Canada Customs Record-keeping Requirement Update

The Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) recently updated the requirements for both Canadian and Non-Resident importers concerning maintaining records in connection with their importing activities other than the place of business in Canada.

If you maintain your Customs records outside of Canada or at a place other than your business in Canada, this update is for you. If so, you must complete a CBSA-prescribed form called the Agreement to Maintain Records Elsewhere Than the Place of Business in Canada.

In addition, you must keep your import records about Canada for six years following the importation of commercial goods. This includes documents relating to the goods’ origin, marking, purchase, importation, costs/values of the commercial goods, payment for the commercial goods, and the sale or other disposal of the commercial goods. You are encouraged to review your current record-keeping policies if you are not retaining these records. Failure to do so could result in penalties of up to $25,000.

Suppose you’re not retaining these records (paper or electronic format) in Canada or at your CBSA-registered place of business in Canada (e.g. another area of business or a third-party location like Iron Mountain). In that case, you must request CBSA’s permission to keep them elsewhere, as noted above.

Our Customs and Trade Advisory team can conduct complete record-keeping reviews or facilitate filing the Agreement to Maintain Records Elsewhere Than the Place of Business in Canada with the CBSA to ensure ongoing compliance with this legislation and avoid potentially significant monetary penalties.

At Achen Henderson, we’ve built a formidable team of niche Canadian tax and customs specialists with deep and broad industry, public practice and tax authority backgrounds and experience. Many are former partners and directors from large international firms who wanted something different and have found a home with us.  

With our latest affiliation with a top Canadian boutique customs and trade firm, we can now seamlessly provide a broad scope of services to non-resident and resident importers. This allows us to assist with most indirect tax and customs matters and cross-border and international tax advisory, planning and compliance. In addition, we can help navigate your firm through a CBSA-initiated Compliance Verification Audit, assist in Voluntary Disclosures and even conduct pre-emptive internal verification audits to identify potential liabilities before CBSA finds them.

We also review customs and duties cost savings, including potential duty recovery to ensure you’re not overpaying duty.  We can also help optimize your supply chain to plan for the lowest possible global customs, duties and tariffs costs.

Reach out to us today and let us know how we can help mitigate tax and customs risks, improve tax and customs outcomes, and assist you with most tax and customs controversy challenges.