You Don't Need a Big Four Firm to Get Your Imports Right

A startup brings in its first few containers and realizes it doesn't know what it doesn't know. Someone suggests getting professional help. The company calls a large consulting firm, and the proposal comes back with a retainer bigger than the tax bill that started the conversation.

That's where most small importers stop asking for help, which is the expensive choice even though it looks like the cheap one.

Price is only half the problem. At a large firm, a small importer is the smallest account in the building. Your questions go to a junior team, your emails wait behind clients paying ten times what you pay, and the person who impressed you in the pitch meeting isn't the one handling your shipment.

What a boutique firm does instead

At a small firm, the person you talk to already knows your account, so answers come in hours instead of weeks.

The other thing a good boutique brings is relationships. Customs is a government agency, and a lot of what happens there comes down to knowing who to call. Mercantile Logistics & International Trade had a client who spent eight months trying to set up their own online account with Customs. Mercantile got it done in days. That's not a rulebook difference, it's a phone-call difference.

Where the money usually is

Small importers tend to leave refunds unclaimed, mostly because nobody told them the refunds exist.

If you paid import taxes on goods that later left the country, you can often get that money back. Fewer than ten brokers nationwide go after these smaller claims, because the paperwork isn't worth it to a large firm. Mercantile is one of the few that does, handling refunds up to $250,000 and passing larger claims to a trusted partner. The firm has also recovered more than $10 million for clients on tariffs that were later adjusted or overturned.

For a small company, one recovered claim can pay for years of compliance help.

Who you're actually hiring

MLIT is led by Kim Daniels, the main point of contact for clients, who spends real time in Washington on the trade policy issues that hit importers. Every client's activity lives in one shared portal, so you can see where things stand without chasing anyone. The firm works out of Henderson, Nevada and Washington, DC.

If you're importing and not sure you're doing it right, or whether you're owed money you never claimed, that's a conversation worth having.

Listed in the Global Trade Jobs Consultant Network. mlitinc.com | info@mlitinc.com