For most small importers, "post financial security" is the scariest line in the whole CARM transition — it sounds like a five-figure problem with a hidden formula. It isn't. The actual calculation fits in a sentence, comes from one public CBSA memorandum (D17-5-2), and for a genuinely small importer usually lands at the $5,000 minimum bond — or less than that in cash, if you choose the deposit route.
This guide walks through the exact formula, both ways of posting it, what to do with no import history, and the annual review that catches people off guard. Every figure cites its section in the memorandum.
RPP — Release Prior to Payment — is a privilege, not a fee. Posting financial security entitles you to three things (D17-5-2 §1, and its companion Memorandum D17-1-8): your goods are released before you've paid the duties and taxes on them, you can defer accounting, and you can defer payment. The security is the guarantee standing behind that credit.
Without RPP you can still import — your shipments just wait at the border until the money clears. For dry goods on a slow schedule, that can be workable. For a reefer container of frozen food, it is not.
Since January 1, 2026, this security is posted by you, the importer, per import program account — a broker's security no longer covers you. If that's news, start with our CARM registration guide and come back here for the numbers.
Step 1 — the base requirement (§7). Take your highest monthly balance owed to CBSA in the previous 12 months, per import program (RM) account. That balance is duties and taxes — explicitly including GST — plus any other debts on the account, such as adjustments and interest. (The memo, written from CBSA's side of the ledger, calls this your "account receivable balance." Same money.)
Step 2 — choose how to post it. Two instruments, two percentages:
Two more rules worth knowing: the ceiling is $10 million per RM account across all forms (§7.4), and you're allowed to mix instruments — some cash, some bond — to reach the total (§7.5).
Want the two numbers for your own month? Put your peak month's value and duty rate into our CARM bond calculator — it runs exactly this formula and returns both the bond and the cash figure. Free, no sign-in.
Because the bond is 50% of the base with a $5,000 floor, there's a clean crossover: until your worst month owes CBSA more than $10,000, the bond is the flat $5,000 minimum. The formula only starts moving your number above the floor past that point.
And for food importers there's a second simplification: if your goods enter duty-free — as many food lines do — your monthly balance is essentially just the GST: 5%, applied to the customs value plus any duty. A duty-free peak month of $40,000 in customs value produces about $2,000 owing. Your security requirement is driven by your volume, not by scary duty rates.
Hypothetical round numbers. Your duty rate depends on your HS classification and country of origin.
Example 1 — duty-free goods, small volume. Your biggest month: $40,000 customs value, 0% duty. GST = 5% × $40,000 = $2,000 base.
The cash deposit is the smaller face amount here. What you're really comparing is the surety's annual premium on a $5,000 bond against $2,000 of your working capital sitting with CBSA indefinitely. Premiums vary by provider and applicant — get the quote, then compare it honestly against what locking up the cash costs your business.
Example 2 — dutiable goods, growing volume. Your biggest month: $100,000 customs value at 8% duty = $8,000 duty; GST = 5% × $108,000 = $5,400. Base = $13,400.
At this size the bond's leverage (a dollar covering two) starts doing real work, and the annual premium is usually the price of freeing up five figures of cash.
New importers don't get refused — they self-assess (§7.6): you provide CBSA an estimated security amount based on your importation projections. The practical method is exactly the worked examples above, run on your planned largest month.
Two cautions from the same section. The memo puts the responsibility on you "at all times" to keep security adequate to the balance — lowballing the estimate isn't a discount, it's a compliance gap. And the adjustment paths are asymmetric (§7.7): raising your security needs no approval, while lowering it requires CBSA's, possibly with projections and evidence.
CBSA reviews every importer's requirement annually (§7.8): the review window runs October 20 to October 19, the revised requirement is posted to your CARM Client Portal account, and you must be compliant by January 15. If your volumes grew, your required security grows with them — the notification arrives in the portal, not in your inbox, so someone has to be looking.
Bonds are sold by the security providers CBSA accepts (Appendix A of the memo): surety and fidelity insurers approved by OSFI or licensed provincially, Payments Canada members, CDIC-insured institutions, and credit unions. In practice, most small importers arrange the bond through their customs broker, who works with a surety regularly. One portal-navigation tip: the CCP's labels are "Non-Cash Bond" for the written agreement and "Cash Bond" for the deposit (Appendix B) — same two instruments, different names.
One more reason to stay current once you're enrolled: if unpaid debts force CBSA to make a demand against your security, it can suspend or revoke your RPP privilege (§15, §19). The privilege rides on the account staying clean.
Run your own numbers in the CARM bond calculator — free, no sign-in. If your shipments span several HS codes, the TariffWise cost estimator prices each line's duty and GST with every rate citing its CBSA source; multiply out your largest planned month and you have your self-assessment number before you ever talk to a surety. New to CARM entirely? Start with the registration guide. Importing food? See how to import frozen food into Canada.
Yes. Section 7 of D17-5-2 defines the base as duties and taxes "inclusive of the GST," plus other debts such as adjustments and interest. For duty-free goods, GST usually is the requirement.
For a surety bond: $5,000 per RM import program account (§7.2). For a cash deposit: there is no minimum (§7.3) — you post 100% of your calculated base, however small.
Below roughly $10,000 in peak-month payables, the bond is a flat $5,000 face amount and cash is 100% of your (smaller) base — so cash means less face value but your own money locked up, while the bond means a recurring annual premium. Get a premium quote and compare it against the cost of parking the cash. You can also mix both (§7.5).
Yes — §7.5 allows a mixture of security forms to reach the total requirement.
An estimated amount based on your import projections (§7.6, self-assessment). Compute your planned biggest month's duty plus GST and post against that, remembering that keeping security adequate as reality unfolds is your responsibility.