Consultants: Tariff Complexities Make It Harder to Request Refunds

One pain point may be the discrepancy between what the importer of record believes to be the country of origin and the country of origin that was actually declared at the time of entry, according to Carolina Burr, KPMG US manager.

"Those discrepancies ... change the order of stacking, and it looks like sometimes the shipper and the importer of record are not aligned on those," Burr said.

Another pain point may be discrepancies over Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes, particularly for goods with aluminum or steel content, Burr continued.

There may be an issue of timing and getting the correct information from the supplier on metal content, Burr said. While the CSMS message on the Section 232 duties for metals indicates that the importer would have to claim the full total entry value on the item, the importer may not have had the metal content available at the time of entry.

"It's hard to get supplier solicitation results back and the traceability on the country of origin for the metals as well," Burr said.

If importers decide to file a post-summary correction, they need to review the entire entry and not just specific lines of the entry, according to Tom McCullough, senior tax manager at KPMG.

"When you file a PSC, you're actually resubmitting the entire entry. So, what that means is you really want to make sure you're taking a look at the entire entry before you resubmit, even if you do just have certain lines where you know there may be an error," McCullough said.

"This is important for two reasons. One, since you're resubmitting the entry, it's going to get fully re-reviewed. But what's important to note is that Customs has these automated validations. When you submit an entry, those validations get updated over time, and especially in this trade landscape where we have rules changing left and right, it's not just us as importers who are having trouble keeping up. Customs themselves and those programming these rules are also playing a little bit of catch-up," McCullough continued.

"An entry that you submitted three months ago and didn't get a rejection on -- if you were to resubmit today, there's a chance that there's another element that if you don't make sure it's in line with the right rules, [you] may get a reject today when you resubmit. So it's really important that when you're filing those PSCs, you're taking a look at the whole entry and making sure you have everything correct."

KPMG recommended that importers develop a process or a tariff impact assessment where entries are reviewed on a frequent, regular basis since the regulations are changing so quickly and are so complex.

This process will help importers as the window to file post-summary corrections on entries filed in February and March of this year is coming up, according to Eric Stoff, managing director for tax, trade and customs.

"It's going to take time to prepare and organize your data. All the brokers are generally really backed up," Stoff said. "So, you're going to need this time now to really get that house in order to get to make that first window." The possibility that the IEEPA tariffs might get overturned by the Supreme Court is another reason to organize a company's tariff data now, he continued.

If an entry has passed the period for a post-summary correction, a company may file a protest, although it may take some time for CBP to respond since "they're very inundated," Stoff said. The other option is to move into a prior disclosure, although part of the disclosure entails documenting reasons to ensure future compliance, he continued.

As importers review their entries, it may also be a good time to look at potential errors that could have happened prior to all these new rules and regulations that have come out in 2025, McCullough said.

"If you're already opening the entry, taking a look at these data elements, [and] collecting the information, there's no reason to not give it that holistic review and look at things like, hey, is my HTS code declared for this product correct, because that could have an impact on the tariffs that are even applicable for the product," McCullough said. He continued, "It's a really good time to take a look at other elements that you know would be more part of your traditional post-entry process, not just focusing on the new rules."

Meanwhile, calculating steel and aluminum valuations continues to be "the grayest of the gray areas" because valuation for steel and aluminum derivatives is very subjective, Stoff said.

"Right now, there's not a lot of documentation. We're first seeing how Customs is auditing it," and it seems that Customs officers are focusing on proof of payment, Stoff said. This may mean looking at transactional documents to determine the actual payment for that underlying steel material in order to estimate valuation, he said.

However, there may also be variation in how brokers interpret and itemize the content value, Stoff continued. The percentage breakdown and the order of the multiple lines is "very nuanced. Every broker does it differently, and every broker does it differently [from] the first week the rules came out ... [to] now," he said.