Canadian Businesses Will Receive all their Mail From the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) via the Online Portal Starting in Spring 2025: How Canadian Taxpayers and Businesses Need to Prepare

Key Points About This Change

Starting in spring 2025, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will transition to online mail as the default method of delivering most business correspondence. Bye-bye Canada Post!

This change applies to all:

• New business number and program account registrations
• Existing businesses registered for My Business Account
• Businesses who have a representative that accesses the CRA’s services on their behalf via Represent a Client

This change is part of the CRA’s ongoing efforts to improve service delivery by making it faster, easier, and more secure for businesses to manage their tax obligations online. This means Canadian businesses will start receiving most of their business notices and other correspondence through the CRA’s secure online portal, My Business Account, instead of by mail.

Canadian businesses will need to sign in to My Business Account to receive correspondence, such as

• Notice of assessment
• Notices of reassessment
• PD7A – statement of account for current source deductions
• Most statements and letters

How to Prepare for the Online Mail Change – Make Sure Your Email Address is in Your Account and Up to Date

To prepare for the switch to online mail, CRA recommends signing into My Business Account and making sure your email address is up to date. This allows the CRA to notify Canadian businesses when important changes are made to their account and when they have mail to view in My Business Account.

Canadian Businesses can have up to three (3) email addresses on file for each program account, so you can also add your representatives, Canadian tax lawyer, accountant, or other authorized individuals. Without an updated email address, Canadian businesses are at risk of missing important notifications about updates and correspondence.

Owners of new businesses should register for My Business Account and provide a valid email address after they register for their business number and program accounts so they do not miss notifications about updates and correspondence.

Business Correspondence from the CRA

Canadian businesses registering for a new business number or program account will need to register for a My Business Account to access their business correspondence, such as, but not limited to, (1) notices, (2) letters, (3) forms, and (4) statements.

With the change to online mail, your business correspondence will be considered as received on the date that it is posted to your My Business Account. To access, view, print, or download your business correspondence, follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to My Business Account(if you are an authorized representative, sign into Represent a Client.)
2. From the navigation menu on the left, go to the “Correspondence” heading and select “Mail.”
3. Select and review your mail.

Exceptions to CRA Online Mail

Existing businesses not registered for a My Business Account through the business owner or an authorized representative (via Represent a Client) will continue to receive their CRA correspondence by paper mail.

Charities will continue to receive their CRA correspondence by paper mail unless they sign up to receive online mail.

Non-resident businesses that do not have access to My Business Account through their representative or an owner who is a Canadian resident will continue to receive their correspondence by paper mail.

Benefits of CRA Online Mail

CRA’s digital services make handling Canadian business tax matters faster and easier. Canadian businesses and their authorized representatives can file, pay, and access detailed information about their tax accounts. Switching to online mail ensures a more efficient, secure, and eco-friendly approach to handling your business’s tax obligations. By using the CRA’s digital services, businesses enjoy the following benefits:

• Faster – enables quicker communication with the CRA, making it easier to get updates and support.
• Convenient – receive earlier confirmation for tax information.
• Secure – manage business taxes quickly and easily from a computer or mobile device.
• Eco-friendly – helps reduce paper use, contributing to a cleaner and greener future by cutting down on waste.

To learn more about CRA’s digital services, check out their tax tip page: Looking for the fastest and easiest way to view and manage your business taxes online? Use our digital services!

Improvements to My Business Account’s Online Mail Service

My Business Account is a secure online portal that gives you access to a range of services to help manage your business’ tax affairs in a quick and simple way. My Business Account allows Canadian businesses to:

• access GST/HST, payroll, corporation income taxes, excise taxes, excise duties and other levies accounts online
• receive and view your CRA mail online
• submit documents
• manage your authorized representatives
• view and pay balances
• file a GST/HST return or rebate, adjust a GST/HST return, expected and filed GST/HST returns
• transfer payments
• file information returns, such as the T4 slip
• get answers to your questions and more

Canadian Businesses can register using a CRA user ID and password or through a sign-in partner. To make managing your business tax correspondence even easier, the CRA has enhanced the “Mail” service in My Business Account with the following new features:

• Improved message filtering and sorting, allowing you to quickly find and organize important correspondence.
• A new “Access services” button for easy navigation to other communication services.
• A new “Reply” feature for audit enquiries, simplifying the process of responding to the CRA.
• A new “Switch business account” button for managing multiple business accounts.
• A new “Proceed to pay” button for direct access to the payment process.
• A new “Submit document” button for easily submitting required documents.

To stay updated on new improvements to My Business Account, please visit About My Business Account – What’s new.

Requesting Paper Mail from the CRA

For Canadian businesses that would like to receive their correspondence by paper mail, you’ll need to make a request to activate paper mail. Starting in May 2025, paper mail can be requested in one of two ways:

1. Select paper mail as your delivery method for correspondence in My Business Account.
2. Fill out and mail form RC681 – Request to Activate Paper Mail for Business.

Pro Tax Tip – How to Save Yourself from Online Fraud and Scams

The CRA’s email notifications will not do the following:

• Contain a link
• Ask you for personal or financial information
• Request payment by prepaid credit cards or gift cards
• Use aggressive language or tone
• Threaten arrest or to send police

If you receive any suspicious correspondence purporting to be from the CRA, either contact the CRA directly or a Canadian tax lawyer.

FAQ

How do I confirm, add or change my email address in My Business Account?

To confirm, add or change your email address, complete the following steps:

• Step 1: Sign in to My Business Account.
• If you are an authorized representative, sign in to Represent a Client.
• Step 2: From the navigation menu on the left, select “Profile.”
• Step 3: In the “Notification preferences” section, select “Manage notification preferences.”
• Step 4: Review accounts registered to receive email notifications and the email address attached to accounts for accuracy.
• Step 5: Select the applicable change option available on the page and complete the steps.

What kind of email notifications will Canadian businesses receive after signing up for email notifications?

The CRA will send Canadian businesses notifications when there are changes or updates related to the following topics:

• Your address
• Your direct deposit information
• Your authorized representative
• Your owner name
• Your owner SIN
• Your owner telephone number
• Your owner language preference
• Your owner language preference
• Your account-specific language preference
• Your multi-factor authentication enrolment
• Your CRA user ID and password
• Your account lockout status
• Mail sent to you by the CRA has been returned, meaning you need to update your mailing address
• New CRA mail to view in My Business Account

Canadian businesses can also choose to receive additional optional email notifications when there are changes or updates related to the following topics:

• Your payments

 Disclaimer: This article just provides broad information. It is only up to date as of the posting date. It has not been updated and may be out of date. It does not give legal advice and should not be relied on. Every tax scenario is unique to its circumstances and will differ from the instances described in the article. If you have specific legal questions, you should seek the advice of a Canadian tax lawyer.