CBP Form 5955A: Penalty and Liquidated Damages Notices

Key Points

• CBP Form 5955A, Notice of Penalty or Liquidated Damages Incurred and Demand for Payment, is the Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures (FP&F) office's claim against a bond principal or an alleged violator; it is not a duty bill.
• Liquidated damages claims on CBP Form 5955A are petitioned under 19 CFR part 172; penalty claims, including those arising under 19 U.S.C. 1592, are petitioned under 19 CFR part 171.
• If the principal does not resolve the claim, FP&F demands payment from the surety, and the surety has 60 days from that demand to petition.
• Unpaid CBP Form 5955A claims can block bond renewals and other services, and repeat claims can push a surety to raise the bond amount.
• This article is current as of September 2026; confirm current procedures with CBP or the issuing FP&F office before acting.

On this page

1. What is CBP Form 5955A
2. At a glance
3. Where CBP Form 5955A comes from and why it issues
4. Who receives CBP Form 5955A and when
5. How to respond: petitioning for relief
6. What goes wrong with CBP Form 5955A and what it costs
7. How CBP Form 5955A relates to other CBP forms
8. Frequently asked questions
9. What importers and brokers should do
10. Key references

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

CBP Form 5955A is the Notice of Penalty or Liquidated Damages Incurred and Demand for Payment, the document a CBP Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures office issues to claim a monetary penalty or to assess liquidated damages under a customs bond. It is sent to the bond principal or the alleged violator, usually the importer of record, and later to the surety if the claim goes unpaid, and it sits after the entry or transaction it concerns, not inside the ordinary entry and liquidation flow. CBP Form 5955A is not a duty bill: it demands payment of a penalty or of damages for a breach of a bond condition, and it starts an administrative process in which the recipient may petition for relief.

At a glance

• Full name: CBP Form 5955A, Notice of Penalty or Liquidated Damages Incurred and Demand for Payment
• Who prepares or uses it: prepared by the Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures (FP&F) office at the port with jurisdiction; received by the bond principal or alleged violator, and by the surety on a later demand
• When in the lifecycle: after a bond breach or a discovered violation, post entry and often post release; not part of entry filing
• System or channel: issued by the FP&F office at the port with jurisdiction; confirm the current delivery and case management channel with that office or CBP
• Governing authority: 19 CFR part 172 for liquidated damages, 19 CFR part 171 for penalties, 19 U.S.C. 1592 for certain penalties, 19 U.S.C. 1618 for remission and mitigation, 19 CFR 113.62 for basic importation bond conditions
• Related terms: CBP Form 4647, CBP Form 6084, CBP Form 301 bonds, prior disclosure
• Not to be confused with: CBP Form 6084 (a bill) or CBP Form 29 (a notice of action on an entry)

Where CBP Form 5955A comes from and why it issues

CBP Form 5955A issues when a CBP Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures office concludes that a bond condition has been breached or that a penalty has been incurred. On the liquidated damages side, the typical triggers are the classic bond breaches: failure to file an entry summary on time, failure to redeliver merchandise after a demand, Importer Security Filing failures, in-bond irregularities, and country of origin marking failures. Those obligations flow from the conditions of the continuous or single transaction bond; the basic importation and entry bond conditions appear at 19 CFR 113.62.

On the penalty side, CBP Form 5955A carries claims such as those arising under 19 U.S.C. 1592, which addresses entry of merchandise by material false statement or omission. The Secretary's authority to remit or mitigate penalties and forfeitures sits at 19 U.S.C. 1618, and that authority is what makes a petition worth filing.

Why CBP Form 5955A is not a bill

CBP Form 5955A is a claim, not an invoice for revenue owed on an entry. Supplemental duties, taxes, fees, and interest after liquidation come on CBP Form 6084, CBP's bill form. Proposed or taken CBP actions on the entry itself, such as a rate advance, come on CBP Form 29. Treating a CBP Form 5955A as if it were a routine bill and simply paying it forfeits the chance to petition for relief and to build a mitigation record.

Who receives CBP Form 5955A and when

CBP Form 5955A goes first to the principal, which in most import cases means the importer of record whose bond secured the transaction, or to the party CBP names as the violator in a penalty case. Brokers see these notices constantly because clients forward them, and because a broker may itself be a principal on its own bond for transactions it guaranteed. The notice identifies the case, the underlying transaction or entry, the alleged violation, and the amount demanded.

If the principal does not pay the claim or does not obtain relief, FP&F turns to the surety that wrote the bond and demands payment there. The surety has 60 days from that demand to petition. That sequence matters operationally: a claim the importer ignored does not quietly disappear, it lands on the surety, and the surety's loss experience drives bond underwriting for that importer afterward.

How to respond: petitioning for relief

The core response to CBP Form 5955A is a petition for relief filed with the issuing FP&F office, and the applicable rules depend on which kind of claim the notice carries. Liquidated damages claims are governed by 19 CFR part 172. Penalty claims, including forfeiture-related matters, are governed by 19 CFR part 171. Read the notice carefully to determine which track applies, and confirm the petition filing deadline and the filing address stated on the notice itself, because that is the controlling instruction for your case.

