Why you should register for CRA and RQ My Business Account (and how to do it)

With all data moving to the cloud these days and ubiquitous online access to banking, customer and supplier portals, it makes sense that Revenue Canada (CRA) and Revenue Quebec (RQ) have followed suit. Considerable resources have been spent by the revenue agencies on developing their online portals and encouraging both individual taxpayers and businesses to move the majority of their tax related interactions online (almost every accountant conference has an appearance by a CRA representative talking about the improvements to their online portal and imploring accountants to convince their clients to make the switch). The upfront investment has resulted in significant cost savings for CRA/RQ (postage costs alone have dropped dramatically) while improving accuracy and perhaps most importantly increasing the effectiveness of tax collection efforts. CRA personnel have been able to move away from verifying calculations and manually reviewing tax returns to more value added analysis which has allowed them to identify tax miscreants with higher accuracy.

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benefits of registering for my business account with CRA and rQ

For both the individual taxpayer and small business owner there are numerous benefits to registering as follows:

• My Business Account for both CRA and RQ given you access to your payroll deductions at source paid, T4 summaries and slips, GST/HST and QST returns filed, payments made, instalments and corporate tax files including amounts paid to date , instalments, Non resident accounts and much more.

• Ability to review all tax documents, including notices of assessment, in one place rather than having to save/scan them and inevitably lose them when needed most.

• Being able to keep on top of tax obligations to avoid penalties, reduce interest charges and run afoul of request for information/audits due to missed and/or overlooked mail

• Submit documents relating to open queries/cases/authorizations online rather than faxing them in (which for some reason is the only other non-mail way to send them to CRA, who does not have access to email. They are among the last organizations to use fax technology. RQ is a little more advanced and has a secure server by which documents can be emailed, however, this usually has to be arranged with an individual representative)

• Consult statements of account to reconcile payments made to the various tax accounts. Often GST/HST QST refunds, instead of being paid out to the business, will get allocated to corporate or payroll taxes payable (or vice versa). Being able to review the statement can greatly facilitate the reconciliation process.

• Consult year end tax balances eg. capital and non capital loss carry forwards, refundable dividend tax on hand (RDTOH) and Capital dividend account balances (once they are verified) are all available on the CRA site.

• You can add your accountant as an authorized user using CRA “represent a client” allowing them to retrieve notices of assessments directly or reconcile accounts to payments made.

• GST-QST returns can be filed online using the Revenue Quebec portal. Once filed a payment code is generated which simplifies the payment of tax through online banking (by going to bank’s tax payment and filing service and adding the payment type "Revenue Quebec download code". To make payment, copy and paste the code and it will be allocated to the correct tax accounts)

• GST/HST returns can also be filed using CRA with payment that can be mailed in or paid online. This is especially useful when the business is expecting a refund .

• Year end salary declarations including T4 and RL1 slips and RL1 summaries can be filed online rather than having to complete these by hand, mail them in and hope that they arrive on time.

• RQ provides you with a payment code for any tax obligations that are due including GST and QST and corporate taxes amounts owing and installments. These can be retrieved from the business account. It is important to note that there are several different types of logins for Revenue Quebec businesses. When accessing the tax files, it is important to use the “my business account” link

• Once you have registered your business in Quebec, you can access the Registraire d’Entreprise using the Clic Sequr login and password at the Clic Sequr Entreprise link to access details about your account, change addresses and update your annual declaration.

how to register for my business account

Online registration is also fairly straightforward. With CRA, identity verification can be provided by a banking partner which can be seen on the the registration page. You want to make sure that you have your notices of assessment (both CRA and RQ depending on which agency you are registering with) handy and then follow the instructions to register. CRA will usually send a security code either in the mail or can also be retrieved by calling them. Revenue Quebec will generally want to call you to verify your identity.

CRA register account for business Login (click on one of the "register" buttons)

RQ my business account Login - click on access my account and then follow the instructions for registration. Note that you will be provided with a user name and password. It is essential that you save the record which contains the user name and password or copy and paste otherwise you will have to call them which can be a tedious process

Registration itself may take some time, however, once completed it provides much more control over your tax situation which can be the cause of significant amount of stress for many business owners and their accountants.

Ronika Khanna is an accounting and finance professional who helps small businesses achieve their financial goals. She is the author of several books for small businesses and also provides financial consulting services.

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