CARM

For those of you who don’t know or are unfamiliar, The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has come out with an initiative called CARM (CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management) and Release 1 of the initiative began in May 2021. The purpose of the initiative is to simplify the process and make it easier to interact with CBSA electronically.

The key functions of the CARM Release 1 include:

• The ability to set-up pre-authorised debit as well as credit card or financial institution to pay account

• Be able to view Statement of Account, Daily Notices, and basic client transaction information

• The ability to request rulings

• The ability to assign access to business account to customs brokers and trade consultants

• Tools such as, Duty and Calculator to provide estimates, and HS Classification Tool to assist in correctly classifying your goods

A Daily Notice (DN) is a statement listing all transactions made on the importer account from the previous day. A DN is issued when there has been activity on the account while a Statement of Account (SOA) is a monthly statement. It provides a summary of the daily notices from the 25th of one month to the 24th of the next (for example, from June 25 to July 24). Both daily and monthly statements include information on: payments made, interest owing, credits, disbursements, and existing debt. Statements of Accounts also shows everything you owe, transactions from all brokers, interest, and penalties.

Importers, customs brokers and trade consultants will need to create their portal Business Account and designate a Business Account Manager (BAM). The BAM will be responsible for managing the day-to-day aspects of the account (e.g., assigning privileges, approving delegation of authority requests, etc.). All users of the CARM Client Portal are required to create their individual Portal user accounts using GCKey or Sign-on Partner. For more information on how to set up your account or FAQs regarding this initiative, visit https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/prog/carm-gcra/menu-eng.html

CARM’s next phase, Release 2 will be implemented in May or October of 2023. A key feature of the release will be a change to the Release Prior to Payment programme (RPP). Importer will no longer be able to use their customs broker's RPP security to clear shipments before paying duties and taxes. Importers who want to participate in the RPP program will be required to post their own financial security. Another change is a new Commercial Accounting Declaration (CAD) will be introduced; it will serve as a digital document to account for imported goods into Canada. The CARM system will automatically calculate the duties and taxes based on the information provided by the client, and changes can be made to the original CAD submission up to payment due date interest free. Furthermore, a new harmonised billing cycle that aligns payment due dates for importers will be released. The payment due date will be 10 weekdays (defined as Monday to Friday, inclusive of holidays) after the 17th of the calendar month.

Other trade chain partners such as lawyers, accountants, carriers, foreign exporters, foreign producers, foreign vendors, shipping agents and marine agents will be able to set up a CARM Client Portal account and conduct business with the CBSA when Release 2 is implemented.

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