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Clauses · FAR · Pricing and audit

FAR 52.215-12 Subcontractor Certified Cost or Pricing Data

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

(c): in each subcontract that exceeds the certified cost or pricing data threshold of 15.403-4(a)(1) ($2.5M) as of the date of price agreement or of award, whichever is later

Form
substance — this clause (or 52.215-13, for modifications), including paragraph (c) itself
Reaches
all tiers

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-04 · edition JUN 2020 (Basic); Alt I OCT 2025 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

2 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something you write

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • Either the substance of this clause or the substance of FAR 52.215-13, written into your own subcontracts

      Owed on each subcontract that, when entered into, exceeds the certified cost or pricing data threshold at FAR 15.403-4(a)(1) — $2.5 million

      FAR 52.215-12(c)

  2. Nothing to send now

    It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.

    • The certified cost or pricing data and the FAR 15.406-2 certification your own supplier hands you before an award expected to exceed $2.5 million, kept in the price file behind your quote

      FAR 52.215-12(a) and (b)

When it is used

Enters the prime's contract together with 52.215-10 (15.408(d)), i.e. when the prime had to submit certified cost or pricing data. Flows down when the subcontract exceeds the TINA threshold of FAR 15.403-4(a)(1) — $2.5M since 2025-10-01 — as of the date of price agreement or of award, whichever is later, and no exception (commercial, adequate price competition) applies. (Trigger corrected 2026-08-05, backlog item 12: the entry gated on the dollar threshold and `commercial == false` and stopped there, so a non-commercial order above the threshold came out `applies` — deciding a question 15.408 leaves to 15.403-1(b). The family was also inconsistent with itself: 52.215-11 and 52.215-21 carried a structural leg for this and 52.215-10, -12, -13 and -20 did not. Prescription verified against acquisition.gov, FAR 15.408.)

Read closely

Nothing under this clause is sent upward: paragraphs (a) and (b) make you require the data and the certification from the tier below. What holds an award is the prime's own request under FAR 52.215-20 or 52.215-21; what this one decides is whether your price stands up when defective pricing is raised later. Failing to require data from a lower tier above the threshold is a standing audit finding.

The 12 templates that name it, with the line
143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 130155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 132233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1107105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 213166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2206166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2152168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2241255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 940243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1090240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1611273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 742178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 386

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.215-12 and 15.408(d)(1) (verified 2026-08-04)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.