§6695B and the New Attestation Liability
Why blind trust in supplier statements is no longer an adequate defense.
The most consequential shift under Notice 2026-15 is the operationalization of Gate 2: Supplier Certifications. Proving your supply chain is clean now requires specific, legally binding attestations from every Tier 1 supplier in your Bill of Materials (BOM).
The Certification Checklist
To satisfy compliance, each supplier certification must include all of the following elements:
- ☐Supplier EINEmployer Identification Number, or analogous identification number issued by a foreign government — §7701(a)(52)(D)(iii)(IV)(aa)
- ☐Perjury StatementSigned under penalties of perjury by an authorized representative of the supplier — §7701(a)(52)(D)(iii)(IV)(bb)
- ☐Record RetentionRetained by both the supplier and the taxpayer for not less than six years, and provided to the IRS upon request — §7701(a)(52)(D)(iii)(IV)(cc)
- ☐PFE Attestation + Chain AttestationStates (1) the property was not produced or manufactured by a PFE, and (2) the supplier does not know, or have reason to know, that any prior supplier in the chain of production is a PFE — §7701(a)(52)(D)(iii)(IV)(dd)(AA)
- ☐Cost DataFor §45X: total direct material costs of components not produced by a PFE. For §45Y/§48E: total direct costs attributable to manufactured products not produced by a PFE — §7701(a)(52)(D)(iii)(IV)(dd)(BB)–(CC)
Introducing §6695B Penalty Liability
§6695B imposes a penalty on any supplier who provides a certification knowing, or having reason to know, it is inaccurate. The penalty equals the greater of 10% of the underpayment attributable to the inaccuracy or $5,000, whichever is greater. A reasonable cause defense is available — but only if the supplier can show the inaccuracy was not due to willful neglect. — §6695B(a)–(c)
Verdex doesn't just collect these documents; we treat supplier uploads as claims to be verified. The certification logic checks the uploaded testament against our deterministic, aggregate public-data disposition. If a supplier swears they are clean but our engine finds a flag, the resulting contradiction highlights a primary review point for §6695B exposure.
The defense mechanism against these penalties relies on a "reasonable cause" standard. Building a defensible §6695B reasonable-cause dossier requires proving you didn't just passively accept a PDF, but affirmatively screened the reality of the supplier's corporate network.
Independent screening platforms, generating immutable run signatures with raw provenance, are your ultimate insurance policy.