Customs brokers. What one does, who sets the fee, and when you can go without.

In one sentence. A customs broker is a person or company licensed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to account for imported goods and pay the duties on them as an importer's agent, and you do not have to use one: the Customs Act lets any importer do its own customs business, and CBSA's guide says you can submit your own release and accounting documents. If you do hire a broker, the duty, the penalties and the CARM account stay yours.

For the whole first shipment, see how to import goods into Canada.

A broker accounts for your goods and pays CBSA as your agent

Anyone you authorize can deal with CBSA for you on most things. One part needs a licence:

"While in most cases any duly authorized agent may transact business with the CBSA on behalf of clients, only a licensed customs broker may account for goods and pay duties under Section 32 of the Customs Act as an agent of an importer or owner."

So the broker gets your goods released and accounts for them on a Commercial Accounting Declaration (CAD, the entry in CARM that lists each line with its tariff classification, value and origin), built from your invoice and what you tell it. CBSA's guide lists a broker's usual services as paying duties and taxes for you, preparing the documents that get goods released, keeping records, and answering CBSA after payment. Refund and adjustment requests can be part of the job too.

And only once you let it into your account: "A CAD will not be accepted from a customs broker without a proper delegation of authority" (Memorandum D17-4-0).

The duty, the penalties and the CARM account stay in your name

Hiring a broker moves the work. The liability stays with you. Memorandum D1-6-1, paragraph 5:

"Should a person choose to use the services of a licensed customs broker and that customs broker provides incorrect information or fails to remit monies received from the person to the CBSA, the person remains fully liable. This includes responsibility for payment of all duties, taxes, penalties, and interest owing, pursuant to any applicable legislation and regulations that may be amended."

That covers penalties under AMPS (the Administrative Monetary Penalties System, CBSA's fines). Three things a broker cannot hold for you:

On security, Customs Notice 24-27: "As of May 20, 2025, all importers who require release prior to payment of duties must have posted their own financial security in the CCP." If the broker's own business number is used as the importer on the CAD, CBSA's guide makes the broker jointly responsible with you.

CBSA issues the licence, and one licence covers all of Canada

The licence is issued under section 9 of the Customs Act, by the Minister or a person the Minister designates, and CBSA runs the licensing. Section 9(4) forbids anyone to "transact or attempt to transact business as a customs broker or hold himself out as a customs broker" without a licence, unless working under a licensed broker. Since 1 April 2024 the licence is national: CBSA says "Customs brokers with a single licence may operate at all customs offices in Canada."

Under Memorandum D1-8-1, an individual broker must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, at least 18; a corporation must be incorporated in Canada. Every broker needs a qualified officer who scored at least 60% on the Customs Brokers Professional Examination, which CBSA offers in each region at least once a year (next: 19 November 2026). A broker posts $50,000 in security, which protects CBSA against loss, and pays $751.65 a year for the licence from 1 April 2026.

CBSA publishes the list of licensed customs brokers: legal name, website and email, 434 names on the version dated 20 October 2026, with no ratings.

The agency agreement has to be on paper, signed in ink

A broker needs your written authority, usually called an agency agreement or power of attorney. Any form will do if it holds what paragraph 9 of Memorandum D1-6-1 lists:

Paragraph 10:

"The CBSA does not accept an electronic check-off box as an acceptable substitute for a wet (ink on paper) signature for the purpose of an agency agreement."

You also give the broker access to your CARM account (paragraph 8). To end it, tell the broker and remove its delegation in CARM (paragraph 14).

CBSA does not set or regulate brokerage fees

What a broker charges is between you and the broker. CBSA's import guide:

"There is a cost to use their services. You should discuss fees with the customs broker before hiring them. The CBSA does not regulate brokerage fees."

CBSA stays out of fee disputes unless you can show the broker broke the licensing regulations "by dishonest conduct, fraud or incompetence" (D1-8-1, paragraph 72), and it cannot refund a brokerage fee. Duty charged in error on a parcel can come back; see Form B2G.

So ask before you sign, in writing: the price per entry, whether it changes with the number of tariff lines, whether there is a charge when the broker pays the duty for you, and what a later correction costs.

On a courier parcel, CBSA says you "may also be charged fees associated with customs clearance procedures, such as expenses for preparing and filing customs documents," which are "outside of the CBSA's control"; confirm them with the courier. A mail item of up to $3,300 needs no broker: CBSA assesses it, and Canada Post applies "a handling fee of CAN$9.95 per dutiable or taxable mail item."

You can go without a broker

Section 9(4) of the Customs Act ends with the exception that matters: nothing in it prohibits "any person from transacting business on his own behalf." Four common cases:

For the commercial courier case, CBSA's guide:

"Courier companies cannot complete the commercial accounting declaration (CAD) for commercial importers. The CAD must be submitted by the commercial importer or by a customs broker acting on the importer’s behalf."

For personal goods, CBSA says "consumers are not required to utilize the services of a third party, such as a customs broker," and paying at a CBSA office "may save on certain administrative fees." Any importer may also have a friend or family member account for the goods as a one-off, unpaid, with written authority. The Type C route is set out in how to import goods into Canada.

The carrier that moves your goods cannot be your agent

Customs Notice 16-21, written for vehicles and goods of returning Canadian residents and still published, repeats the rule: a person may account for goods as someone else's agent only if licensed as a customs broker, or casually and without any fee. So a business that arranges transport for others cannot act as your agent "unless they are a licensed customs broker." And:

"The carrier transporting the goods cannot act as an agent of the importer. This includes those vehicles that are either driven or transported to Canada on a car carrier/flatbed truck."

Couriers in CBSA's low value program may account for personal parcels in place of the importer, never for your commercial CAD. For a vehicle, see importing a car from Japan.

Check a broker against CBSA's own records before you sign

This page does not rank brokers. What you can check yourself:

Find the broker's legal name on CBSA's list and match it to the name on your agreement. Check the agreement against the seven items above, especially whether it is continuous and whether a sub-agent is allowed. Ask whose business number goes on the CAD as the importer, because CBSA treats the importer of record as the main contact for verifications and responsible for records, corrections and payment. Ask who pays CBSA and from what money, since a payment the broker never remits is still yours to pay. And ask for your copies: a broker must give you the accounting documents it submits, or a receipt with the transaction number, each item's value and tariff code, the exchange rate, the rates and the amounts paid (D1-8-1, paragraph 41). Check those lines against your invoice; if you overpaid, see who can file a duty refund.

CBSA's Licensing Unit takes complaints about a licensed broker and reports of a business acting or advertising as one without a licence, which can bring an AMPS penalty.