Canada CARM

1. A business number. You need a BN9 and a 6-character import account (RM), which together make a BN15. Non-resident importers get their BN from the CRA first.
2. A CARM Client Portal account. All importers need one.
3. Authority for your broker. Sign a general agency agreement, and delegate authority in the portal. CBSA needs both. See power of attorney for customs.
4. Release Prior to Payment, if you want it. Enrol in the portal and post financial security. CBSA recommends this route, and calls it the most common one for commercial importers.

Without it, you pay in full at release, using a paper Type C accounting declaration and paying at a CBSA office. With it, the goods release electronically and you pay the balance by the due date. The transition period ended on 20 May 2025, and importers who hadn't posted security lost release before payment.

Memorandum D17-5-2 sets the requirement from your highest monthly account receivable over the previous 12 months, per RM account, including GST and other amounts such as adjustments and interest.

There's a maximum of CAD 10 million per account, and CBSA reviews the requirement every year.

Example. This is our own illustration. An importer's monthly balances of duty and GST over the past year peak at CAD 84,000 in October.

If that same importer's peak was CAD 7,000, the 50% calculation would give CAD 3,500, so the CAD 5,000 floor applies on a written agreement. A deposit of CAD 7,000 would have no floor. Pick based on how much cash you want tied up, and what the surety charges you.

CBSA issues the statement of account on the 25th of each month, with payment due 10 weekdays after the 17th. The document that accounts for goods is the Commercial Accounting Declaration, or CAD, which replaced the B3 and which you can correct in the portal. Check the current deadlines for submitting a CAD in CBSA's memoranda, or with your broker.

Amendments to section 17 of the Customs Act were set by order to take effect on 1 January 2026. A business that declares itself the commercial importer on the accounting documents becomes the importer of record, and a broker using its own BN is jointly and severally liable with the importer and owner for duties and taxes.

So be careful about using your broker's number. The temporary use of broker BN15s for commercial goods (new non-resident importers, one-time importers, courier low-value shipments) ended on 31 December 2025. CBSA's June 2026 notice allows some use again in the courier programme, where goods have been released and an importer hasn't fully registered, while the broker gets the importer enrolled, and it applies a modified compliance approach for 12 months from 12 June 2026. Don't read that as permanent. The direction of travel is that importers register.

Using a broker doesn't move your liability, either. CBSA says you remain fully liable for duties, taxes, penalties and interest, including if the broker doesn't remit.

The Courier Low Value Shipment Program covers shipments of up to CAD 3,300 in value for duty. Goods regulated by other departments are generally out, with narrow exceptions for casual goods. Couriers can account for casual goods for the consumer. But commercial goods now need a registered importer behind them, which is what the transition was about. CBSA's forward regulatory plan also proposes mandatory advance electronic data for courier goods, and that may bring a penalty regime later.

The tax thresholds for low-value goods are here:

A foreign seller can act as a non-resident importer. You'll need a BN from the CRA, a CARM registration and, usually, security. You'd also need to look at GST/HST registration: a non-resident importer who isn't registered pays GST at the border and can't claim it back, though a registered customer may be able to. It also means taking on importer liability under section 17. See DDP and DAP, and talk to a Canadian customs broker. This page is guidance only, and the CARM rules have moved repeatedly since launch.