When surtax was charged on a past entry that should not have paid it, the route to a refund usually runs through CARM: the declaration is corrected or adjusted, CBSA reviews the change, and the difference comes back as a credit or payment on your account. Here is what that process actually involves.
Correction vs adjustment, in plain English
Both change what a past declaration said. In practical terms: a correction fixes a declaration so it states what it should have stated, and an adjustment is a request to change the accounting after the fact, including a request for a refund of amounts overpaid. Which path applies to a given entry depends on its status and timing. The label matters less to you than the outcome: the entry ends up stating the right classification, origin, value, and authority, and the surtax it overpaid is returned.
What the work looks like
- Pull the entries. Two years of CADs from CARM, every line that paid surtax. An importer can delegate read-only CARM access to an outside reviewer in minutes.
- Identify the overpayments. Each surtax line is checked against the surtax orders and the remission orders, in particular SOR/2026-34 for steel derivative goods. Misclassifications and missed authority codes surface here.
- Assemble the evidence. CBSA does not refund on assertion. Commercial invoices, product specifications, and origin documents support each changed line.
- File and track. The corrections or adjustments are filed in CARM, entry by entry. Adjustments typically take two to four months to process. Refunds post to your CBSA account and are applied first against any balance you owe.
The constraint to respect
Claims must be made within two years of each importation. An entry from March 2026 can be fixed until March 2028; an entry from March 2025 dies in March 2027. Working oldest-first is not a style preference, it is how you keep refunds from expiring while paperwork is in progress. The arithmetic is laid out on our two-year window page.
Where goods qualify under the drawback program instead, the claim is made on Form K32 rather than as an adjustment; see our K32 drawback page for how that path differs.
Filings on FlatClaim engagements are prepared and transmitted by licensed customs brokers. This page describes the process; it is not legal advice.
Common questions
How long do CARM adjustments take?
Adjustments typically take two to four months to process. Refunds post as credits or payments on your CBSA account, applied first against any balance owed.
Can I file corrections myself?
An importer can, through its own CARM account. In practice the work is matching entries against remission orders line by line and supporting each change with evidence, which is why most importers have it done by specialists working with their broker.