For Canadian importers of steel, aluminum & steel-based products
You've been paying a 25% surtax.
Much of it may be refundable.
Since 2025, Canada has applied 25% surtaxes to US steel and aluminum, and since December 26, 2025, to steel-based products from every country. The government also created refund and exemption programs, but they sit buried in customs mechanics that most importers and their brokers never audit. We find what you're owed and recover it.
$1,995 audit of your last 24 months of entries.
Refunded in full if we find nothing recoverable.
What happened, in plain English
In March 2025, Canada put a 25% surtax on US-origin steel and aluminum under the United States Surtax Order (Steel and Aluminum 2025). On December 26, 2025, it went much further: a 25% surtax on steel-based products from every country of origin under the Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Order (SOR/2025-267); see CBSA Customs Notice 25-33. If you import fasteners, wire, fencing, racking, hardware, or metal furniture, you've been paying it. It shows up on your statement as just another customs charge.
Here's the part almost nobody acts on: the government also created ways to get that money back. The Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Remission Order (SOR/2026-34) (Customs Notice 26-07), the United States Surtax Remission Order (2025) (SOR/2025-122), CBSA's duties relief and drawback programs, and remission applications to the Department of Finance.
Claiming them means working through CARM accounts, special authority codes, and drawback filings. Your broker doesn't audit old entries for these, because clearing shipments is their job, not re-opening last year's paperwork. So the refunds sit unclaimed, and each one expires two years after the import it belongs to.
Every regulation above links to its official Government of Canada page. Don't take our word for any of it.
Do you import any of these?
These product groups are covered by the surtax orders. If your containers hold any of them, you are almost certainly paying the 25%, and may be owed some of it back.
- Screws, bolts, nuts & washers
- Nails & staples
- Wire rope, stranded wire & cable
- Chain-link & welded-mesh fencing, gabions
- Chain
- Springs
- Fabricated structural steel
- Pallet racking & shelving structures
- Builders' & door hardware
- Metal-frame seating & office furniture
- Prefabricated steel buildings
- Steel-core electrical cable (ACSR)
What the money looks like
Illustrative example, not a promise. Your numbers come from your actual entries.
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.
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.
How it works
You don't need to understand CARM, CADs, or special authority codes. That's the point of hiring us.
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01
A 15-minute call, then an NDA
You tell us what you import and roughly how much. We tell you honestly whether an audit is worth $1,995 to you. The NDA is signed before we see a single document.
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02
We audit 24 months of your entries
You delegate read-only access to your CARM import data, which takes minutes from your own account, and share sampled customs invoices. We identify every entry where surtax was paid that a remission order, drawback, or adjustment can recover.
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03
Licensed brokers file. Money lands on your CBSA account.
Filings are prepared and transmitted by licensed customs brokers. CBSA's service standard for drawback claims is 90 days, with interest payable when they exceed it. Adjustments typically take two to four months. We also fix your go-forward entries with your broker so the overpaying stops.
Pricing, published. Not hidden behind a waitlist.
Exposure audit
$1,995
A full audit of your last 24 months of import entries: what you paid, what's recoverable, under which instrument, and what we'd file.
Refunded in full if we find nothing recoverable. Credited in full against the success fee if you proceed.
Go-forward fix
Flat fee
Quoted in your audit. We work with your existing customs broker to apply the right authority codes so future entries stop overpaying from day one.
One-time. No subscriptions, no per-shipment skim.
Recovery
25% contingency
Charged only on amounts actually refunded, credited, or offset on your CBSA statement. You keep 75 cents of every recovered dollar.
No recovery, no fee. Full stop.
"Why hasn't my customs broker already done this?"
It's the right question, and the answer isn't that your broker is bad at their job. Brokers clear shipments and file what they're instructed to file. Their workflow is forward-looking: get today's container across the border, correctly and fast. Retrospectively auditing two years of entries against remission orders, some of which were published after your goods cleared, isn't what they're set up or paid to do.
We don't replace your broker. We audit behind them, and when we fix your go-forward entries, we do it with them. Most brokers welcome it: their client stops bleeding money, and they didn't have to build an audit practice to make that happen.
Who's behind this
TariffOwed was founded by Jon Peters, a Canadian operator with 25 years of building businesses around a single pattern: finding money that regulation created and bureaucracy buried. Jon sells the work and quarterbacks every file personally. The filings themselves are prepared and transmitted by licensed customs brokers and trade-compliance specialists.
We are deliberately not a customs brokerage and not a law firm, and we'll never pretend otherwise. We're the firm that reads the remission orders, audits your entries against them, and manages the recovery until the money is on your CBSA statement.
Questions a careful owner asks
Is this legitimate?
Yes, and you shouldn't take that on faith. Every program we use is published federal regulation: the Steel Derivative Goods Surtax Remission Order (SOR/2026-34), the United States Surtax Remission Order (2025) (SOR/2025-122), and CBSA's duties relief and drawback programs (Form K32). Each links to its official Government of Canada page. TariffOwed is operated by Oakwell Partners Inc., a British Columbia company.
Why hasn't my customs broker already done this?
Brokers clear shipments and file what they're instructed to. Retrospective auditing isn't their workflow; getting goods across the border is. We work with your broker, not against them, and the go-forward fix is implemented through them.
What does it cost?
Three numbers, all published above: a $1,995 audit (refunded if nothing is found, credited against the success fee if you proceed), a flat fee quoted in the audit to fix go-forward entries, and a 25% contingency on amounts actually refunded, credited, or offset on your CBSA statement. Nothing is charged on recovery unless money comes back.
What are CARM, a CAD, and "special authority codes"?
CARM is the CBSA's online portal where your importer account, statements, and declarations live. A CAD (Commercial Accounting Declaration) is the document filed for each shipment that determines what you pay. A special authority code is a field on the CAD that tells CBSA a remission order applies, so the surtax isn't charged. If that field was left blank on your entries, and it usually was, you paid surtax you may not have owed.
What if we owe CBSA money?
Refunds arrive as credits or payments on your CBSA account and are first applied against any balance you owe. Our contingency applies to amounts refunded, credited, or offset. An offset against a balance owed is real money to you, and it counts.
How long until we see money?
CBSA's published service standard for drawback claims is 90 days from a complete claim, with interest payable when they exceed it. Adjustments typically take two to four months. Remission applications to the Department of Finance take longer. We treat those as upside, never the plan.
Do you need access to our systems?
Read access to your CARM import data, which you can delegate in minutes from your own account, plus a sample of your customs invoices. We sign an NDA before we see anything. We never need access to your bank, your books, or your operations.
Are you a customs brokerage or a law firm?
No, and we say so plainly. All filings are prepared and transmitted by licensed customs brokers and trade-compliance specialists. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice.
What 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. Only a claim does that.
Fifteen minutes. That's the ask.
Bring last month's CBSA statement if you have it handy, or nothing at all. We'll tell you straight whether an audit is worth it for your import volume. If it isn't, we'll say so on the call.
Prefer email? jon@tariffowed.com