U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is urging importers and customs brokers to review their refund statuses in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). If an importer is not enrolled in Automated Clearing House (ACH) refunds, eligible duty refunds and drawback disbursements may be rejected or delayed indefinitely.
To prevent stalled disbursements, businesses should audit their pending refunds and ensure their electronic payment profiles are active and up to date.
How to Identify Rejected Refunds in ACE
Both importers and licensed customs brokers can verify whether any funds have been held up using the ACE Reports tool.
-
Run Report REV-613: Access the ACH Rejected Refunds Report (REV-613) within the ACE Reports workspace. This report lists any duty or fee refunds that CBP attempted to disburse but could not process due to missing electronic banking details.
-
Consult CBP Reference Materials: For step-by-step navigation on running and scheduling this query, reference CBP’s official Trade Refund Reports guide.
Next Steps for Affected Importers
If the REV-613 report shows rejected transactions, or if your organization has not yet established electronic refund authorization with CBP, take the following actions immediately:
-
Authorize ACH Refunds in the ACE Portal: Log into the ACE Secure Data Portal and navigate to your account settings to set up ACH refund authorization. Detailed configuration steps are available in CBP’s ACH Enrollment Overview.
-
Alert CBP Support: Once enrollment is complete, email [email protected] to confirm the new ACH refund setup so pending rejected disbursements can be reprocessed.
-
Verify Banking Accuracy: Ensure that the banking details registered match your importer of record (IOR) information to avoid routing mismatches.
Why Electronic Enrollment Is Essential
CBP continues to streamline trade revenue operations away from paper checks toward digital processing. Importers not registered for ACH refunds face extended processing delays, liquidity bottlenecks, and potential administrative holds on trade funds.
Partnering with your customs broker to run regular REV-613 audits ensures that duty drawback, post-summary corrections (PSCs), and liquidation refunds return to your balance sheet without friction.
