Export promotion expenses
Export promotion expenses -
(1) Purpose of expense.
(i) In order for an expense or cost of a type described in subparagraph (2) of this paragraph to be an export promotion expense, the expense or cost must be incurred or treated as incurred by the DISC (under subparagraph (7) of this paragraph) to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property for use, consumption, or distribution outside the United States. Costs of services in performing installation (but not assembly) on the site and for meeting warranty commitments if such services are related and subsidiary (within the meaning of § 1.993-1(d)) to any qualified sale, lease, or other distribution of export property by the DISC (or with respect to which the DISC received a commission) will be considered to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property. General and administrative expenses attributable to billing customers, other clerical functions of the DISC, or generally operating the DISC, will also be considered to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property.
(ii) Where an expense or cost incurred or treated as incurred by the DISC qualifies only in part as an export promotion expense, such expense or cost must be allocated between the qualified portion and such other portion on a reasonable basis. See § 1.994-2(b)(2) for the option of the related supplier not to claim expenses as export promotion expenses.
(2) Types of expenses. The only expenses or costs which may be export promotion expenses are those expenses or costs meeting the test of subparagraph (1) of this paragraph which constitute -
(i) Ordinary and necessary expenses of the DISC paid or incurred during the DISC's taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, allowable as deductions under section 162, such as expenses for market studies, advertising, salaries and wages (including contributions or compensations deductible under section 404) of sales, clerical, and other personnel, rentals on property, sales commissions, warehousing, and other selling expenses,
(ii) A reasonable allowance under section 167 for exhaustion, wear and tear, or obsolescence of the property of the DISC,
(iii) Costs of freight (subject to the limitations of subparagraph (4) of this paragraph),
(iv) Costs of packaging for export (as defined in subparagraph (5) of this paragraph), or
(v) Costs of designing and labeling packages exclusively for export markets (under subparagraph (6) of this paragraph).
(3) Ineligible expenses. Items ineligible to be export promotion expenses include, for example, interest expenses, bad debt expenses, freight insurance, State and local income and franchise taxes, the cost of manufacture or assembly operations, and items of cost of goods sold (except as otherwise provided in this paragraph in the case of certain freight, packaging, and designing and labeling expenses). Income or similar taxes eligible for a foreign tax credit under sections 901 and 903 are also not eligible to be export promotion expenses.
(4) Freight expenses -
(i) In general. Export promotion expenses include one-half of the freight expense (not including insurance) for shipping export property aboard a U.S.-flag carrier in those cases where law or regulation of the United States or of any State or political subdivision thereof or of any agency or instrumentality of any of these does not require that the export property be shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “freight expense” includes charges paid for c.o.d. service, miscellaneous ground charges, such as charges incurred for services normally performed by U.S.-flag carriers, charges for services of loading aboard U.S.-flag carriers normally performed by such carriers, freight forwarders, or independent contractors engaged in loading property, and charges attributable to a freight consolidation function normally performed by freight forwarders. In order for one-half of freight expenses paid to the owner (or the agent of the owner) of a U.S.-flag carrier to be claimed as an export promotion expense, the DISC must obtain a written statement (such as, for example, a bill of lading) from the owner (or the agent) disclosing that the export property was shipped aboard the owner's U.S.-flag carrier or another U.S.-flag carrier, and the DISC must have no reasonable basis for disbelieving such statement of the owner (or the agent). For the requirement of a written statement from a freight forwarder, see subdivision (iv) of this subparagraph.
(ii) U.S.-flag carrier defined. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “U.S.-flag carrier” is an airplane owned and operated by a U.S. person or persons (as defined in section 7701(a)(30)) or a ship documented under the laws of the United States. Shipment initiated by delivery to the U.S. Postal Service shall be considered shipment aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, but not if shipped to a place to which mail shipments from the United States are ordinarily accomplished by land transportation, such as to Canada or Mexico, unless airmail is specified.