What a useful petition contains

A petition that works explains what happened, admits what is not disputable, and documents the facts CBP cannot see from its own records: the carrier delay, the warehouse error, the corrective procedure adopted, the compliance history. Importers ordinarily prepare petitions with counsel or with help from the broker who handled the transaction, because the broker holds the contemporaneous entry documents. If the underlying problem also involves a substantive error on the entry, consider whether a prior disclosure path is relevant to the wider exposure, and discuss sequencing with counsel before filing anything.

What goes wrong with CBP Form 5955A and what it costs

Three failures dominate CBP Form 5955A cases. First, missed petition windows: the notice reaches an accounts payable inbox or an old address, nobody routes it to the compliance team, and the opportunity to petition passes. Second, unpaid claims that block bond renewals and other CBP services; a surety that sees open claims may decline to renew, and an importer without a bond cannot clear cargo. Third, repeat claims, which raise bond amounts on renewal because the surety reprices the risk it is underwriting on the CBP Form 301 bond.

The quiet cost is administrative. Each CBP Form 5955A consumes broker time, counsel time, and management attention that would otherwise go to entry work, and a pattern of claims invites closer CBP attention to the importer's entries generally.

How CBP Form 5955A relates to other CBP forms

CBP Form 5955A is downstream of the operational forms and notices that define the obligation allegedly breached. A marking case commonly begins with CBP Form 4647, Notice to Mark and/or Redeliver, CBP's notice that articles or containers are not marked with country of origin and its order to mark, redeliver, export or destroy under 19 CFR 134.51; failure to comply with that notice is a classic liquidated damages trigger. Drawback programs create their own exposure: CBP Form 7553, Notice of Intent to Export, Destroy or Return Merchandise for Purposes of Drawback, is the notice letting CBP examine goods before export or destruction for a drawback claim, and skipping required notice can undermine a claim.

Free entry declarations create obligations too. CBP Form 3311, Declaration for Free Entry of Returned American Products, supports duty-free return of U.S.-origin goods under HTSUS 9801.00.10 per 19 CFR 10.1, and CBP Form 4455, Certificate of Registration, registers identifiable goods by serial number or mark before export for duty-free return under Chapter 98. CBP Form 3299, Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles, covers personal and household effects arriving separately from the traveler, and CBP Form 7523, Entry and Manifest of Merchandise Free of Duty, Carrier's Certificate and Release, is the paper entry for low-value duty-free goods. Misuse of any of these can end in a penalty case and a CBP Form 5955A.

On the payment side, CBP Form 400, ACH Debit Application, enrolls an importer or broker in CBP's Automated Clearinghouse debit program to pay duties, taxes, fees and bills electronically. Licensing sits elsewhere: CBP Form 3124, Application for Customs Broker License, is what an individual, partnership, association or corporation files under 19 CFR part 111. And FinCEN Form 105, Report of International Transportation of Currency or Monetary Instruments (CMIR), the report filed with CBP when currency or monetary instruments above the reporting threshold cross the border, is a common source of penalty cases in the traveler context, distinct from the cargo bond world.

Frequently asked questions

Is CBP Form 5955A a bill I can just pay?

CBP Form 5955A is a demand for payment, but it is a claim rather than a duty bill, and paying it without review closes off the petition process. If you owe duties, taxes, fees, or interest after liquidation, that arrives on CBP Form 6084 instead.

What rules govern a petition against CBP Form 5955A?

A petition against a CBP Form 5955A liquidated damages claim is filed under 19 CFR part 172, and a petition against a penalty claim is filed under 19 CFR part 171. Relief authority for penalties and forfeitures rests on 19 U.S.C. 1618.

What happens if I ignore CBP Form 5955A?

If the principal ignores a CBP Form 5955A, FP&F demands payment from the surety on the bond, and the surety has 60 days from that demand to petition. The claim then follows the importer into bond renewal discussions and can leave the importer without usable bond coverage.

Does CBP Form 5955A mean fraud is alleged?

No. Many CBP Form 5955A notices are routine liquidated damages claims for bond condition breaches such as a late entry summary or a failure to redeliver, with no allegation of intent. Penalty cases under 19 U.S.C. 1592 involve culpability findings, and the notice itself will indicate the nature of the claim.

What importers and brokers should do

• Route every CBP Form 5955A to a named compliance owner the day it arrives, and calendar the petition deadline stated on the notice.
• Pull the underlying entry file, bond, and correspondence immediately, including any CBP Form 4647 or other notice that created the obligation, and preserve carrier and warehouse records.
• Decide with counsel or your broker whether to petition under 19 CFR part 172 or 19 CFR part 171 based on what the notice claims, and document the corrective action taken.
• Track open CBP Form 5955A claims against bond renewal dates so an unresolved claim does not surface as a coverage problem at renewal.

Key references

• 19 CFR part 172: claims for liquidated damages and petitions for relief.
• 19 CFR part 171: fines, penalties, and forfeitures procedures and petitions.
• 19 CFR part 113: customs bonds, including the 19 CFR 113.62 basic importation and entry bond conditions.
• 19 U.S.C. 1592: penalties for entry by material false statement or omission.
• 19 U.S.C. 1618: remission or mitigation of penalties and forfeitures.
• CBP forms library: official source for CBP Form 5955A and related forms.
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States: official tariff schedule, including Chapter 98 provisions referenced in free entry declarations.