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Title 19, Customs DutiesRelease 119-102

§198 Certified Checks; Receivable for All Public Dues; Lien for Payment Of

Title 19 › CHAPTER 3 — THE TARIFF AND RELATED PROVISIONS › SUBTITLE III — SPECIAL PROVISIONS › § 198

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Government collectors may accept certified checks from national or state banks and trust companies for import duties and other public payments, under rules set by the Secretary of the Treasury. If someone gives a certified check as a temporary payment, they are not free from owing the money until the check actually clears. If the bank does not pay the certified check, the United States can still collect from the person who owed the duty and can claim the unpaid amount from the bank’s assets. That claim is paid before most other claims against the bank, except for the bank’s administration costs and repayment to the United States for any government money used to redeem the bank’s circulating notes.

Full Legal Text

Title 19, §198

Customs Duties, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

It shall be lawful for collecting officers to receive certified checks drawn on National and State banks and trust companies, during such time and under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, in payment for duties on imports, and all public dues, including special customs deposits. No person, however, who may be indebted to the United States on account of duties on imports who shall have tendered a certified check or checks as provisional payment for such duties or taxes, in accordance with the terms of this section, shall be released from the obligation to make ultimate payment thereof until such certified check so received has been duly paid; and if any such check so received is not duly paid by the bank on which it is drawn and so certifying the United States shall, in addition to its right to exact payment from the party originally indebted therefor, have a lien for the amount of such check upon all the assets of such bank; and such amount shall be paid out of its assets in preference to any or all other claims whatsoever against said bank, except the necessary costs and expenses of administration and the reimbursement of the United States for the amount expended in the redemption of the circulating notes of such bank.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

Functions of all officers of Department of the Treasury and functions of all agencies and employees of such Department transferred, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Treasury, with power vested in him to authorize their performance or performance of any of his functions, by any of those officers, agencies, and employees, by Reorg. Plan No. 26 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. July 31, 1950, 15 F.R. 4935, 64 Stat. 1280, 1281, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. Collecting officers, referred to in this section, are officials of Department of the Treasury.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

19 U.S.C. § 198

Title 19, Customs Duties

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102