(iii) Shipment pursuant to law or regulation. Shipment pursuant to law or regulation includes instances where a U.S.-flag carrier must be used in order to obtain permission from the Government to make the export. If the law or regulation requires a fixed portion of the export property to be shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, the freight expense on that portion of such export property that was so shipped in order to satisfy such requirement cannot qualify as an export promotion expense.
(iv) Freight forwarders. A payment to a freight forwarder shall be considered freight expense within the meaning of this paragraph to the extent the forwarder utilizes a U.S.-flag carrier. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “freight forwarder” includes air freight consolidators and carriers owned and operated by U.S. persons utilizing U.S.- flag carriers such as non-vessel-owning common carriers. In order for one-half of freight expenses paid to a freight forwarder to be claimed as export promotion expenses, the DISC must obtain a written statement (such as, for example, a bill of lading) from the freight forwarder disclosing that the export property was shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, and the DISC must have no reasonable basis for disbelieving such statement of the freight forwarder.
(v) Freight within the United States. A DISC may not claim as export promotion expense any amount that is attributable to carriage of export property between points within the United States. If, however, export property is carried from the United States to a foreign country on a through shipment pursuant to a single bill of lading or similar document aboard one or more U.S.-flag carriers, the freight expense of such carriage shall not be apportioned between the domestic and foreign portions of such carriage, even though a carrier may stop en route within the United States or the export property may be shifted from one carrier to another, and one-half of such freight expense may be claimed as an export promotion expense. Freight expense does not include the cost of transporting the export property to the depot of the U.S.-flag carrier or freight forwarder for shipment abroad. The expense of shipment of export property initiated by delivery to the U.S. Postal Service for ultimate delivery outside the United States shall be considered as attributable entirely to carriage of such property outside the United States.
(5) Packaging for export.
(i) Export promotion expenses include the direct and indirect cost of packaging export property (including the cost of the package) for export whether or not the packaging is the same as domestic packaging. Such packaging costs do not include costs of manufacturing (as defined in the regulations under section 993) and assembly. Thus, if a DISC buys and packages export property for resale, its costs of packaging the export property are export promotion expenses. If, however, the process of such packaging by the DISC is physically integrated with the process of manufacturing the export property by the related supplier, the costs of such packaging are not export promotion expenses.
(ii) The cost of containers leased from a shipping company to which the DISC also pays freight for the property packaged is not a cost of packaging. However, in such circumstances, one-half of the rental charge may be allowable as a freight expense if permitted under subparagraph (4) of this paragraph.
(6) Designing and labeling packages. Export promotion expenses include the direct and indirect costs of designing and labeling packages, including bottles, cans, jars, boxes, cartons, or containers, to the extent incurred for export markets. Thus, for example, to the extent incurred for supplying export markets, the cost of designing labels in a foreign language and the cost of printing such labels are export promotion expenses.
(7) DISC must incur export promotion expenses -
(i) In general. In order for an expense to be an export promotion expense it must be incurred or treated as incurred under this subparagraph by the DISC. For example, an expense is incurred by a DISC if the expense results from (a) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay compensation to its employees, (b) depreciation of property owned by the DISC and used by its employees, (c) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay for office supplies used by its employees, (d) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay space costs for use by its employees, or (e) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay other costs supporting efforts by its employees.
(ii) Payments to independent contractors. A payment to an independent contractor, directly or indirectly, is treated as incurred by the DISC if the cost of performing the function performed by the independent contractor would be considered an export promotion expense described in subparagraphs (1) and (2) of this paragraph if performed by the DISC, and if, in a case where the services of the independent contractor were engaged by a party related to the DISC, such related party and such DISC agreed in writing before the contract was entered into that a specified portion or all of the contract was for the benefit of the DISC and that all of the expenses of the contract (eligible to be considered as export promotion expenses) with respect to such portion would be borne by the DISC.
