Truthful Cost or Pricing Data
TINA compliance and defective pricing support.
Certified cost or pricing data is required on negotiated contracts, subcontracts, and modifications above the threshold unless an exception applies. Certifying means the data were accurate, complete, and current as of price agreement. We build the disclosure, run the sweep, collect subcontractor data, and defend defective pricing findings.
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The Requirement
When certified cost or pricing data is required
The requirement is statutory: 10 U.S.C. chapter 271 for defense contracts, implemented in FAR Part 15. Unless an exception applies, you certify before the award of a negotiated contract, a subcontract at any tier where the prime and each higher tier had to certify, or a modification, when the price is expected to exceed the threshold (10 U.S.C. 3702).
The statute has been titled Truthful Cost or Pricing Data for years, though most people still say TINA. The FY2026 NDAA raised the DoD threshold to $10 million for contracts entered into after June 30, 2026. Details are in our guide to the FY2026 TINA and CAS threshold changes.
The statutory exceptions (10 U.S.C. 3703):
- Adequate price competition, or prices set by law or regulation.
- Commercial products and commercial services.
- A written waiver in an exceptional case by the head of the contracting activity, without delegation.
The contracting officer determines whether an exception applies. And a prime-level waiver doesn’t automatically reach lower-tier subcontracts.
Nontraditional Defense Contractors
The nontraditional defense contractor exemption
Section 1826 of the FY2026 NDAA exempts nontraditional defense contractors from certified cost or pricing data requirements unless the exemption is waived. A nontraditional defense contractor is an entity that isn’t performing, and for at least the year before the solicitation hasn’t performed, any DoD contract or subcontract subject to full CAS coverage (10 U.S.C. 3014). DoD’s Part 215 deviation also lifts make-or-buy, forward pricing rate, and should-cost requirements.
A waiver needs a written determination by the head of the contracting activity and notice to the congressional defense committees within 60 days. The contracting officer still has to find the price fair and reasonable (10 U.S.C. 3705), so expect requests for other pricing information. Status turns on your CAS history, so check it before accepting a fully covered contract.
Definitions
What you are actually certifying
The certificate is one page. Behind it sits the factual basis of your price.
Cost or pricing data
All facts that, as of the date of price agreement, prudent buyers and sellers would reasonably expect to affect price negotiations significantly (10 U.S.C. 3701; FAR 2.101). They’re factual and verifiable, not judgmental: vendor quotations, nonrecurring costs, labor efficiency trends, make-or-buy decisions. A learning curve is judgment. The actual hours that feed it are fact.
The Certificate of Current Cost or Pricing Data
Signed after price agreement, it states that the data submitted, actually or by specific identification in writing, were accurate, complete, and current as of price agreement or an agreed date close to it (FAR 15.406-2). DoD guidance asks for it preferably within five days of agreement and rejects altered certificate language.
Reasonably available
Data inside your organization on matters significant to management and the government count as reasonably available, whatever your negotiators personally knew. If purchasing had the lower quote, the company had it.
Disclosure
Disclosure, making available, and the sweep
The FAR distinguishes submitting certified data from merely making books and records available without identifying them (FAR 15.408, Table 15-2). Submission means delivering the data, or specifically identifying it in writing, to the contracting officer or an authorized representative. Access to a shared drive isn’t disclosure.
The obligation runs until price agreement, and newer data should go over promptly, linked to the proposal. That’s the sweep: a structured search, cost element by cost element, for anything that changed between proposal and handshake. Under DoD guidance, data sent after price agreement is either handled after award under the defective pricing clause or reopens negotiations.
Subcontracts
Subcontract data and flowdown
If you certify, you must also obtain and analyze certified data from subcontractors before awarding any subcontract above the threshold, unless an exception applies to it, and flow the clause down (FAR 15.404-3; 52.215-12 and 52.215-13). Subcontracts of $20 million or more, or above the threshold and more than 10 percent of your proposed price, go to the government as part of your own certified data, and you keep them current through negotiations.
The exposure sits with the prime. Under 52.215-10, if a subcontractor’s defective data inflated your price, your price comes down.
Defective Pricing
The clause, the remedies, and the defenses
The price reduction clauses (52.215-10, and 52.215-11 for modifications) give the government a reduction, including profit or fee, for any significant amount by which defective data increased the price (10 U.S.C. 3706). The government also recovers interest on overpayments from payment to repayment, and a knowing submission adds a penalty equal to the overpayment (10 U.S.C. 3707).
The statute bars the obvious arguments: sole source status, that the contracting officer should have known, a total-price deal, or a missing certificate. What remains:
- It wasn’t cost or pricing data, or it wasn’t reasonably available before the as-of date.
- It was disclosed, and you can prove it.
- The government didn’t rely on it, or it didn’t increase the price. The presumption of a price increase is rebuttable.
- Offsets for understated data from the same pricing action, if you certify entitlement and prove the data existed but weren’t submitted.
We build the factual record and the numbers. Litigation strategy is handled alongside your counsel.
