The construction of the US Customs tariff refund system is advancing, and the fields of cross-border trade and large-scale equipment are facing changes

he US Customs recently disclosed that the construction of the tariff refund system has been completed by 40% to 80%, marking a critical stage in the digital transformation of US cross-border trade tariff management. As an important hub for global cross-border trade, the upgrade and iteration of the US Customs refund system not only directly affects the operating costs and cash flow of hundreds of thousands of cross-border trade enterprises worldwide, but also has a profound impact on the cross-border transportation, port landing, and customs clearance procedures of large equipment such as rotary drilling rigs. Its ultimate implementation will reshape the compliance environment and efficiency pattern of US cross-border trade, in line with the current trend of electronic supervision of US Customs.

The construction of the tax refund system is advancing, and cross-border trade enterprises are entering a new stage where opportunities and challenges coexist.

From a positive perspective, the core goal of system construction is to achieve the electronicization and automation of the tax refund process, replacing the traditional paper-based application model. This will significantly shorten the tax refund processing cycle - previously, the average time for US customs tax refunds was 45 days, but after the system is implemented, it is expected to be shortened to 7 working days, helping companies quickly recover funds and alleviate common cash flow pressures in cross-border trade. Especially for companies involved in large tariff payments, it is equivalent to obtaining an "interest free working capital" that can be used to expand the market and optimize the supply chain. At the same time, the ACE system, which is synchronized with the IRS database during the system construction process, will achieve automatic verification of importer qualifications and value declaration records, forcing enterprises to standardize the declaration process and reduce problems such as tax refund failures and fines caused by manual operation errors. In the long run, this will help reduce compliance costs for enterprises. However, challenges still exist, as the system construction is in a transitional period and some functions are not yet fully developed. There may be issues such as unstable application systems and poor integration between new and old processes; In addition, electronic tax refunds require companies to register and bind a valid bank account on ACE Portal to complete the digital upgrade of internal processes. For small and medium-sized cross-border enterprises with weak digital capabilities, additional manpower and technical costs need to be invested to adapt to the new regulations, and historical declaration data cleaning is difficult. Incorrect declarations may result in 100% refunds, further increasing operational pressure.

For large equipment such as rotary drilling rigs, transportation, landing, and procedures have undergone dual changes of process optimization and compliance upgrades.

As a large-scale engineering equipment, rotary drilling rigs have the characteristics of high value, large size, and complex customs clearance processes. Cross border transportation and customs clearance have always been the focus of attention for enterprises. In the process of promoting the construction of the tax refund system, the US Customs has synchronously upgraded the quality review mechanism of manifest data, implemented zero tolerance screening on cargo description, HS code, sender and receiver information, etc. This requires enterprises to accurately fill in detailed information such as product code, manufacturing year, and usage hours when declaring rotary drilling rigs, and clearly declare that the declared price includes related expenses such as overseas renovation and maintenance, in order to avoid triggering cargo detention due to problems such as "unclear cargo description" and "incorrect HS code classification", resulting in increased demurrage costs - currently, the demurrage cost of single large equipment has exceeded $5000, and compliant declaration has become the key to reducing costs. In the transportation and login process, the linkage between the tax refund system and the customs supervision system will achieve full traceability of equipment transportation trajectory, customs declaration information, and tax refund application, reduce manual inspection frequency, improve equipment login efficiency, and avoid project delays caused by cumbersome processes; However, at the same time, the system has further strict requirements for the review of documents such as pre shipment inspection, certificate of origin, and operation and maintenance records of key regulated equipment such as rotary drilling rigs. Enterprises need to prepare relevant notarized certification materials in advance to ensure compliance with the US regulations on the import of used mechanical and electrical products, otherwise it will affect the progress of tax refund applications and equipment customs clearance.

The final implementation of the tax refund system will achieve a long-term development effect of win-win for all parties.

From the perspective of enterprises, after the comprehensive implementation of the system, the electronic tax refund process will be normalized, and the efficiency of tax refunds will be improved. At the same time, the error declaration rate will be significantly reduced. Enterprises can enjoy stable tax refund benefits through compliant declaration, especially for enterprises involved in IEEPA tariffs, they can smoothly recover the illegally paid taxes and interest, further reducing operating costs and enhancing competitiveness in the US market. The total amount of tax refunds involved in this round is about 166 billion US dollars, covering more than 330000 import enterprises. Rotary drilling rig export enterprises will also benefit from it, easing the financial pressure brought by large tariffs. From an industry perspective, the implementation of the system will promote the formation of a healthy ecosystem of "compliant declaration and efficient tax refund" in the cross-border trade industry, forcing enterprises to improve their digital and standardized operation levels, eliminate non compliant and inefficient practitioners, and promote industry reshuffle and upgrading; For the cross-border trade of large equipment, standardized declaration processes and transparent tax refund mechanisms will lower the threshold for cross-border transactions of equipment such as rotary drilling rigs, promote the smooth flow of global engineering equipment trade, and drive the coordinated development of supporting industries such as cross-border logistics, customs declaration, inspection and testing. From the perspective of the US Customs, the automated tax refund system will significantly reduce manual workload, and is expected to save customs employees more than 4 million hours of work, reduce administrative costs. At the same time, through full process digital supervision, it will strengthen the transparency and traceability of tariff management, reduce tax evasion, false declaration and other behaviors, achieve dual improvement of customs supervision and enterprise convenience, and promote the continuous optimization of the US cross-border trade environment.