Workshop B — A Practical Guide to Managing A CBP Audit From Start to Finish: A Deep Dive Amid a Surge in CBP Audits, Detainment and Seizure of Goods

Aaron Gothelf
Principal Counsel – Global Trade
The Walt Disney Company

Kelly Raia
Chief Operating Officer
Blue Tiger International

Patrick Togni
Partner
King & Spalding
- Audit Notice and Process
- CBP questionnaires eliciting information about internal procedures
- CBP entry conference to discuss audit purpose, scope and duration
- Estimating audit duration
- Types of taxes and transactions to be examined
- Auditing specific focus areas
- Tariff classification
- Valuation
- Country of Origin
- Filing a Prior Disclosure (PD) to obtain legal protection if penalties are found at commencement of audit
- Focused Assessment Audits
- Pre-Assessment Survey (PAS)
- Sufficiency of internal controls through review of entry records
- Review of select ledger accounts and foreign vendor payments
- Drafting the results and assessment of conclusions
- Assessment Compliance Audits
- Identifying areas of non-compliance risk and audit sampling
- Reevaluating compliance of each control sample
- Calculating loss of revenue
- Obtaining a “ruling” from CBP regarding the admissibility of your goods
- Quick Response Audits
- Interviews and walkthroughs of selected customs entries to understand the import process
- CBP reports with their determination of areas with acceptable/unacceptable transaction risk
- Audit Surveys
- Quickly and efficiently obtaining onsite information about import activities relative to a specific trade area or issue
- Issuing of a final audit report
- No determination of acceptable/unacceptable transaction risk or level of compliance
- CBP Audit Closing Conferences
- If found non-compliant, creating a plan outlining corrective measure to increase compliance