CBP Form 368: Collection Receipt Explained for Importers

Key Points

• CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt, is the receipt CBP issues for money taken in at a port, covering duties, taxes, fees, penalties, liquidated damages, and bond-related payments.
• CBP Form 368 is not a bill: a bill demanding payment is CBP Form 6084, and the Collection Receipt is what documents that the demand was satisfied.
• The collection of duties, taxes, and other charges by CBP is governed by 19 CFR Part 24, with the general rule on receipts for payment at 19 CFR 24.1.
• Keep the CBP Form 368 with the entry file: it is the proof of payment relied on in a protest, a refund claim, a bond or penalty case, and a Regulatory Audit.
• As of October 2026, confirm current acceptable payment methods, ACE statement processing, and port practice with the port of entry or CBP before relying on any procedural detail.

On this page

1. What CBP Form 368 is
2. At a glance
3. What kinds of payments produce a CBP Form 368?
4. Who issues and who keeps CBP Form 368?
5. How does CBP Form 368 differ from a bill and from an ACE statement?
6. Why CBP Form 368 matters for protests, refunds, and audits
7. Common CBP Form 368 problems
8. How CBP Form 368 relates to other CBP forms
9. Frequently asked questions
10. What importers and brokers should do
11. Key references

The links in this article go to the primary documents: the regulations and official CBP pages themselves. Read the source.

CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt, is the receipt U.S. Customs and Border Protection issues when it accepts a payment at a port of entry, whether that payment covers duties, taxes, fees, a penalty, liquidated damages, or a bond-related charge. It is prepared by the CBP cashier or collections officer and handed or transmitted to the payer, who is usually the importer of record, the customs broker paying on the importer's behalf, a carrier, or a bonded warehouse proprietor. In the entry lifecycle, CBP Form 368 sits at the end of a money movement rather than at the beginning: it is the evidence that an obligation CBP demanded has actually been satisfied, and it is the document a filer produces later when a protest, refund claim, or audit turns on whether a payment was made and when.

At a glance

• Full name: CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt.
• Who prepares or uses it: CBP prepares it; importers, customs brokers, carriers, sureties, and warehouse proprietors receive and retain it.
• When in the lifecycle: at the moment of payment, which may be before release, at entry summary, or long after liquidation in a penalty or bill case.
• System or channel: issued at the port by CBP collections; varies by port and payment method, so confirm with the port of entry.
• Governing authority: 19 CFR Part 24, the customs financial and accounting procedures, including 19 CFR 24.1 on collection of payments.
• What it is not: not a bill; a CBP bill is CBP Form 6084.
• Related terms: CBP Form 6084, CBP Form 7501 (Entry Summary), CBP Form 3171, CBP Form 6051D.

What kinds of payments produce a CBP Form 368?

CBP Form 368 can be generated for essentially any category of money CBP collects at a port, which is why it turns up in files that have nothing to do with ordinary duty payment. Typical occasions include estimated duties, taxes, and fees tendered with an entry summary; payment of a CBP bill; mitigated penalties and liquidated damages; charges for reimbursable services; and miscellaneous deposits CBP holds against an obligation. The collection rules in 19 CFR Part 24 set out the framework for how CBP receives and accounts for these funds, and 19 CFR 24.1 addresses the forms of payment CBP will accept and the receipting of them.

Because the same CBP Form 368 can cover very different obligations, the description written on the face of the receipt matters. A receipt that says only "payment received" without an entry number, bill number, case number, or port reference is far harder to match to an obligation two years later when a protest or an audit sampling asks for proof.

Who issues and who keeps CBP Form 368?

CBP issues the CBP Form 368; the payer keeps it. Responsibility for retention follows the person whose liability the payment discharged, which in a normal commercial entry is the importer of record even when the customs broker physically tendered the funds. Brokers who pay on behalf of clients should treat the CBP Form 368 as a client record, transmit a copy to the importer, and retain a copy in the broker's own file so that the chain from client funds to CBP collection can be reconstructed on demand.

Where a payment relates to a bond obligation, the surety also has an interest in the CBP Form 368, since the receipt is the cleanest evidence that a liquidated damages case or a bill has been satisfied and that the surety's exposure has been reduced or closed.

How does CBP Form 368 differ from a bill and from an ACE statement?

CBP Form 368 records money received, while CBP Form 6084 is the bill that demands it. The two are easy to confuse because both carry an amount, an obligation reference, and a CBP port identifier, but their legal function is opposite: the bill creates or restates a debt, the Collection Receipt extinguishes it. If a file contains only a bill, nothing has been paid as far as the file shows.

CBP Form 368 is also distinct from the statement processing path most duty payments follow today. Under periodic and daily statement arrangements in ACE, estimated duties, taxes, and fees for many entries are aggregated and paid electronically, and the statement itself, together with the filer's and CBP's electronic records, functions as the payment trail. A CBP Form 368 is most often seen where a payment is made outside that routine flow: at the counter, on a one-off bill, on a penalty or liquidated damages case, or on a charge assessed at the port. Because statement mechanics and acceptable payment methods change, confirm the current process in the ACE CATAIR, on the CBP trade pages, or with the port before assuming how a particular payment will be receipted.

Why CBP Form 368 matters for protests, refunds, and audits

CBP Form 368 is the document that answers the question "did you actually pay, and when." In a protest, the amount in controversy is usually duties already deposited, and the Collection Receipt ties the deposit to the entry. In a refund request, CBP has to be able to trace the original collection before it can authorize a disbursement. In a Regulatory Audit or an internal control review, sampled entries are tested against proof of payment, and a missing CBP Form 368 on a counter payment becomes an open finding even where the money clearly moved.