(iii) Expenses incurred by related parties. Reimbursements or other payments by a DISC to a related party are export promotion expenses only if the expenses of the related party for which reimbursement is made are for space in a building actually used by employees of the DISC or for export property owned by the DISC. Except as otherwise provided in the preceding sentence, expenses incurred by a foreign international sales corporation (FISC) or a real property holding company (as defined in section 993(e)(1) and (2), respectively) shall not be treated as export promotion expenses of its DISC.
(iv) Selling commissions paid by a DISC. A commission paid by a DISC to a person other than a related person, with respect to a transaction which gives rise to qualified export receipts of the DISC, is an export promotion expense of the DISC. A commission paid by a DISC to a related person is not an export promotion expense.
(v) Sales of promotional material. If a DISC sells promotional material to a buyer of export property from the DISC at a price which is greater than the costs of the DISC for such material, such costs are not export promotion expenses. If, however, the DISC sells promotional material at a price which is less than its costs for such material, the excess of such costs over such price is an export promotion expense. For rules relating to the status of promotional material as qualified export assets and export property, see §§ 1.993-2 and 1.993-3, respectively.
(vi) An expense may be incurred by the DISC under subdivisions (i) through (v) of this subparagraph even if the accounting for and payment of such expense is handled by a related party and the DISC reimburses the related party for such expenses.
(8) Incomplete transactions. Expenses eligible to be treated as export promotion expenses which are attributable to the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property and which are incurred prior to the taxable year of sale, lease, or other distribution by the DISC are not treated as export promotion expenses until the taxable year of sale, lease, or other distribution or until the taxable year in which it is first determined that no transaction is reasonably expected to result from the expense incurred (whether or not a transaction subsequently results). Thus, for example, if a DISC incurs a packaging cost which is otherwise eligible to be treated as an export promotion expense, the DISC may not include such charge as an export promotion expense until the year in which the export property with respect to which the packaging cost was incurred is actually sold by the DISC. If no transaction is reasonably expected to result from the packaging cost, such cost should be allocated as an export promotion expense to the group of transactions to which such cost is most closely related.
(g) Examples. The provisions of this section may be illustrated by the following examples:
(1) Purpose of expense.
(i) In order for an expense or cost of a type described in subparagraph (2) of this paragraph to be an export promotion expense, the expense or cost must be incurred or treated as incurred by the DISC (under subparagraph (7) of this paragraph) to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property for use, consumption, or distribution outside the United States. Costs of services in performing installation (but not assembly) on the site and for meeting warranty commitments if such services are related and subsidiary (within the meaning of § 1.993-1(d)) to any qualified sale, lease, or other distribution of export property by the DISC (or with respect to which the DISC received a commission) will be considered to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property. General and administrative expenses attributable to billing customers, other clerical functions of the DISC, or generally operating the DISC, will also be considered to advance the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property.
(ii) Where an expense or cost incurred or treated as incurred by the DISC qualifies only in part as an export promotion expense, such expense or cost must be allocated between the qualified portion and such other portion on a reasonable basis. See § 1.994-2(b)(2) for the option of the related supplier not to claim expenses as export promotion expenses.
(2) Types of expenses. The only expenses or costs which may be export promotion expenses are those expenses or costs meeting the test of subparagraph (1) of this paragraph which constitute -
(i) Ordinary and necessary expenses of the DISC paid or incurred during the DISC's taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, allowable as deductions under section 162, such as expenses for market studies, advertising, salaries and wages (including contributions or compensations deductible under section 404) of sales, clerical, and other personnel, rentals on property, sales commissions, warehousing, and other selling expenses,
(ii) A reasonable allowance under section 167 for exhaustion, wear and tear, or obsolescence of the property of the DISC,
(iii) Costs of freight (subject to the limitations of subparagraph (4) of this paragraph),
(iv) Costs of packaging for export (as defined in subparagraph (5) of this paragraph), or
(v) Costs of designing and labeling packages exclusively for export markets (under subparagraph (6) of this paragraph).
