Shipping Containers Returned After Exportation Valued Using Depreciation Method, CBP Says
Reusable shipping containers imported by Bosch after being used to export automobile equipment may be valued using a “fallback method” of depreciating the containers over a five-year period, CBP said in a recent ruling. No other means of valuation is available, in part because the containers are simply being returned and aren’t being sold in the U.S., so CBP deemed depreciation an acceptable method in line with other recent rulings on similar merchandise.
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The issue of how Bosch values the containers, which include pallets, totes and racks suitable for repetitive use, had come up during a CBP Focused Assessment. The containers generally re-entered the U.S. within a week of the date of exportation, with Bosch paying duty on them. The company had been valuing the containers at 50 percent of their original acquisition price “based on the assumption that, on average, the containers are at the midpoint of their useful life,” CBP said.
After the Focused Assessment highlighted the issue, Bosch proposed valuing the containers “utilizing a straight-line accounting method to depreciate the value of the reusable containers over a five-year period,” CBP said. That method had been previously accepted by CBP in a September 2017 ruling on valuation of another company’s reusable containers. In response to the Office of Regulatory Audit’s request for internal advice, CBP again found that method acceptable. “Based upon our decision in H288062, a nearly identical situation, we find Bosch’s proposed method of valuation of the reusable containers to be acceptable,” it said.