The same logic applies on the enforcement side. If a mitigated penalty or liquidated damages amount was paid, the CBP Form 368 is what closes the loop, and its absence can leave an apparently satisfied case sitting open in CBP's receivables. Importers working through a CBP Form 29 Notice of Action or a prior disclosure with a tender of unpaid duties should file the Collection Receipt with the case correspondence, not with the general accounting records, so that the whole matter sits in one place.

Common CBP Form 368 problems

Most CBP Form 368 trouble is clerical rather than legal. The recurring issues are these.

No copy reaches the importer

A broker or an agent pays at the port, keeps the CBP Form 368 in its own file, and the importer's entry file shows only the bill. When the importer later changes brokers or faces an audit, the proof of payment is in someone else's records.

The receipt is not tied to an obligation

A CBP Form 368 with no entry number, bill number, or case number is hard to apply. Ask the cashier to annotate the reference at the time of payment and note it on the file copy immediately.

Receipt treated as a bill, or the reverse

Accounting staff who see only an amount and a CBP port name sometimes pay a CBP Form 368 a second time or treat a CBP Form 6084 as settled. Clear labeling in the payables workflow prevents duplicate payments and missed deadlines.

Retention gaps

Records retention schedules often focus on entry documents such as the CBP Form 7501 Entry Summary and commercial invoices and overlook payment receipts. CBP Form 368 should be retained on the same schedule as the entry it supports.

How CBP Form 368 relates to other CBP forms

CBP Form 368 touches many other transactions because almost every CBP process can generate a payment. Reimbursable overtime requested on CBP Form 3171, Application-Permit-Special License Unlading-Lading-Overtime Services, the carrier or agent request for permission to unlade or lade and for CBP services outside regular hours, produces charges that a carrier pays and receipts. Bond activity does the same: CBP Form 3173, Application for Extension of Bond for Temporary Importation, the request to extend the one-year temporary importation bond period in one-year increments up to three years total, can be followed by liquidated damages if the goods are not exported, and payment of those damages is receipted. Bonded warehouse operations create their own exposure, documented through CBP Form 300, Bonded Warehouse Proprietor's Submission, the proprietor's annual inventory reconciliation submission, and through CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, the custody record for merchandise delivered into a bonded warehouse or container freight station under CBP supervision; shortages found against those records can lead to demands that end in a CBP Form 368.

Manifest obligations work the same way. Penalties arising from arrival reporting on CBP Form 1302, Inward Cargo Declaration, the vessel cargo manifest the master files on arrival; on CBP Form 7509, Air Cargo Manifest, the carrier's declaration of cargo on an arriving aircraft; or on CBP Form 7533, Inward Cargo Manifest for Vessel Under Five Tons, Ferry, Train, Car, Vehicle, etc., the land border arrival manifest, are all collected and receipted through the same channel.

On the enforcement and traveler side, CBP Form 6051D, Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence, is CBP's receipt describing property it has seized and the first document an importer sees in a seizure case; where a seizure is resolved by payment of a mitigated amount, the CBP Form 368 is the companion record showing the money moved. Less commonly, duty collected at a port on goods a traveler cannot cover with CBP Form 4457, Certificate of Registration for Personal Effects Taken Abroad, the pre-departure registration of serial-numbered personal items so they re-enter duty free, will also be receipted. And where a preference claim fails, for example an old claim built on CBP Form 434, NAFTA Certificate of Origin, the retired certificate replaced on July 1, 2020 by the USMCA certification of origin, which has no prescribed form and may be any document carrying the nine data elements, the resulting duty demand and its payment follow the bill and receipt path described above.

Frequently asked questions

Is CBP Form 368 the same as a CBP bill?

No. CBP Form 368 is the Collection Receipt, issued after money is received. A CBP bill is CBP Form 6084, which demands payment. A file should normally contain both when a bill has been paid.

Do I get a CBP Form 368 for duties paid on an ACE statement?

Usually not. Statement payments are documented through the ACE statement and the associated electronic payment records rather than a counter receipt. CBP Form 368 is most common for payments made directly at the port or outside the statement cycle; confirm how a specific payment will be receipted with the port.

How long should I keep a CBP Form 368?

Keep CBP Form 368 with the entry or case file it supports and retain it on the same schedule as the underlying records. Because the receipt is the proof of payment in a protest or refund claim, it should outlive the period in which those remedies can be pursued.

What should I do if I lost the CBP Form 368?

Contact the port where the payment was made and the broker or agent who tendered it, and reconstruct the payment from bank records and the obligation reference. CBP's collection records under 19 CFR Part 24 are the authoritative source, so the port is the right starting point.

What importers and brokers should do

• Require that every counter payment at a port generates a CBP Form 368 annotated with the entry, bill, or case number, and route a copy to the importer the same day.
• File CBP Form 368 with the entry or enforcement case it relates to, not in a general accounting folder, so a protest, refund, or audit request can be answered from one file.
• Train payables staff to distinguish a CBP Form 368 receipt from a CBP Form 6084 bill to avoid duplicate payments and missed demands.
• Before relying on any payment method or receipting practice, confirm the current rule in 19 CFR Part 24 and with the port of entry.

Key references

• 19 CFR Part 24 (eCFR): CBP's customs financial and accounting procedures, including collection of duties, taxes, fees, and other charges.
• 19 CFR 24.1 (eCFR): collection of payments by CBP and the forms of payment accepted.
• 19 CFR 24.1 (Cornell LII): alternate text of the same regulation.
• CBP Forms: official source for CBP Form 368 and the other forms referenced here.
• CBP Trade: CBP program pages, guidance, and CSMS messages on entry and payment processing.