Covered goods · Steel Buildings
The 25% Surtax on Prefabricated Steel Buildings Has a Refund Route Most Importers Miss
If your company imported pre-engineered steel building kits, primary frames, or structural components from any country since December 26, 2025, Canada’s steel derivative goods surtax almost certainly applied at the border. The published remission orders let you recover what was charged. FlatClaim finds the entries, prepares the filings, and your broker or CARM account transmits them. You keep 100%.
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?
Prefabricated steel buildings arrive at the border as several distinct product lines, each a potential recovery opportunity.
Prefabricated steel buildings
- Pre-engineered steel building kits
- Primary steel frames and columns
- Roof and wall purlins
- Girts and eave struts
- Steel cladding and roof panels
- Structural base plates and anchor bolts
The detail
Why Prefabricated Steel Building Importers Are Sitting on Unclaimed Refunds
Pre-engineered steel building kits and their components are among the steel derivative goods captured by the Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Order, SOR/2025-267, which came into force on December 26, 2025. That order imposes a 25% surtax on covered steel-based goods regardless of the country of origin: a kit sourced from the United States, China, or anywhere else falls under the same charge. On your CBSA Commercial Accounting Declaration, this surtax appears as a separate duty line alongside ordinary customs duties and GST. Many importers see it and assume it is simply a cost of doing business in the current trade environment.
It is not a permanent cost. The Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Remission Order, SOR/2026-34, provides a legislated refund mechanism. Importers who can demonstrate that the covered goods were imported for qualifying purposes may file for remission through CARM using the designated special authority code on a corrected Commercial Accounting Declaration. The difficulty is that most steel building importers are working through builders, developers, or agricultural operators who have never filed a CARM remission claim before. The surtax line was paid on the original entry and no one flagged the correction window. Because the refund period runs two years from each importation, entries from December 2025 are already inside the clock. The statutory window does not extend and there is no ministerial discretion to reopen it once it closes.
For a warehouse developer or agricultural builder bringing in one or two large kits per season, the surtax per shipment can be substantial. A $2,000,000 importation of a pre-engineered steel building system carries roughly $500,000 in surtax at 25%. FlatClaim reviews your CARM transaction history, maps each entry against the applicable remission order, and delivers filing-ready claim packages for your broker or your own CARM account to transmit.
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 building kit, 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 prefabricated steel buildings refunds
My steel building was sourced outside the United States. Does the surtax still apply?
Yes. SOR/2025-267, the Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Order, covers steel-based goods from every country of origin, not just the United States. A kit manufactured in Canada using US-origin steel components, or sourced directly from overseas, is assessed at 25% under this order. The remission route under SOR/2026-34 is equally available regardless of origin country, which is why a country-of-origin review is part of every FlatClaim audit.
Our building arrived as dozens of separate line items on the commercial invoice. How do you handle that?
Pre-engineered building kits are routinely imported as multi-line shipments covering frames, purlins, girts, cladding, and hardware. FlatClaim reviews the entries at the line level, not just the shipment level, so every recoverable component is captured. The claim package is assembled to match the original CAD structure, which is what CBSA requires for a corrected entry.
We imported through a customs broker who handled the entry. Can we still file for a refund?
Yes. The remission process does not require you to have filed the original entry yourself. Your broker can transmit the corrected CAD on your behalf, or you can file directly through your own CARM account. FlatClaim prepares the claim documentation either way and coordinates with your broker if needed. We do not require access to your CBSA account at any stage of the review.
How long does it take to receive a refund after filing?
CBSA’s published service standard for drawback and remission refunds is 90 days from a complete filing. If CBSA exceeds that standard, interest accrues on the outstanding amount under the Customs Act. Timelines depend on CBSA workload and whether any additional information is requested, but the 90-day benchmark is the statutory target. FlatClaim monitors filed claims and handles any CBSA follow-up requests at no additional charge.
More in plain-English answers and the main FAQ.
Find Out What Your Steel Building Imports Overpaid
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