Guide
CBP Form 7501 explained: from the entry summary to landed cost per unit
CBP Form 7501 is the entry summary: the declaration of what came in, what it was worth, how it was classified and what duty and fees were paid. It is usually prepared and filed by your licensed customs broker, in your name as importer of record. Because it records what was actually declared and assessed — not what a spreadsheet assumed — it is the most reliable cost document an importer has. This guide reads one, block by block, and turns it into the number an Amazon seller needs: landed cost per unit.
Block and column numbers follow CBP Form 7501 (02/26) and its instructions, checked 26 September 2026. The February 2026 edition added four country-of-metal blocks (21–24), so the totals are now blocks 41–44 — older guides online number them differently.
Worked example
A filed entry summary, annotated
Fictional. An invented importer, entry and figures, laid out the way a 7501 reads — two lines of stainless steel kitchenware from China, entered by container vessel at Los Angeles. The duty stack is real: 2% general, plus a Section 232 derivative steel line, 9903.82.09, at 25% on the full value (see HTS 7323.93.00).
1Block 1 — Filer code / entry number
An 11-character code: the three-character filer code (usually your broker’s), a seven-digit number, and a check digit. It is the key that joins this form to every ACE report about it.
2Block 2 — Entry type
01 is a consumption entry, free and dutiable — the everyday type for goods going into stock. 03 means antidumping or countervailing duty applies; 06 is a foreign-trade-zone consumption entry and 21 a warehouse entry.
3Block 3 — Summary date
The day the entry summary was filed with CBP, time-stamped when it is presented. Not the date that sets the rates — that is block 7.
4Block 6 — Port code
The US port in Schedule D format, DDPP. 2704 is Los Angeles.
5Block 7 — Entry date
Normally the day the goods were released. The tariff in force on this date — and the MPF floor and cap for its fiscal year — apply to the entry.
6Block 9 — Mode of transport
Two digits: 10 and 11 are vessel (11 containerised), 40 and 41 are air. Vessel cargo pays the harbor maintenance fee; air cargo does not.
7Blocks 27 and 30 — Importer number, importer of record
The party liable for the duties. If this is not your company, you are not the importer of record — and the duty on this form is not a cost you paid directly.
8Column 33A — HTS number
The full 10-digit HTSUS number, and any Chapter 99 number that applies on top of it — each with its own rate and its own duty. In ACE each one is a separate tariff record on the same line.
9Column 36 — Entered value and charges
36A is the entered value in whole dollars — for most imports the price paid, excluding international freight and insurance. 36B (“C”) records those freight and insurance charges; they are reported but not dutiable.
10Columns 37 and 38 — Rate and duty
The rate for each HTS number and the duty it produces, opposite each other. Fees go here too, at line level: MPF (collection code 499) and, if not shown once at the foot, HMF (501).
11Blocks 39 and 41–44 — Totals
39 total entered value; 41 duty; 42 tax; 43 other — the fees, itemised in the Other Fee Summary by code; 44 the total paid.
The arithmetic
From the 7501 to landed cost per unit
Line 001 — 4,000 pans — worked through. The first five rows come straight off the 7501. The last two come from invoices the 7501 never sees, and are shared across the two lines by weight (2,480 kg of 3,500 kg), never by value: freight is bought by weight and volume.
| Cost, line 001 | Where it comes from | Amount | Per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entered value (the supplier price) | 7501 column 36A | $18,400.00 | $4.600 |
| Duty, 7323.93.0045 at 2% | 7501 columns 37–38 | $368.00 | $0.092 |
| Duty, 9903.82.09 (Section 232) at 25% | 7501 columns 37–38 — its own line | $4,600.00 | $1.150 |
| Merchandise processing fee (499) | 0.3464%; FY2026 floor $33.58, cap $651.50 — this entry is inside both | $63.74 | $0.016 |
| Harbor maintenance fee (501) | 0.125% of value, vessel cargo only | $23.00 | $0.006 |
| Ocean freight and insurance | Forwarder’s invoice, $2,300 shared by weight | $1,629.71 | $0.407 |
| Brokerage and drayage | Broker’s and haulier’s invoices, $700 shared by weight | $496.00 | $0.124 |
| Landed cost | ÷ 4,000 units | $25,580.45 | $6.40 |
If the COGS in Amazon or your profit tool is the supplier price — $4.60 — it is understated by $1.80 a unit on this line, or 39%. Most of that gap is the Section 232 line, which a published-rate lookup of 7323.93 shows as 2%.
