The importer of record owns the entry: classification, value, origin, and duty payment are legally its responsibility. A customs broker prepares and files entries as the importer's agent, using the importer's data. Brokers add expertise and catch errors, but the liability for wrong information stays with the importer.
Two roles, one entry
The importer of record is the party with the legal duty to enter goods correctly. It grants the broker power of attorney, supplies product and transaction data, and answers for the entry if customs questions it years later. The broker's licence and systems move the filing, but the signature is effectively the importer's.
For more on this, see this related guide and our earlier explainer on the same theme.
This split surprises new importers who assume hiring a broker transfers the risk. It does not. Think of the broker as a skilled preparer, like an accountant filing a tax return. Preparation help is valuable, and bad preparation has consequences, but the return and its facts belong to the business whose goods they are.
What reasonable care looks like day to day
Customs expects importers to exercise reasonable care: know your products, keep classification reasoning on file, declare assists and related party pricing honestly, and review entry summaries instead of filing them unread. Reasonable care is a paper trail showing decisions were made deliberately, not a promise that nothing will ever be wrong.
Practical habits carry most of the weight. Maintain a product database with classifications and their rationale, sample check entries against invoices each month, and log corrections when you find them. Importers who self report and correct errors are treated very differently from those whose errors surface in an audit first.
What a good broker actually does
A good broker validates data before filing, flags classifications that look inconsistent with the description, manages bonds and entry timing, and tells you when a ruling or agency requirement changes your product's treatment. They are an early warning system as much as a filing service, and their questions are a feature, not friction.
Readers also found this companion piece from our archive useful.
Judge brokers on those questions. If your broker never pushes back on a value, never asks what a product is made of, and never suggests a binding ruling for an ambiguous item, you are buying keystrokes, not expertise. The cheapest per entry fee often hides the most expensive silence.
Setting up the relationship properly
Start with a written scope: who classifies, who maintains the product master, who reviews post entry summaries, and how corrections get filed. Review the arrangement after your first audit, your first new product category, and any year where import volume doubles, because responsibility gaps grow quietly as volume scales.
Keep your own copies of entries, rulings, and correspondence. Broker changes, system migrations, and staff turnover all happen, and customs can ask about an entry long after everyone involved has moved on. The importer with its own archive answers in days. The one reconstructing from email threads answers in months.
Frequently asked questions
If my broker files a wrong classification, who pays?
The importer of record pays. Customs assesses the importer for underpaid duty and penalties, though an importer may have contractual recourse against a broker that made the error. Reasonable care records and prompt corrections reduce penalty exposure significantly.
Can a foreign company be importer of record?
Yes, a non resident importer can act through a US agent and a customs bond, but it needs a US presence for service of process and must meet the same reasonable care standard. Many foreign sellers instead sell on terms where the US buyer becomes the importer.
What is a power of attorney in this context?
It is the legal authorisation the importer grants its broker to act on customs matters on its behalf. It does not transfer liability. It simply lets the broker file, correspond, and receive refunds or bills in the importer's name.
How long must entry records be kept?
Generally five years from entry for most records. Keep classifications, valuations, origin determinations, invoices, and entry summaries for the full period, because audits and liquidations can reach back across several entry years.