As a next step in preparing for the transition to off-setting, importers are advised to verify the mailing address information in their Canada Revenue Agency records.
In ARL, all refunds (i.e., credits) will automatically be applied to the importer’s account to reduce the balance owing.
Following the monthly release of the Statement of Account (SOA), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has decided that cheques will be sent to the legal entity mailing address – this is the BN9 mailing address that is in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Business Number (BN) system.
CBSA will issue a cheque to the importer for any residual credit appearing on the SOA as long as the credit amount is over a CBSA established threshold ($1000.00), or the account has been in a credit standing for a period of two consecutive months.
The reasoning for this decision was that in moving towards client based accounting, this address would represent the legal entity address and would be a one to one relationship for the client – each legal entity can have only one BN so therefore only one mailing address – whereas there may be a separate mailing addresses for each individual program account (i.e. different ones for each RM, ASEC, Carrier Code, etc…).
Information for businesses on how to verify/change their Business Number addresses is available on the Canada Revenue Agency website.
Information concerning the Accounts Receivable Ledger program is available on the Canada Border Services Agency website.