Dealing with the CRA: My Account, Notices, Payments and Audits

The Canada Revenue Agency touches most Canadians’ finances: it assesses returns, pays refunds and benefits, collects balances owing and reviews claims. The guides below are grouped by what you are dealing with, from setting up My Account to disputing a reassessment. Filing the return itself is covered in the tax filing guides, and what each tax slip reports in the guide to tax slips.

My Account and your details

CRA My Account is the CRA’s online portal for individuals: slips, Notices of Assessment, registered account room, benefit payments, and changes to your address and banking details.

• CRA My Account: what it is and how to use it: every section of the account, Auto-fill my return, online mail and security
• CRA phone numbers, hours and mailing addresses: every line, the tax-centre addresses and how to report a scam

Notices, returns and deposits

• Reading your Notice of Assessment: each section, the RRSP and carry-forward amounts, and the deadlines that start on its date
• Why the CRA deposited money in your account: matching a bank statement label to the payment
• The T1 General return: the return form and its key lines, now with the filing guides

Owing, paying and collections

• Ways to pay the CRA: online banking, My Payment, credit card processors, pre-authorized debit and in person
• Tax instalments: who must pay, the quarterly due dates, the three calculation options and instalment interest
• Can’t pay your taxes? Payment arrangements and taxpayer relief: spreading a balance out, and asking the CRA to cancel penalties and interest
• CRA prescribed interest rates: the quarterly rates and what each applies to
• Corporate tax instalments: the separate rules for corporations

Late filing and voluntary disclosure

• What happens if you don’t file your taxes: late-filing penalties, lost benefits, demands to file and catching up
• The Voluntary Disclosures Program: prompted and unprompted applications and the relief each gets
• What happens if you don’t report foreign income: foreign income and property reporting

Audits, reassessments and disputes

Most CRA reviews start as a letter asking for documents to support a specific claim, usually with a 30-day deadline, and most are resolved without major changes. If a review ends in a reassessment you disagree with, a Notice of Objection filed within 90 days is the formal route.

• CRA audit triggers: what makes a review or audit more likely
• What to do when you get a CRA audit or review letter: the type of review, deadlines, documents and your rights
• Changing a return you already filed: the T1-ADJ and “Change my return”, with the filing guides
• How to dispute a CRA assessment: the Notice of Objection, the Appeals review and the Tax Court of Canada