Covered goods · Metal Furniture
Steel-Frame Furniture Importers Are Paying a 25% Surtax They Can Claim Back
If your business imports steel-frame chairs, desks, workstations, shelving, lockers, or filing cabinets into Canada, every shipment since late December 2025 has likely carried a 25% steel derivative surtax on top of regular duties. That surtax is refundable under a published federal remission order. FlatClaim identifies what you overpaid and prepares the claims. You keep 100% of the recovery.
If we find nothing, it costs you nothing.
A 15-minute call with the founder, then a free scan of a transaction report from your own CARM portal that shows the surtax you paid and the range that looks recoverable, before you pay anything. Fees start at $2,495 CAD, backed by the 5x guarantee.
Every qualifying entry, its order, its authority code. Ready to file.
| Entry | Order cited | Recoverable |
|---|---|---|
| 14782-031 | SOR/2026-34 | $31,500 |
| 14782-117 | SOR/2025-122 | $18,240 |
| 14783-009 | K32 drawback | $9,615 |
| every qualifying entry, line by line | … | |
| Identified (illustrative) | $100,000 | |
The free look shows what you paid and the recoverable range. This shows every entry, its order, and its code, the part that gets filed. Illustrative sample.
Surtax coverage figure: Department of Finance Canada
The covered goods
Do you import any of these?
Metal-frame seating and office furniture spans a wide range of steel-intensive products. These are among the goods captured by Canada’s steel derivative surtax regime.
Metal-frame seating & office furniture
- Steel-frame office chairs and task seating
- Steel-frame desks and workstations
- Steel-frame tables and conference furniture
- Steel shelving units and storage racks
- Steel lockers and storage cabinets
- Steel filing cabinets and institutional furniture
Often on the same containers
The detail
Why Steel-Frame Furniture Carries a Surtax, and How the Refund Works
On December 26, 2025, Canada’s Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Order, SOR/2025-267 came into force. Unlike the earlier steel and aluminum surtax that applies only to US-origin goods, this order casts a much wider net: it applies to steel-based and steel derivative goods imported from every country of origin, not just the United States. Metal-frame seating and office furniture, being manufactured with steel as a primary structural input, falls squarely within the class of goods this order addresses.
On a CBSA accounting statement, the surtax appears as a separate duty line on each Commercial Accounting Declaration (CAD). It does not replace the regular most-favoured-nation duty rate or any applicable anti-dumping or countervailing duty; it sits alongside them. For a container of steel-frame office chairs or a pallet of filing cabinets, that line can represent a substantial portion of the total duty cost, and because it looks like an ordinary assessed amount, many importers pay it without recognising it is contestable.
The refund mechanism is the Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Remission Order, SOR/2026-34. Recovery works by amending or adjusting past CAD entries to apply the correct special authority code, and by drawback where applicable. The critical constraint is the two-year claim window: each importation becomes permanently unclaimable two years after it occurred. Because the surtax started in December 2025, the first entries begin to expire in December 2027, but the practical deadline pressure starts well before then as each additional month of shipments ages out one by one. The most common reason refunds go unclaimed is not ineligibility. It is that the surtax line is buried in multi-line duty statements, contract-furniture importers often use multiple brokers across different ports of entry, and the filing mechanics inside CARM (entering the correct authority code on each adjusted CAD) require a methodical entry-by-entry review. FlatClaim does that review using the transaction report you pull from your own CARM portal, so no account access or sensitive system credentials are ever shared.
Every regulation above links to its official Government of Canada page. Don’t take our word for any of it.
Your exposure
How much surtax are you sitting on?
Drag to your rough annual import of covered goods. The surtax is 25% of that value, so the arithmetic is simple. Illustrative, not a quote. Your real number comes from your entries.
Two years of it is still claimable, and a portion is recoverable. The free look shows you how much.
See if you’re owedThe math
What the money looks like
A typical $2M a year of imported steel-frame furniture, worked all the way through. Illustrative, on the Standard tier.
That money isn’t hypothetical. It’s surtax you already paid, sitting on the government’s side of the ledger. Refunds arrive as credits or payments on your CBSA account, applied first against anything you owe CBSA. The only question is whether it gets claimed before the window closes.
