon candidates carry over from unused merchandise drawback, which is exactly why it is tested. The claimant must also certify under 19 CFR 190.45(b)(2)(ii) that the same 8-digit HTSUS subheading number and the same specific product identifier apply to both the designated merchandise and the returned merchandise.

A company files a written application for accelerated payment of drawback with the drawback office where its claims will be filed. Under 19 CFR 190.92, within what period must CBP notify the applicant of its decision?

1. In writing within 180 days of receipt of the application
2. In writing within 30 days of receipt of the application
3. In writing within 60 days of receipt of the application
4. In writing within 90 days of receipt of the application ✓

Why: CBP's own deadline sits at 19 CFR 190.92(e)(2): written notice to the applicant within 90 days of receipt of the application, either of the decision to approve or deny it or of CBP's inability to approve, deny, or act on it and the reason for that. Section 190.92 is long and studded with competing periods, so this item is more a locating exercise than a comprehension one. The 30 days offered as a distractor appears twice elsewhere in the section, in paragraph (h) for appealing a denial or challenging a proposed revocation and in paragraph (f) for when an unchallenged proposed revocation takes effect.

A specific manufacturing drawback ruling was approved in 2015, and no drawback claim has ever been filed under it. Under 19 CFR 190.8, what causes the ruling to cease to be in effect on that ground?

1. The passage of 3 years without any claim, plus publication of notice of termination
2. The passage of 5 years without any claim, occurring automatically without notice
3. The passage of 5 years without any claim, plus publication of notice of termination ✓
4. The passage of 10 years from approval, regardless of any claims filed under it

Why: Duration is governed by 19 CFR 190.8(h), which provides that a specific manufacturing drawback ruling remains in effect indefinitely unless one of two things happens, and paragraph (h)(1) requires two elements together: no drawback claim filed under the ruling for a period of 5 years AND publication of a notice of termination in the Customs Bulletin. Dormancy standing alone does not end the ruling. The only other terminating event, at 19 CFR 190.8(h)(2), which was re-read here, is a written request to terminate filed by the manufacturer or producer with CBP Headquarters.

Which of the following is expressly listed in 19 CFR 190.3 as a duty, tax, or fee on which drawback is allowable?

1. Antidumping duties assessed on the imported merchandise
2. Harbor maintenance taxes paid on the imported merchandise ✓
3. Countervailing duties assessed on the imported merchandise
4. State sales taxes collected on resale of the merchandise

Why: Scan the list in 19 CFR 190.3(a): ordinary customs duties, marking duties under 19 U.S.C. 1304(c), internal revenue taxes which attach upon importation, merchandise processing fees, and at 19 CFR 190.3(a)(5) harbor maintenance taxes, cross-referenced to section 24.24 of the chapter. Harbor maintenance taxes are thus drawback-eligible by express listing. The two duty options are excluded by name in paragraph (b), and state sales taxes on a domestic resale fail paragraph (a)'s threshold description entirely, since that paragraph reaches only duties, taxes and fees imposed under Federal law upon entry or importation.

19 CFR 190.10(b) lists the information that records supporting a transfer of drawback eligible merchandise must include. Which of the following is NOT among the items expressly listed there?

1. Date of physical delivery
2. Date of importation
3. Date of exportation ✓
4. Port where import entry filed

Why: A date of exportation appears nowhere in 19 CFR 190.10(b), whose eleven enumerated items address the delivery side and the import side of the transaction only. The three distractors were each located in the text before this explanation was written: date of physical delivery at 19 CFR 190.10(b)(2), date of importation at 19 CFR 190.10(b)(6), and port where import entry filed at 19 CFR 190.10(b)(7). Export data of that kind is demanded instead by 19 CFR 190.72(a) as proof of exportation, a separate requirement resting on a separate party.