(3) Ineligible expenses. Items ineligible to be export promotion expenses include, for example, interest expenses, bad debt expenses, freight insurance, State and local income and franchise taxes, the cost of manufacture or assembly operations, and items of cost of goods sold (except as otherwise provided in this paragraph in the case of certain freight, packaging, and designing and labeling expenses). Income or similar taxes eligible for a foreign tax credit under sections 901 and 903 are also not eligible to be export promotion expenses.
(4) Freight expenses -
(i) In general. Export promotion expenses include one-half of the freight expense (not including insurance) for shipping export property aboard a U.S.-flag carrier in those cases where law or regulation of the United States or of any State or political subdivision thereof or of any agency or instrumentality of any of these does not require that the export property be shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “freight expense” includes charges paid for c.o.d. service, miscellaneous ground charges, such as charges incurred for services normally performed by U.S.-flag carriers, charges for services of loading aboard U.S.-flag carriers normally performed by such carriers, freight forwarders, or independent contractors engaged in loading property, and charges attributable to a freight consolidation function normally performed by freight forwarders. In order for one-half of freight expenses paid to the owner (or the agent of the owner) of a U.S.-flag carrier to be claimed as an export promotion expense, the DISC must obtain a written statement (such as, for example, a bill of lading) from the owner (or the agent) disclosing that the export property was shipped aboard the owner's U.S.-flag carrier or another U.S.-flag carrier, and the DISC must have no reasonable basis for disbelieving such statement of the owner (or the agent). For the requirement of a written statement from a freight forwarder, see subdivision (iv) of this subparagraph.
(ii) U.S.-flag carrier defined. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “U.S.-flag carrier” is an airplane owned and operated by a U.S. person or persons (as defined in section 7701(a)(30)) or a ship documented under the laws of the United States. Shipment initiated by delivery to the U.S. Postal Service shall be considered shipment aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, but not if shipped to a place to which mail shipments from the United States are ordinarily accomplished by land transportation, such as to Canada or Mexico, unless airmail is specified.
(iii) Shipment pursuant to law or regulation. Shipment pursuant to law or regulation includes instances where a U.S.-flag carrier must be used in order to obtain permission from the Government to make the export. If the law or regulation requires a fixed portion of the export property to be shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, the freight expense on that portion of such export property that was so shipped in order to satisfy such requirement cannot qualify as an export promotion expense.
(iv) Freight forwarders. A payment to a freight forwarder shall be considered freight expense within the meaning of this paragraph to the extent the forwarder utilizes a U.S.-flag carrier. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “freight forwarder” includes air freight consolidators and carriers owned and operated by U.S. persons utilizing U.S.- flag carriers such as non-vessel-owning common carriers. In order for one-half of freight expenses paid to a freight forwarder to be claimed as export promotion expenses, the DISC must obtain a written statement (such as, for example, a bill of lading) from the freight forwarder disclosing that the export property was shipped aboard a U.S.-flag carrier, and the DISC must have no reasonable basis for disbelieving such statement of the freight forwarder.
(v) Freight within the United States. A DISC may not claim as export promotion expense any amount that is attributable to carriage of export property between points within the United States. If, however, export property is carried from the United States to a foreign country on a through shipment pursuant to a single bill of lading or similar document aboard one or more U.S.-flag carriers, the freight expense of such carriage shall not be apportioned between the domestic and foreign portions of such carriage, even though a carrier may stop en route within the United States or the export property may be shifted from one carrier to another, and one-half of such freight expense may be claimed as an export promotion expense. Freight expense does not include the cost of transporting the export property to the depot of the U.S.-flag carrier or freight forwarder for shipment abroad. The expense of shipment of export property initiated by delivery to the U.S. Postal Service for ultimate delivery outside the United States shall be considered as attributable entirely to carriage of such property outside the United States.
(5) Packaging for export.
(i) Export promotion expenses include the direct and indirect cost of packaging export property (including the cost of the package) for export whether or not the packaging is the same as domestic packaging. Such packaging costs do not include costs of manufacturing (as defined in the regulations under section 993) and assembly. Thus, if a DISC buys and packages export property for resale, its costs of packaging the export property are export promotion expenses. If, however, the process of such packaging by the DISC is physically integrated with the process of manufacturing the export property by the related supplier, the costs of such packaging are not export promotion expenses.
