Tariff enforcement is about to get real. Here’s how CFOs should prepare

CFOs have spent almost a year thinking about tariffs. And as many are preparing for tariffs to be around for the long haul, they also need to be aware of increased enforcement of tariff compliance, which the Trump administration has made a priority.

The enforcement ramp-up. In a memo released in May 2025, the Department of Justice put “trade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion” second on the list of priorities for white collar crime enforcement. The memo said “prosecuting such frauds will ensure that American businesses are competing on a level playing field in global trade and commerce.”

Lenny Feldman, a tariff lawyer and managing partner at Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, said he expects tariff enforcement to increase in 2026. “The Administration rolled out a very complex and comprehensive tariff overhaul in an extremely short period of time,” Feldman said in an email. “This had led to numerous errors—most unintentional, but some intentional. As the stakes have never been higher, I would expect more CBP enforcement to ‘clean up’ these errors.”

A smattering of the confusing events in the tariff rollout this year include flipflopping on applying tariffs on certain goods, levying tariffs followed almost immediately by pausing them, and imposing tariffs on uninhabited Antarctic islands.

“There’s going to be increased scrutiny on every single import,” Christopher Desmond, the principal in the customs and international trade group at PwC, told CFO Brew, agreeing with Feldman. And it’s worth noting that Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” gave Customs and Border Protection $4 billion to hire 8,500 employees.

A year of data. Next year will also mark a milestone: The agency will have its first year of tariff data, giving analysts better visibility into importers’ trends and pricing.

“Companies look at blocks of fiscal year ends and they’re going to report things,” Desmond said. “Here’s…everything we did in 2025; that’s when you get questioned.”

The AI factor. According to experts, another thing that will be different in 2026 is the use of AI. Desmond noted that CBP is “using AI to do audits now and spotting things that they haven’t seen before.”

Companies are also using AI to get out in front of CBP. Dan Miller, CFO of RightRev, told CFO Brew in an email that “2026 will demand automation. Tariff impacts are moving too fast for manual processes, so companies will increasingly adopt systems that are agile and allow for flexibility.”

What should CFOs do? Feldman recommends conducting internal compliance reviews and ACE reports now to find mistakes before CBP does. And then deciding if it’s necessary to report them to CBP before getting slapped with penalties.

Desmond stressed the importance of getting different groups talking and working in sync. The best practice he sees is companies creating a task force of people from departments like logistics, procurement, transfer pricing, tax, and customs to keep an eye on everything having to do with tariffs.

Desmond’s final word of caution: “Make sure you’re taking positions that you are prepared to defend in the future.”