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Title 19 — Customs DutiesRelease 119-73

§1563 Allowance for loss; abandonment of warehouse goods

Title 19 › Chapter CHAPTER 4— - TARIFF ACT OF 1930 › Subtitle SUBTITLE III— - ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › Part Part IV— - Transportation in Bond and Warehousing of Merchandise › § 1563

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury may reduce or refund customs duties if imported goods are lost, stolen, damaged, or destroyed while under customs control — for example in appraiser’s stores, bonded warehouses, while being transported under bond, in the custody of customs officers, or inside a port before being landed — but the owner must give proof that satisfies the Secretary. Refunds come from Treasury funds. The Secretary can set rules and time limits for filing claims, and can cancel or partly cancel warehouse bonds. No duty reduction or refund is allowed for damage or destruction in a bonded warehouse that happens more than three years after the goods were imported. The Secretary’s decisions are final. Small claims under $25 may be decided by a customs officer if the importer agrees, and that decision is final. A consignee may abandon goods in a bonded warehouse to the government within three years of import to get duties remitted or refunded. The abandoned items must be at least a whole package and left in their original package, not repacked while in the bonded warehouse (except in a bonded manipulating warehouse).

Full Legal Text

Title 19, §1563

Customs Duties — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In no case shall there be any abatement or allowance made in the duties for any injury, deterioration, loss, or damage sustained by any merchandise while remaining in customs custody, except that the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized, upon production of proof satisfactory to him of the loss or theft of any merchandise while in the appraiser’s stores, or of the actual injury or destruction, in whole or in part, of any merchandise by accidental fire or other casualty, while in bonded warehouse, or in the appraiser’s stores, or while in transportation under bond, or while in the custody of the officers of the customs, although not in bond, or while within the limits of any port of entry and before having been landed under the supervision of the officers of the customs, to abate or refund, as the case may be, the duties upon such merchandise, in whole or in part, and to pay any such refund out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to cancel any warehouse bond or bonds, or enter satisfaction thereon in whole or in part, as the case may be, but no abatement or refund shall be made in respect of injury or destruction of any merchandise in bonded warehouse occurring after the expiration of three years from the date of importation. The decision of the Secretary of the Treasury as to the abatement or refund of the duties on any such merchandise shall be final and conclusive upon all persons. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe such regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this subdivision and he may by such regulations limit the time within which proof of loss, theft, injury, or destruction shall be submitted, and may provide for the abatement or refund of duties, as authorized herein, by appropriate customs officers in cases in which the amount of the abatement or refund claimed is less than $25 and in which the importer has agreed to abide by the decision of the customs officer. The decision of the customs officer in any such case shall be final and conclusive upon all persons.
(b)Under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe and subject to any conditions imposed thereby the consignee may at any time within three years from the date of original importation, abandon to the Government any merchandise in bonded warehouse, whereupon any duties on such merchandise may be remitted or refunded as the case may be, but any merchandise so abandoned shall not be less than an entire package and shall be abandoned in the original package without having been repacked while in a bonded warehouse (other than a bonded manip­ulating warehouse).

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Provisions of this section authorizing transfer of cases before the United States Customs Court on June 18, 1930, to the Secretary of the Treasury, or to the collector, for consideration and determination, were omitted.

Prior Provisions

somewhat similar to those in this section, were contained in R.S. § 2983, and section 2984 as amended by act Feb. 27, 1877, ch. 69, § 1, 19 Stat. 247, which contained a further provision for cancellation or satisfaction of warehouse bonds. Both of these sections were superseded by act Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 356, title IV, § 563, 42 Stat. 978, and repealed by section 642 thereof. section 563 of the 1922 act was superseded and enlarged by section 563 of act June 17, 1930, comprising this section, and repealed by section 651(a)(1) of the 1930 act.

Amendments

1970—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 91–271 substituted “appropriate customs officers” for “collectors of customs”, and “customs officer” for “collector” wherever appearing. 1938—Act June 25, 1938, struck out “(or ten months in the case of grain)” wherever appearing.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1970 AmendmentFor

Effective Date

of amendment by Pub. L. 91–271, see section 203 of Pub. L. 91–271, set out as a note under section 1500 of this title.

Effective Date

of 1938 AmendmentAmendment by act
June 25, 1938, applicable in the case of grain imported prior to the thirtieth day following
June 25, 1938, except as otherwise provided, see section 23(b) of act
June 25, 1938, set out as a note under section 1557 of this title. AppropriationsAct
June 26, 1934, ch. 756, § 2, 48 Stat. 1225, which was classified to section 725a of former Title 31, Money and Finance, repealed the permanent appropriation under the title “Refunding duties on goods destroyed (Customs) (2x330)” effective
July 1, 1935, and provided that such portions of any Acts as make permanent appropriations to be expended under such account are amended so as to authorize, in lieu thereof, annual appropriations from the general fund of the Treasury in identical terms and in such amounts as now provided by the laws providing such permanent appropriations.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

19 U.S.C. § 1563

Title 19 — Customs Duties

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73