Under the old industry model, a 25% contingency, that same recovery would have cost you $25,000. Our fee is flat and published, so the math stays this lopsided at every volume. See the full pricing and the 5x guarantee.
Your real number comes from your real entries.
See if you’re owedThe deadline
The window is closing. For real, not as a sales line.
Refund claims must be made within two years of each importation. The surtax started in March 2025, which means your earliest entries become unclaimable in early 2027. After that, another month of refunds expires every month, permanently. There’s no countdown clock on this page because the statute doesn’t need one.
And if the tariffs get lifted in a trade deal? Past overpayments remain refundable within the two-year window. A deal stops future surtax; it doesn’t return what you already paid.
Your oldest entries expire first. From early 2027, another month of refunds becomes unclaimable every month.
Start before they doThe process
How it works
Four steps. The first is free: you see your number before you commit a dollar, and the 5x guarantee covers the rest. You never need to understand CARM, CADs, or authority codes. Day markers are typical, not promises.
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1
Free
The free look
Day 0 to 3A 15-minute call, then we read a transaction report you pull from your own CARM portal. You see the surtax you’ve paid on covered entries and the range that looks recoverable, the size of the prize. The how (which orders, which codes, how to file) is the work, and it starts at the audit. No account access, no NDA, no fee. New to the portal? Our CARM guide walks you through it.
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2
The recovery audit
Day 3 to 10The work the free look can’t do. We examine all 24 months entry by entry and decide which federal program recovers each one. A wrong code, or an entry that doesn’t truly qualify, bounces the whole claim. Knowing which is which is what you’re paying for. You engage at half the fee; we sign an NDA and you delegate read-only CARM access.
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3
The filing-ready package
Day 10 to 20Not a report of what you might be owed. The instrument that gets it back: the exact authority code for every qualifying entry, prepared K32s, documentary support, ready to transmit. Hand it to your broker or self-file in CARM and it pays out. White Glove: we coordinate it for you.
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4
Money in your account
Day 90 to 120The point of all of it. Refunds post to your CBSA account, with interest if CBSA runs late. Your broker files, or you self-file. You stay in control the whole way.
The 5x guarantee. If the audit doesn’t identify at least 5x our fee in recoverable surtax, your half-payment comes back in full and you keep the findings. The free look already cost you nothing.
Questions
Questions about metal-frame seating & office furniture refunds
My furniture is made in China or Vietnam, not the United States. Does the surtax still apply?
Yes. The Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Order, SOR/2025-267, applies to steel-based goods regardless of country of origin. Country of origin determines whether the earlier US-specific surtax (SOR/2025-95) also applies, but for metal-frame furniture from Asia or anywhere else, the December 2025 steel derivative surtax is the operative order, and the corresponding remission order, SOR/2026-34, is the refund route.
We import across several ports of entry and use more than one customs broker. Can you still build a consolidated claim?
Yes. FlatClaim works from the transaction report you pull directly from your own CARM portal, which consolidates all CAD entries across ports and brokers into a single downloadable file. That report is the source of record. We review every line, regardless of which broker filed it or which port cleared it.
Our shipments are bulky and high-value. How does that affect the fee?
FlatClaim charges a flat annual fee based on your total covered import volume, not on the number of SKUs, containers, or lines. Importers with up to $1M per year of covered goods pay $2,495 (Starter tier); $1M to $5M pays $4,995 (Standard tier); above $5M pays $9,995 (White Glove tier). You keep 100% of the recovery. If the audit does not identify at least five times the fee in qualifying recoverable surtax, everything paid is refunded and you keep the findings.
What does the free first look actually involve?
It starts with a 15-minute call with founder Jon Peters. After that, you pull a transaction report from your own CARM portal and share it with FlatClaim. We read it and identify the total surtax paid and the estimated recoverable range under the applicable remission orders. There is no fee, no account access required, no NDA, and no obligation to proceed.
More in plain-English answers and the main FAQ.
See if you’re owed on your furniture imports.
Send Jon what you import and he’ll come back with a straight read on your tier, your likely exposure, and whether the numbers clear the 5x bar for your volume. That’s the founder replying, not an SDR or a call centre. The first look is free, with no account access and no fee.
or, if you’re ready now
Prefer email? jon@flatclaim.com