Duties and taxes traditionally must be paid to US Customs within 10 working days of the Customs release date. Most importers are not aware of the Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) program, which allows payment of duty and taxes up to 57 days from the release date. An ACH account in conjunction with PMS permits duty funds to withdraw directly from the importer’s bank account on the 15th working day of the month following entry or release. For example, if a shipment was released on January 1, 2016, duty payment would be withdrawn from your bank account on February 22, 2016 (or later).
Enrollment is free without any obligations. Once enrolled, you can stop and start at any time. US Customs response time for registration ranges from 1-4 weeks. To sign up, please send us the following and we’ll take care of the rest.
- ACH Debit Application: http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP%20Form%20400_0.pdf – Don’t fill out “Broker/Filer Information”
- Letter from your bank. Here is a sample: http://www.gwlcorp.com/downloads/ACH_SampleLetterFromBank.pdf
We’ll give you fair warning before the withdrawals. Cargocentric automatically sends notifications with statements to remind you of any upcoming withdrawals.
References: http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/section_1_pms_3.pdf
