Two rates flow through one return
When a commercial shipment clears, the CBSA collects 5% GST on the duty-paid value, which your broker passes on to you. When you sell, the rate follows the delivery: 13% HST on goods delivered to an Ontario customer, a different rate where the truck crosses into another province. Your HST return nets what you collected against every input tax credit, with the border GST usually the largest single credit an importer holds.
| Transaction | GST/HST treatment |
|---|---|
| Commercial shipment cleared at the border | 5% GST on the duty-paid value, recoverable as an ITC |
| Goods delivered to an Ontario customer | 13% HST collected on the invoice |
| Goods delivered to an Alberta customer | 5% GST, because place of supply follows delivery |
| Goods shipped out of Canada | Zero-rated, with export documentation kept on file |
That last row is a flag, not a footnote: zero-rating stands or falls on proof of export, and it is worth professional attention before the volume grows.
ITCs in the right period, with the paper to prove them
The document behind each border credit is the broker's accounting record, the Commercial Accounting Declaration that replaced the old B3 form under CARM. We tie every declaration on the CARM statement of account to a claim on the return, so nothing paid at the border goes missing. There is also a clock: most registrants have four years to claim a missed credit, larger businesses only two, so an unclaimed border dollar does not wait forever.
One pattern deserves its own sentence. In a heavy buying quarter, border credits can exceed the HST you collected, which puts the return in a refund position, and the CRA routinely holds refund returns for pre-assessment review. We file those returns with the broker documentation organized in advance, and our CRA Audit & Review Support handles the follow-up letters when they come.
The T2 reads your warehouse
For a distributor, closing inventory is the number that moves the corporate return, because it sets cost of goods sold. The Income Tax Act allows inventory at the lower of cost and fair market value, so stock that has genuinely lost value can be written down, provided the evidence exists: aging by SKU, clearance pricing, disposal records. We keep the landed-cost basis consistent between the books and the Corporate Tax Filing, so the GIFI schedules reconcile to the statements without a year-end rebuild.
Exchange differences follow the same discipline. Realized gains and losses on supplier payments are income for a trading business, year-end revaluation of open US-dollar payables needs one consistent method, and switching methods to chase a result is how importers earn reassessments.
When the border re-prices the past
CBSA trade-compliance verifications test customs valuation and HS classification, and a reassessment can reach back years. When one lands, the tax side moves too: additional duty raises the landed cost of goods already sold, and the extra GST assessed at the border becomes a further credit to claim. We handle those corrections on the HST and T2 side and coordinate with a licensed customs specialist on classification itself, which is the right division of labour as import volumes grow.
A filing calendar that matches shipping
HST frequency is set by revenue: annual filing up to $1.5 million in taxable sales, quarterly to $6 million, monthly above that. Importers in a steady refund position often elect a more frequent cycle on purpose, because a refund claimed monthly funds the next order instead of waiting out the year. Around that sits the T2, due six months after year-end with the balance owing earlier, and we run the whole calendar for import businesses across Mississauga and the GTA so no deadline meets an unprepared file.
Source: CRA — GST/HST for businesses.