When the MPF floor or cap applies
MPF is 0.3464% of the entered value, but each formal entry pays at least the floor and at most the cap for the fiscal year of its entry date: $33.58 to $651.50 for entries from 1 October 2025 (90 FR 34665), and $34.58 to $670.86 from 1 October 2026 (91 FR 48398). This entry’s $86.60 sits inside both, so each line is simply the rate. On a large entry where the cap binds, share the entry’s capped MPF across lines by value instead — multiplying each line by the rate would overstate it.
Why the harbor maintenance fee is apportioned
HMF is 0.125% of value on cargo loaded or unloaded from a commercial vessel, with no floor or cap, and none on air cargo. The 7501 lets it be shown per line or once at the bottom of column 33, and ACE reports hold it only at entry level. Sharing it by value is exact, because it is a flat percentage.
The gaps
What the 7501 won’t tell you
- The SKU. An entry line carries an HTS number, a value and a quantity — no product name, no part number, no SKU — and one line can cover several SKUs. The commercial invoice and the packing list make the link, and quantity is the check: values can be adjusted, quantities rarely can.
- The freight you paid. International freight and insurance are outside the US customs value (19 CFR 152.102(f)). Column 36B records them, but the cost per unit needs the forwarder’s actual invoice.
- Everything after the border. Brokerage, drayage, prep and inbound shipping to Amazon happen after entry and appear on no customs form.
- The per-unit figure. The 7501 totals by entry and by line. Landed cost per unit is the division you still have to do — for every SKU, on every entry.
Skip the typing
The same data, every month, without keying a single 7501
Everything in columns 33 to 38 is available from ACE as the Entry Summary Line Tariff Details report — ES-003 — with one row per entry, per line, per tariff record, so each Chapter 99 line arrives as its own row with its own duty. You can schedule it as a recurring CSV from your own ACE account. How to run the ES-003 report, and see which entries carry IEEPA duty that CBP is refunding.
Questions
CBP Form 7501: straight answers
Who files the CBP Form 7501?
The entry summary is filed in the name of the importer of record — the owner or purchaser of the goods, or a licensed customs broker when designated. In practice most importers have their broker prepare and file it electronically through ACE. Either way, the importer of record is the party liable for the duties on it.
What is the difference between the entry date and the summary date?
Block 7, the entry date, is normally the date the goods were released, and it is the date whose tariff rates apply. Block 3, the summary date, is the date the entry summary itself was filed with CBP. For landed cost, the entry date is the one that matters: it decides the rates and which fiscal year’s MPF floor and cap apply.
Where do Section 232 and Section 301 duties appear on a 7501?
Additional duties are reported as Chapter 99 HTS numbers in column 33 alongside the product’s own 10-digit number, each with its rate in column 37 and its duty in column 38. In ACE data each is a separate tariff record, which is why the ES-003 report shows one row per tariff record — and why a spreadsheet that only reads the product’s own rate misses the largest part of the duty.
Why is freight not in the entered value?
Under the US transaction value rules the dutiable value excludes international freight and insurance where they are separately identified (19 CFR 152.102(f)). The 7501 still records those charges in column 36B, but no duty is charged on them. They remain a real cost per unit, so landed cost adds them back from the forwarder’s invoice.
Does the 7501 tell me my landed cost?
The 7501 gives the declared value, duty and fees per entry line. It has no SKU, no product part number and no freight bill, and an entry line can cover several SKUs. Landed cost per unit needs the commercial invoice and packing list to tie lines to SKUs, the forwarder’s invoice for freight, and the post-border costs — then a division by units.
Can Supercargo tell me which Chapter 99 lines my goods should carry?
A Chapter 99 heading is part of classification, which is customs business reserved to licensed brokers and to you as importer of record. Supercargo reads what was actually filed and turns it into landed cost; it never proposes a code for goods you are about to import. If a figure looks wrong, take it to your broker.
For United States shipments: Supercargo is not a licensed customs broker and does not conduct customs business as defined in 19 CFR 111.1. Figures shown for prospective shipments are management estimates on a commodity code you supply. Classification, valuation and entry remain the responsibility of you as importer of record and of your licensed broker, and reliance on Supercargo does not establish reasonable care for the purposes of 19 U.S.C. 1484.
Every entry, reconciled to the unit
The audit does this arithmetic for twelve months of your own entry summaries — every line, every Chapter 99 duty, every fee — and ties each one to your SKUs and the cost Amazon holds.