[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 15, Volume 3]

[Revised as of January 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 15CFR801.10]



[Page 14-16]

 

                  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 

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.



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    (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-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



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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]