Tax Tip Thursday

Personal Info & MyCRA

This week we are going to talk about MyCRA accounts and MyBusiness accounts. These are great tools for individuals and businesses, and EVERYONE should set one up! But be careful not to wait too long. The CRA can take up to two weeks to process your request, so if you wait until the moment you need one it will be too late!

How Do I Do That?

Before you start, make sure you have last year’s tax return handy. You will need some of the information on it to sign up.

To start, go to either the MyCRA or MyBusiness site. Once you’re there, you should see instructions for how to register if you aren’t already.

Once you’ve completed everything included there, the rest of the process can take up to two weeks to complete. Most of this delay is because the CRA will snail mail you a code for the final step of the process.

Take care to use this code quickly once you receive it! They are only valid for a short period of time.

Also note that the two services are separate, so you will have to register for them separately.

Why Should I Do This?

There are several benefits! To name a few,

  1. You can authorize your accountant and/or remove another accountant’s authorization
  2. You can get all your CRA mail there
  3. You can see your returns and Notices of Assessments
    • I get asked for these ALL the time for people trying to get financing, and you NEVER KNOW when you might need it! You do NOT want to have to wait two weeks or more to figure this out.
    • Divorce/separation — you will need both
    • Check your accountant’s work
  4. You can see if there were re-assessments
  5. You can confirm payments on account
    • and that they went to the correct account.
    • This is another common issue — clients putting tax payments or instalments in incorrect accounts, or the CRA applying your payment incorrectly.
    • If you do have an account, you will be able to know when this mistake happens AND correct it!
  6. You can access your RRSP and TFSA balances and account transactions
    • This is also a common request that we see.
  7. You can respond to your own review letters from the CRA by uploading the requested information directly
  8. You can access your Services Canada Account
    • This is useful for people who own incorporations and want to pay themselves
    • This is also useful for people wanting to know what their pensions will be

Our Services

While we cannot help you with getting set up on either of these services (the CRA will not mail us the verification code — only you), we have numerous other services that you might be interested in. If you’re not sure or just have some general questions, please make an appointment!

Disclaimer:

This article provides information of a general nature only. It is only current at the posting date. It is not updated and it may no longer be current. It does not provide legal or tax advice nor can it or should it be relied upon. All tax situations are specific to each individual. If you have specific tax questions you should book an appointment for a 1 on 1 consultation.