Duty Drawback
Duty drawback: a refund on import duties, fees, and taxes you may be able to claim when you export.
Drawback is an important source of cash for many companies, and may benefit your company as well. Take our two-minute drawback questionnaire to see if your company might have potential for drawback refunds.
Duty drawback explained
Duty drawback is a refund of duties, fees and taxes paid on goods imported into the U.S. that are subsequently exported from the U.S. Similar to how you are refunded sales tax when you return an item to a store, you can claim a duty refund when you export an item that was previously imported.
There are several different categories of duty drawback, but the two most common categories are manufacturing and unused merchandise.
Manufacturing duty drawback applies when you import an item that is then manufactured into a different item. For example, if you import bicycle tires and export finished bicycles, then you can get the duty you paid for the bicycle tires refunded when you export the finished bicycle.
Unused merchandise duty drawback applies when you import something, and then export it in the same, unused condition. If you import bicycle tires, and then export them again without changing them, then you can get a refund for the duty you paid when you export the tires.
Starting a duty drawback program may help you grow export sales with more competitive pricing
| You | Your Competitor | |
| Cost of imported product | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Add 10% duty | $110.00 | $110.00 |
| Add 20% markup | $132.00 | $132.00 |
| Participating in drawback program? | Yes | No |
| Duty drawback refund (99%) | ($9.90)* | ($0.00) |
| Export Selling price | $122.10 | $132.00 |
*excludes filing fee
With lots to gain, let’s talk about how duty drawback can help your company
Duty drawback can be a great source of cash for companies involved with importing and/or exporting. It requires extensive paperwork, and some patience, but it can be worth the hard work.
Best of all, you don’t have to be the one doing all of the hard work of duty drawback. STTAS is committed to helping you get the drawback refund that you deserve from the government. In many cases, you don’t pay until you get your money back from the government.
Next steps to getting the duty drawback refund you deserve
Our quick questionnaire will help you know whether your company may have a high potential for claiming drawback refunds.
Take the two-minute duty drawback questionnaire
Many of your questions may have detailed answers in our regularly updated Drawback Frequently Asked Questions section
If you’re ready to take the next step, our full duty drawback assessment is online for you to enter your details and upload example documents. It takes a bit of time to complete, but once its fully filled out, we can begin setting up your claims soon after.
