CARM: Features and benefits

As of October 21, 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) became the official system of record for imposing or levying duties and taxes.

Benefits and features

CARM simplifies the overall importing process by:

providing a modern interface for importing into Canada
giving importers self-service access to their information
improving consistency of compliance with trade rules

In 2025, the CARM system:

helped collect $47.5 billion in payments in duties and taxes
processed over 41 million Commercial Accounting Declarations
was used by over 213,000 businesses, all of which are registered to the CARM Client Portal
enabled Release Prior to Payment enrolment which contributed to an electronic release rate of 99.12% for commercial imports
portal and its features were available to users 99.5% of the time

Release history

The CARM system introduced:

changes to the Release Prior to Payment (RPP) Program
electronic commercial accounting declarations (CADs) that you can correct and adjust directly in the portal
harmonized billing cycles
new offsetting options
electronic management of appeals and compliance actions
the ability for resident trade chain partners (TCPs) to register for a Business Number (BN9)
the ability for TCPs to enrol in various CBSA commercial programs directly in the portal

Changes to Release Prior to Payment Program

The Release Prior to Payment (RPP) sub-program allows participants to obtain the release of goods from the CBSA before the final accounting and payment of duties and taxes. Importers must post financial security to be able to obtain release prior to payment.

Learn how to enrol for Release Prior to Payment

A new way to account for imported goods

The Commercial Accounting Declaration (CAD) is the digital document used to account for imported goods into Canada. It replaced the previous customs coding (B3) and request for adjustment (B2) forms. This accounting process does not affect the release process.

The CARM system automatically calculates the duties and taxes based on the information provided by the client on the CAD. Trade chain partners are able to submit a CAD or request a correction or adjustment in the CARM Client Portal or by setting up a connection with the CBSA via electronic data interchange (EDI) or application programming interface (API).

Corrections: a penalty-free change to an original CAD submitted before payment is due. Each correction will result in an entirely new version of the CAD.

Adjustments: changes made to a CAD after payment is due. If an adjustment results in amounts owing to the CBSA it may result in a penalty or interest and these may be subject to CBSA review.

Note: A customs broker cannot submit a CAD on behalf of an importer in the CARM system until the importer delegates them authority in the CARM Client Portal.

CAD C-type entries: For importers that self-clear their commercial goods at a CBSA port of entry (POE), the CAD is replacing the B3 form in the release package. You will print out 2 copies of the CAD, put your entry together with any required supporting documentation including waybill, invoice, permits or licenses, etc. for presentation to the CBSA Border Services Officer (BSO) for processing.

More information:

How to Submit a Commercial Accounting Declaration (CAD) (user guide)
Memorandum D17-1-10: Coding of Customs Accounting Documents: how to complete various types of CAD

New harmonized billing cycles

On October 21, 2024, CARM introduced new harmonized billing cycles that align payment due dates. Statement of Accounts (SOA) will be issued on the 25th day of each month and are available in the CARM Client Portal. The payment due date is 10 weekdays (defined as Monday to Friday, inclusive of holidays) after the 17th of the calendar month.

The SOA will include penalties, reassessments and adjustments posted within the billing period.

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Date modified:: 2026-03-13

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