Export, Lack of Repatriation of Currency and Customs Infraction

Common sense dictates that a lack of repatriation of the proceeds of an export sale does not constitute the infraction of inaccurate statement set forth in section 954 of the Customs Code.

It is common sense to state that the inaccuracy of the exporters’ declaration must result from a difference between what the exporter declares and what the customs service verifies when controlling and verifying.

Since the repatriation or lack of repatriation of the proceeds is a fact that takes place after the exporter has made their declaration, it can not make the declaration either accurate or inaccurate.

As was to be expected, the position of the customs authority of applying the fine that punishes inaccurate statements (i.e. Section 954 of the Customs Code) to these cases is leading to judicial rulings revoking the fines. Such is the case of the ruling in the case “El Matrero”[1], by the Federal Court of Appeals.

The ruling of the Federal Court of Appeals confirms that the breach at stake implies a declaration that is not correct, and that it takes place only when the declaration differs from what occurs in the control that the customs authority performs over the goods or the documents involved. Furthermore, it is also necessary that the inaccuracy, if unnoticed, might lead to a flow of currency in or out of the country different from the one that corresponds.

Bearing this in mind, the Court of Appeals states that it does not find inaccuracy in any part of the declaration and therefore that there is no infraction. Furthermore, it states that there could only be grounds to claim inaccuracy, for example, if the customs authority challenged the value or the price of the goods that the exporter had declared.

It is worth mentioning that the Customs Service pursued the application of the fine even after the exporter proved that it had repatriated the proceeds of the export sale and that it is possible that there had been a failure in the process of reporting such repatriation.

[1] Federal Court of Appeals in Contentious Administrative Matters, Tribunal IV, ruling dated April 15, 2015, signed by Judges Duffy and Vincenti.