Advanced Trade Finance & Special Customs Procedures
Customs Audit
Also known as: Focused Assessment, Post-Clearance Audit
A customs audit is a systematic review by the authorities of an importer's records, procedures, and past entries to verify that duties were correctly paid and that classification, valuation, origin, and other declarations complied with the law over a period. Rather than examining a single shipment, an audit assesses the health of a company's entire import compliance program, and its findings can result in additional duty assessments, penalties, or requirements to improve controls. Because audits look back over years of activity, importers protect themselves by maintaining thorough records, exercising reasonable care, and correcting errors promptly through prior disclosure.
An audit tests classification, valuation, origin and recordkeeping across a period, and it is almost always won or lost on records that either exist or do not. The importers who come through comfortably are the ones who documented reasoning at the time — not the ones who were right by luck.
Where it matters for compliance
- Records must be produced on demand and retained five years from the date of entry — 19 CFR § 163.4. Drawback records run three years from liquidation of the claim; FTZ admission records five years from removal.
- A documented classification rationale is worth far more at audit than a correct code with no reasoning behind it.
- Errors found internally can often still be disclosed; errors found by an audit cannot.
Related terms
Reviewed by a licensed customs broker. Definitions are general information, not legal or customs advice for a particular shipment. Duty rates, tariff programs and agency requirements change frequently.