CBSA announces its new external launch date for CARM

May 22, 2024

Ottawa, Ontario – The Government of Canada has amended the Order that brings into force the final legislative changes for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) digital initiative. These legislative amendments, and associated regulations, will now come into force on October 21, 2024. On this day, CARM will be made available to trade chain partners as it will become the official system for the collection of duties and taxes for goods imported into Canada.

CARM successfully launched internally at the CBSA on May 13, as planned, to advance the Agency’s compliance and enforcement efforts. Errors and omissions in customs payments create an unfair competitive advantage for those not paying their fair share.

The CBSA has also now assumed the responsibility for the administration of import-export program accounts, a role previously held by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Trade chain partners continue to register for the portal, with over 81,000 members already onboard, and are getting ready with our support to start using CARM this fall. So far, 95% of Canada’s top importers by volume have registered to CARM.

In addition to protecting and growing $40 billion a year in revenue for Canadians, CARM will offer trade chain partners with a number of benefits including:

• Eliminate cumbersome and time-consuming paper-based processes;
• Provide better tools to improve fairness and consistency in the treatment of all importers, reducing missed opportunities to apply taxes and/or duties, thereby reducing revenue leakage; and
• Improve functionality for importers through the ability to enroll in commercial programs, submit accounting documents, and receive notifications through their CARM Client Portal account.

To ease the transition to CARM, all commercial businesses who import goods into Canada are encouraged to register on the CARM Client Portal as soon as possible, ahead of the new coming into force date this fall.