On April 29, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Investment Security published an interim rule in the Federal Register that establishes a range of fees for formal written voluntary notices filed on or after May 1, 2020 with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The interim rule largely tracks the proposed regulations and adopts the sliding scale fee structure published on March 9, 2020 (see Trump and Trade Update of March 18, 2020). CFIUS has also issued a fact sheet and guidance for paying the filing fees. Public comments on the interim rule will be accepted until June 1, 2020.

Under the interim rule, all formal written notifications submitted on or after May 1, 2020 for “covered transactions” under 31 C.F.R. Part 800 or “covered real estate transactions” under Part 802, will be subject to filing fees ranging from $750 to $300,000, depending on the value of the transaction. Generally, valuation will be calculated based on the total value of all consideration that has been or will be paid in the context of the transaction by or on behalf of the foreign person who is a party to the transaction. The guidelines for valuation were discussed in the previous post.

CFIUS explained that there is no fee to submit a short-form declaration with CFIUS. However, the fees will apply to notices filed by parties at the end of the declaration process and full notifications made to CFIUS of a transaction subject to a mandatory short-form declaration. Notably, CFIUS may waive portions of a fee or the entire payment if “extraordinary circumstances relating to national security warrant such a waiver.”

The filing fee structure previously proposed remains unchanged:

Value of the Transaction Fee
Less than $500,000 No fee
Equal to or greater than $500,000
but less than $5,000,000
$750
Equal to or greater than $5,000,000
but less than $50,000,000
$7,500
Equal to or greater than $50,000,000
but less than $250,000,000
$75,000
Equal to or greater than $250,000,000
but less than $750,000,000
$150,000
Equal to or greater than $750,000,000 $300,000

Comments can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov or by mail to U.S. Department of the Treasury, Attention: Laura Black, Director of Investment Security Policy and International Relations, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20220.