First and foremost, let me tout how great CRA My Account is. I am not being sarcastic. That is exactly the very reason why it is important and how inconvenient it is to lose access to it.
I am referring to the online access for individuals to Canada Revenue agency. It stores all the communications from the CAR to an individual including Notice of Assessment, letter about whether they are approved of any tax credits if they apply for it such as Ontario Trillium Benefits, GST Credits, etc.
More importantly, it stores all the tax slips such as T4 and RRSP contributions sent from employers and financial institutions in the past 10 years. Many tax return filing Apps can retrieve this information automatically if you log in to CRA My Account when you file you tax. It is very easy to use. You just need to follow the steps in the App. If you lose the access, you will have to manually enter it. It takes longer and it is easier to make mistakes in data entry. I also heard many people miss their tax slips such as T4 because they changed address and never receive it in the mail or just misplaced them. With CRA My Account, all the tax slips are stored there. You will never miss any ever again.
All your TFSA contribution and withdrawal information is also there, although it is not relevant to your tax return filing.
It also shows all your tax credits information on when you will receive them and how much. It allows you to set up or change direct deposit information which is the bank account you want CRA to deposit the tax refund or credits directly into. Much faster and safer than waiting for a cheque in a mail and deposit it.
I cannot stop raving about it. If you have not registered yet, please do so. You will need your social insurance number and probably your last year tax return file to verify your identity when you register online.
However, I heard that a person cannot register CRA My Account if they have not filed the 2021 and 2020 tax returns. Why would CRA set up such rule? If a person tries to register, he or she probably wants to file the missing year tax returns. As long as they can prove their identity properly, why not give them the access?
I cannot stress how important not to miss a tax return. If you don’t owe tax, you might be missing tax credits or refunds that you are supposed to receive. If you do owe tax, there is penalty with missing tax plus daily interest. If you are concerned about paying the tax due to financial hardship, you probably don’t owe any tax and probably can get free tax clinic help to file your tax returns for free. If you do owe tax, there are ways to make it work. Check out this CRA page for various options.
Hope you can enjoy the many benefits of CRA My Account. Please register it now or before you file your tax return next time.
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