The Audit
What the auditor actually looks at
A postaward defective pricing audit is a comparison: what the company knew on the certificate date against what it told the government.
The government generally must show the information was cost or pricing data, was reasonably available before the as-of date, wasn’t disclosed, was relied on, and increased the price.
The negotiated baseline
The proposal, the certificate, and the government’s price negotiation memorandum, which shows what the negotiators relied on and where they moved off your numbers.
Vendor quotes and purchase history
Proposed material is traced to the quotes and purchase history that existed before the as-of date. Newer or lower quotes in the buyer’s files, and purchase orders placed soon after agreement at lower prices, are the first place auditors look.
Labor hours and rates
Proposed hours against actual hours from prior lots or similar work available at the time. Proposed rates against current payroll and updated rate forecasts, including any forward pricing data behind the price.
The sweep
What was updated, what wasn’t, and how it was sent. A disclosure log with dated transmittals and specific identification is often the difference between a finding and a closed file.
Reliance and quantification
The auditor ties the undisclosed fact to the negotiated price and carries the difference through burdens and profit. You can respond to the findings, and the contracting officer makes the final call on whether the data were defective and relied upon.
Failure Patterns
Where defective pricing usually comes from
Most findings start in the gaps between estimating, purchasing, and finance.
Stale vendor quotes
Material priced from a months-old quote while purchasing held a newer, lower one. Fine when written, not current when certified.
Undisclosed updated actuals
Hours or indirect rates came from an earlier period. Newer actuals closed before negotiations ended and never went over, because nobody asked accounting.
Sub data never collected
A sub quote above the threshold was priced without certified data, or collected once and never updated. The prime carries the reduction either way.
“Made available” in a data room
Everything was accessible, nothing was identified to the proposal it affected, so none of it counted as submitted.
How We Help
How we work TINA engagements
The firm is led by a former DCAA Supervisory Auditor who also ran these systems from inside a venture-backed defense technology company.
TINA-ready proposal and disclosure log
Every significant number traced to a dated source, and a log of what was submitted, when, and how.
Subcontract data collection
Flowdown language, certified data requests, and cost or price analysis of sub proposals.
Sweep procedures
A written sweep by cost element with cutoff dates and owners, sent before price agreement.
Response to DCAA defective pricing reports
Findings tested against the negotiation record, with a written response on each element.
Offsets and price impact
Recalculating the government’s number and supporting offsets or a voluntary disclosure with a defensible cost impact.
A Note on Citations
Statute first, current FAR text checked every time
We cite the statute first because the FAR is mid-rewrite. Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, DoD Class Deviation 2026-O0048, Rev. 1 (July 22, 2026) has DoD contracting officers using a rewritten Part 15 that renumbers these provisions (the certificate becomes 15.403-4, defective data after award 15.304), while clauses 52.215-10 through 52.215-13 keep their numbers. The FAR Council’s formal Part 15 rewrite isn’t final. Citations here are to the codified FAR, and we check current text on every engagement.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act the same thing as TINA?
Yes. Truthful Cost or Pricing Data has been the title in Title 41 since 2011 and in Title 10 since the FY2021 NDAA recodification. Most people still say TINA.
Are nontraditional defense contractors exempt from TINA?
Under Section 1826 of the FY2026 NDAA, yes, unless the head of the contracting activity waives it in writing. Qualifying depends on having no fully CAS-covered DoD work in the year before the solicitation.
We won the contract through competition. Do we still need to certify?
Usually not for the award, if the contracting officer finds adequate price competition. Later modifications are separate pricing actions and can require certified data above the threshold.
How far back can the government go on defective pricing?
Government claims generally face the Contract Disputes Act’s six-year limit from accrual, and accrual is often contested, so raise timing with your counsel early.
Can we offset understated costs against a defective pricing finding?
Yes, if the understated data relate to the same pricing action, you certify entitlement, and you prove the data existed before the as-of date but weren’t submitted. It needn’t be the same cost element.
We found a problem after award. Should we disclose it ourselves?
DoD has a voluntary disclosure procedure, but disclosing doesn’t waive interest or the government’s other rights, so decide with your counsel. We build the cost impact.
More
Related services
TINA and CAS thresholds after the FY2026 NDAA
The $10 million DoD certified data threshold, the new CAS thresholds, and what they reach.
Contract pricing & proposal support
Cost volumes and basis of estimate for FFP, cost-reimbursable, and T&M solicitations.
Forward pricing rates (FPRP & FPRA)
Forward pricing rate proposals and agreements, where the certificate reaches the data behind the rates.
Government audit support
Preparation and representation for DCAA and DCMA audits and buying command cost analysis.
Nontraditional defense contractors
What Section 1826 of the FY2026 NDAA exempts, how status is asserted and lost, and what still gets reviewed.
Subcontract cost & price analysis
Independent analysis of supplier proposals under FAR 15.404-1, documented to FAR 15.408 Table 15-2 for your purchasing file.
Certifying soon, or facing a defective pricing audit?
Tell us where you are: a proposal heading into negotiation, a sweep coming up, or a DCAA draft report in hand.