(ii) The cost of containers leased from a shipping company to which the DISC also pays freight for the property packaged is not a cost of packaging. However, in such circumstances, one-half of the rental charge may be allowable as a freight expense if permitted under subparagraph (4) of this paragraph.
(6) Designing and labeling packages. Export promotion expenses include the direct and indirect costs of designing and labeling packages, including bottles, cans, jars, boxes, cartons, or containers, to the extent incurred for export markets. Thus, for example, to the extent incurred for supplying export markets, the cost of designing labels in a foreign language and the cost of printing such labels are export promotion expenses.
(7) DISC must incur export promotion expenses -
(i) In general. In order for an expense to be an export promotion expense it must be incurred or treated as incurred under this subparagraph by the DISC. For example, an expense is incurred by a DISC if the expense results from (a) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay compensation to its employees, (b) depreciation of property owned by the DISC and used by its employees, (c) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay for office supplies used by its employees, (d) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay space costs for use by its employees, or (e) the DISC incurring an obligation to pay other costs supporting efforts by its employees.
(ii) Payments to independent contractors. A payment to an independent contractor, directly or indirectly, is treated as incurred by the DISC if the cost of performing the function performed by the independent contractor would be considered an export promotion expense described in subparagraphs (1) and (2) of this paragraph if performed by the DISC, and if, in a case where the services of the independent contractor were engaged by a party related to the DISC, such related party and such DISC agreed in writing before the contract was entered into that a specified portion or all of the contract was for the benefit of the DISC and that all of the expenses of the contract (eligible to be considered as export promotion expenses) with respect to such portion would be borne by the DISC.
(iii) Expenses incurred by related parties. Reimbursements or other payments by a DISC to a related party are export promotion expenses only if the expenses of the related party for which reimbursement is made are for space in a building actually used by employees of the DISC or for export property owned by the DISC. Except as otherwise provided in the preceding sentence, expenses incurred by a foreign international sales corporation (FISC) or a real property holding company (as defined in section 993(e)(1) and (2), respectively) shall not be treated as export promotion expenses of its DISC.
(iv) Selling commissions paid by a DISC. A commission paid by a DISC to a person other than a related person, with respect to a transaction which gives rise to qualified export receipts of the DISC, is an export promotion expense of the DISC. A commission paid by a DISC to a related person is not an export promotion expense.
(v) Sales of promotional material. If a DISC sells promotional material to a buyer of export property from the DISC at a price which is greater than the costs of the DISC for such material, such costs are not export promotion expenses. If, however, the DISC sells promotional material at a price which is less than its costs for such material, the excess of such costs over such price is an export promotion expense. For rules relating to the status of promotional material as qualified export assets and export property, see §§ 1.993-2 and 1.993-3, respectively.
(vi) An expense may be incurred by the DISC under subdivisions (i) through (v) of this subparagraph even if the accounting for and payment of such expense is handled by a related party and the DISC reimburses the related party for such expenses.
(8) Incomplete transactions. Expenses eligible to be treated as export promotion expenses which are attributable to the sale, lease, or other distribution of export property and which are incurred prior to the taxable year of sale, lease, or other distribution by the DISC are not treated as export promotion expenses until the taxable year of sale, lease, or other distribution or until the taxable year in which it is first determined that no transaction is reasonably expected to result from the expense incurred (whether or not a transaction subsequently results). Thus, for example, if a DISC incurs a packaging cost which is otherwise eligible to be treated as an export promotion expense, the DISC may not include such charge as an export promotion expense until the year in which the export property with respect to which the packaging cost was incurred is actually sold by the DISC. If no transaction is reasonably expected to result from the packaging cost, such cost should be allocated as an export promotion expense to the group of transactions to which such cost is most closely related.
(g) Examples. The provisions of this section may be illustrated by the following examples: