You paid 40,000 dollars for a mould that lives at your supplier's factory and the supplier ships the finished goods at a price that does not include it. The mould is still part of the customs value. It travelled, in economic terms, with the goods, and CBP expects its value apportioned across the units it produces.
Customs law defines assists as goods and services the buyer provides directly or indirectly, free of charge or at reduced cost, for use in connection with production and sale for export of the imported merchandise. The classic cases are tooling, dies, moulds, and engineering work. CBP valuation guidance includes the textbook examples: a mould built abroad and left with the producer, designs and engineering supplied to the factory, materials provided for incorporation in the goods.
The test is the buyer's contribution to production. A mould you bought and left at the factory qualifies. A showroom sample you sent for sizing reference generally does not. Between them sit judgement calls, and the judgement is documented in the file or made for you at verification.
The value of the assist is added to the price paid for the goods, apportioned over the units it produces. The apportionment method must be reasonable and documented: total assist cost divided by the units produced with it, adjusted as production continues, with the apportionment recorded per entry. CBP's guidance expects the importer to choose a method and apply it consistently, not to choose whichever method produces the smallest addition this month.
Where the assist is provided at reduced cost rather than free, the value added is the difference between its full value and what the seller paid. Where the assist was produced by the buyer, its value is the cost of production. All of that has to exist as a number in a file before entry, because the customs value is filed at entry, not reconstructed at audit.
Build an assist register. Every tool, mould, die, and design package you supply, the date supplied, the supplier holding it, the total cost, the apportionment method, and the entries it has been applied to. When a new tool ships, it enters the register before the first goods it produces arrive, not after a verification notice asks where the mould on the factory floor came from.
Reconcile the register against purchase records annually. Tooling bought by a related company, tooling inherited from a predecessor supplier, and tooling amortised over an old production run that is still in use are the cases that get missed, because the payment is old and nobody connects it to current imports. Age does not end an assist while the tool still produces the goods.
Understating customs value by omitting an assist underpays duty, and when discovered, the correction reaches back across entries with interest and a penalty risk, plus the professional cost of an audit that now doubts the rest of the valuation file. Overstating, by adding a full mould cost to a single entry instead of apportioning it, overpays duty and loses money the business never gets back without a formal claim.
The remedy is the register and the method, applied consistently, in writing, with the apportionment visible on the entry file. An importer who can show a method, applied consistently, and records to prove it, is in a different position from one explaining a missing mould at a verification meeting. The difference is one afternoon of bookkeeping, done before anyone asks.
Keep reading: Reading a binding ruling like an importer: what CROSS gives you for free, First sale valuation: a real saving with a paper trail most importers cannot produce.
Value the buyer provides, free or at reduced cost, for use in producing the imported goods: tooling, dies, moulds, engineering, designs, or materials. Its value is added to the price paid for the goods, apportioned over the units it produces. It is not optional, and it is not a tax concept. It is part of transaction value.
Total assist cost divided over the units it produces, using a reasonable method applied consistently and recorded per entry. Where the assist was supplied at reduced cost, the amount added is the difference between full value and what the seller paid. The method and the numbers have to exist in the file before entry.
Yes, while it is still used to produce the goods you import. Age does not end the assist. The register should track tooling inherited from a predecessor supplier and tooling amortised over old runs, because those are the cases most often missed, and a verification will connect the tool on the factory floor to your goods.
You understate customs value and underpay duty, which a later verification can correct across entries with interest and penalty exposure, and which casts doubt on the rest of the valuation file. Overstating by adding the whole tool cost to one entry overpays duty. A documented apportionment method, applied consistently, avoids both.