Commercial payments and accounts
Offsetting and disbursements

On this page

• Offsetting
• Disbursements
• How payments are applied

Offsetting

Offsetting is when credits are applied to your account.

Credits will appears on your Statement of Account (SOA) issued on the 25th and will reduce the balance owing.

If you still have a credit balance after offsetting, and there is no outstanding debt on your account, a disbursement may be issued.

How to pay your Statement of Account

If you are:

• an importer, pay the amount on line I: Importer Total Payable
• a broker, pay the amount on line J: Broker Total Payable

Do not deduct from the amount due on your SOA in an attempt to correct the statement yourself. The CBSA applies credits accordingly. Deducting an amount from your total payable can result in late fees and penalties.

If your account is in default and formal collection action has begun, credit may be applied against your debt if appropriate.

There may be a payment or credit listed as offset on your SOA.

If you need to know which debt(s) your credit went towards, submit a request to the CARM client support.

The CBSA only provides importer-related information to importers. Brokers can only request transaction offset information if it is tied to their broker Account Security (ASEC).

More information

• CBSA fact sheet on importer account offsetting
• Payments

Disbursements

A disbursement is the refund of an eligible credit balance after offsetting of debt on your account.

If there is debt on your account, no disbursement will be issued. Credits will rather be used for future offsetting.

A disbursement may be issued if:

• there is no new debt on the account
• the credit has appeared once on the SOA as available
• the credit balance exceeds $1,000
• the credit balance is less than $1,000, and the account has a credit balance for 2 or more consecutive months

Once the credit is marked as available on your SOA, it takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks to receive a disbursement.

Disbursements are sent directly to the importer. They cannot be mailed to anyone else.

Linking disbursements to transactions

Your SOA shows you the transaction(s) that are tied to a disbursement cheque. Look to see if there are any credits with a disbursed status and cheque number. If the cheque number matches the cheque you received, this transaction is tied to your cheque.

If the credit says Disbursed, but there is no cheque number on your SOA, submit a request to CARM client support. In your request, include the:

• cheque number
• cheque issuance date
• cheque amount

Reconciling cheques

Public Services and Procurement Canada does not include transaction summaries for cheques. On your SOA, under Other Transactions, cheque numbers are listed next to the transaction that it is being refunded.

You can view a list of all transactions in the CARM Client Portal.

Lost or damaged cheques

If your disbursement cheque has been lost or damaged, confirm that your mailing address is correct with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). If you need to change your address:

• call the CRA at 1-800-959-5525 (English) / 1-800-959-7775 (French)
• visit CRA's change of business address

Once the address has been updated, contact CARM client support to locate your cheque or request a new one.

How payments are applied

Credits are used to offset current debts in the following order:

The remaining credits will stay on the account to reduce the total payable on your next SOA.

Overpayments

Payments are posted to your account and are applied to the amount outstanding. Overpayments will stay on the account and will reduce the next month's balance owing.

Please contact CARM client support to discuss your options.