Recover the Duties You Paid on Goods That Left the Country
If you've imported goods, paid duty, and then exported or destroyed, you may be entitled to a duty drawback. We've delivered seven-figure refunds in a single fiscal year for clients who didn't think it was possible.
Quick Qualification Check
You may qualify for a duty drawback if you've imported goods, paid the duty, and one of the following applies:
1. You exported the goods (in the same condition or after further processing).
2. You destroyed the goods under customs supervision.
If any of these apply, you have potential drawback claims going back four years.
A Recent Result: From 12 Months to 4, From Concept to Seven Figures
A large e-commerce retailer in the fashion industry came to us, processing hundreds of thousands of sales annually. Their internal team estimated their first drawback submission would take 10 to 12 months to prepare given the data volume. Their customs broker had already declined the engagement, calling it impractical.
We built a custom data-organization and submission pipeline that handled their full sales and import data set. We completed the submission in four months, and the client received a seven-figure duty refund within the same fiscal year. The same pipeline now scales to handle two or three times their current volume as their business grows.
How the Program Works
We review your import, export and destruction records to confirm eligibility and quantify the available refund.
We design the data pipeline that matches imports to exports or production, handling the reconciliation that typically defeats in-house attempts.
We prepare and submit the drawback claim, manage all government correspondence, and respond to any queries.
After the refund is approved in writing, we invoice on contingency. After your first claim, you can choose to run the program in-house using our methodology or have us continue filing on your behalf.
Why Most in-House Drawback Solutions Fall Short
Drawback claims are notoriously administrative. They require matching specific imports to specific exports or production runs across data systems that often weren't built to talk to each other. Most in-house attempts stall at the data reconciliation phase, and most customs brokers don't have the scale or analytics to run them efficiently.
Our program is built specifically to handle that data reconciliation at scale, across as many drawback Solutions as your business operates, in any country where drawback is available.
Why Most in-House Drawback Solutions Fall Short
Drawback claims are notoriously administrative. They require matching specific imports to specific exports or production runs across data systems that often weren't built to talk to each other. Most in-house attempts stall at the data reconciliation phase, and most customs brokers don't have the scale or analytics to run them efficiently.
Our program is built specifically to handle that data reconciliation at scale, across as many drawback Solutions as your business operates, in any country where drawback is available.
We review your import and export records to confirm eligibility and quantify the available refund.
We design the data pipeline that matches imports to exports or production, handling the reconciliation that typically defeats in-house attempts.
We prepare and submit the drawback claim, manage all government correspondence, and respond to any queries.
After the refund is approved in writing, we invoice on contingency. After your first claim, you can choose to run the program in-house using our methodology or have us continue filing on your behalf.
Scalability and Flexibility
If you already operate a drawback program in-house and need additional capacity, we can supplement it. If you're starting from scratch in one or more countries, we can build the program from the ground up. Once operational, the system is designed to handle two or three times your current volume, so growth doesn't break the process.
The Dominion Customs Solutions Commitment
We communicate transparently throughout the drawback process, so you always know where your claim stands. Under our Duty Drawback Program, we are paid only after the government provides written confirmation that your submission has been accepted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Duty Drawback recovers duty already paid on goods you've since exported or destroyed. The Duties Relief Program (a CBSA program for goods you'll eventually export) lets you defer the duty payment instead of paying upfront and recovering later. Drawback is a refund mechanism; Duties Relief is a cash-flow mechanism. We run both.
Once submitted, CBSA's processing time varies, but our case study above is illustrative: the entire end-to-end process for a high-volume e-commerce client took four months from engagement to refund received.
Yes. The fashion case study above involved hundreds of thousands of sales annually. Our pipelines are built to handle that scale and grow with you.
No. After the first claim is filed, you choose how to proceed: run it internally with our guidance, have us continue to file on your behalf, or some hybrid. The choice is always yours.