New Treasury Export Reporting Procedures

The Treasury Department’s export-related functions will soon eliminate paper filings in favor of electronic filings. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) plans to issue the new rule in this Friday’s Federal Register.

The current OFAC regulations set forth standard reporting and recordkeeping requirements, license application procedures, and other procedures relevant to the export programs administered by OFAC. OFAC is amending several regulations to require electronic submissions and to remove options for mail submission. The rule change will remove the addresses for physical delivery of such correspondence, and require such correspondence to be communicated electronically according to the new regulatory instructions. Some of the reporting mechanisms that are changed by the rule will be:

• Annual Reports of Blocked Property (31 C.F.R. § 501.603(d))
• Reports of rejected transactions (31 C.F.R. § 501.604(d))
• Required notice to the government of litigation that may affect blocked property or retained funds (31 C.F.R. § 501.605)
• Seeking export licenses (31 C.F.R. § 501.801)
• Petitioning for rulemaking (31 C.F.R. § 501.804)
• Seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (31 C.F.R. § 501.805)
• Petitioning for the unblocking of property (31 C.F.R. § 501.806)
• Petitioning to be removed from a SDN or blocked person list (31 C.F.R. § 501.807)

The rule is expected to be issued as an interim final rule on Friday. This means that the rule will be issued as a direct final rule, but the public is allowed to comment on the final rule, and a subsequent change could be made based on public comments.

The rule is expected to be effective 90 days after publication (if everything stays on schedule then that means August 9, 2024).

If you complete your filings electronically, then be sure to maintain evidence to prove that the filing was properly made. This can include screen shots, copies of sent emails with routing information, etc.

Resources

• Unpublished Treasury Version of the Rule
• Unpublished Federal Register Version of the Rule
• Future Home of the Rule on the Federal Register Website
• UPDATE: Federal Register Interim Final Rule