[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 15, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 15CFR801.10]

[Page 15-17]
 
                  TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
 
    CHAPTER VIII--BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
 
PART 801_SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES BETWEEN U.S. AND FOREIGN 
PERSONS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 801.10  Rules and regulations for the BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected 
Services Transactions with Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.

    The BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with 
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, will be conducted covering companies' 2001 
fiscal year and every fifth year thereafter. All legal authorities, 
provisions, definitions, and requirements contained in Sec. Sec. 801.1 
through 801.9(a) are applicable to this survey. Additional rules and

[[Page 16]]

regulations for the BE-20 survey are given in this section. More 
detailed instructions and descriptions of the individual types of 
services covered are given on the report form itself.
    (a) The BE-20 survey consists of two parts and seven schedules. Part 
I requests information needed to determine whether a report is required 
and which schedules apply. Part II requests information about the 
reporting entity. Each of the seven schedules covers one or more types 
of services and is to be completed only if the U.S. Reporter has 
transactions of the type(s) covered by the particular schedule.
    (b) Who must report--(1) Mandatory reporting. A BE-20 report is 
required from each person who had transactions (either sales or 
purchases) in excess of $1 million with unaffiliated foreign persons in 
any of the services listed in paragraph (c) of this section during its 
fiscal year covered by the survey.
    (i) The determination of whether a U.S. person is subject to this 
mandatory reporting requirement may be judgmental, that is, based on the 
judgement of knowledgeable persons in a company who can identify 
reportable transactions on a recall basis, with a reasonable degree of 
certainty, without conducting a detailed records search. Because the $1 
million threshold applies separately to sales and purchases, the 
mandatory reporting requirement may apply only to sales, only to 
purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
    (ii) Reporters who file pursuant to this mandatory reporting 
requirement must complete Parts I and II of form BE-20 and all 
applicable schedules. The total amounts of transactions applicable to a 
particular schedule are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) on 
line 1 of the schedule. In addition, except for sales of merchanting 
services, these amounts must be distributed below line 1 to the 
country(ies) involved in the transaction(s). For sales of merchanting 
services, the data by individual foreign country are not required to be 
reported, although these data may be reported voluntarily.
    (iii) Application of the $1 million exemption level to each covered 
service is indicated on the schedule for that particular service. It 
should be noted that an item other than sales or purchases may be used 
as the measure of a given service for purposes of determining whether 
the threshold for mandatory reporting of the service is exceeded.
    (2) Voluntary reporting. If, during the fiscal year covered, the 
U.S. person's total transactions (either sales or purchases) in any of 
the types of services listed in paragraph (c) of this section are $1 
million or less, the U.S. person is requested to provide an estimate of 
the total for each type of service.
    (i) Provision of this information is voluntary. The estimates may be 
judgmental, that is, based on recall, without conducting a detailed 
manual records search. Because the $1 million threshold applies 
separately to sales and purchases, the voluntary reporting option may 
apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
    (ii) The amounts of transactions reportable on a particular schedule 
are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) in the voluntary 
reporting section of the schedule; they are not required to be 
disaggregated by country. Reporters filing voluntary information only 
should also complete Parts I and II of the form.
    (3) Any U.S. person that receives the BE-20 survey form from BEA, 
but is not reporting data in either the mandatory or voluntary section 
of the form, must nevertheless complete and return the Exemption claim 
included with the form to BEA. This requirement is necessary to ensure 
compliance with reporting requirements and efficient administration of 
the Act by eliminating unnecessary followup contact.
    (c) Covered types of services. Only the services listed in this 
paragraph are covered by the BE-20 survey. Other services, such as 
transportation and reinsurance, are not covered. Covered services are 
Agricultural services; research, development, and testing services; 
management, consulting, and public relations services; management of 
health care facilities; accounting auditing, and bookkeeping services; 
legal services; educational and training services; mailing, 
reproduction, and commercial art; employment agencies and temporary help 
supply services; industrial engineering services; industrial-

[[Page 17]]

type maintenance, installation, alteration, and training services; 
performing arts, sports, and other live performances, presentations, and 
events; sale and purchase of rights to natural resources, and lease 
bonus payments; use or lease of rights to natural resources, excluding 
lease bonus payments; disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of 
broadcasters; disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of print media; 
disbursements to fund production costs of motion pictures; disbursements 
to fund production costs of broadcast program material other than news; 
disbursements to maintain government tourism and business promotion 
offices; disbursements for sales promotion and representation; 
disbursements to participate in foreign trade shows (purchases only); 
premiums paid on purchases of primary insurance; losses recovered on 
purchases of primary insurance; construction services (purchases only); 
engineering, architectural, and surveying services (purchases only); 
mining services (purchases only); merchanting services (sales only); 
financial services (purchases only, by companies or parts of companies 
that are not financial services providers); advertising services; 
computer and data processing services; data base and other information 
services; telecommunications services; operational leasing services; 
other trade-related services; auxiliary insurance services; waste 
treatment and depollution services; and ``other'' private services. 
``Other'' private services covers transactions in the following types of 
services: Language translation services, salvage services, security 
services account collection services, satellite photograph and remote 
sensing/satellite imagery services, space transport (includes satellite 
launches, transport of goods and people for scientific experiments, and 
space passenger transport), and transcription services.

[66 FR 63919, Dec. 11, 2001]