Chartered Professional Accountants
News
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Starting this month, the CRA is transitioning to online mail as being the default method for most business correspondence. Rather than sending correspondence in the mail, such as notices of assessment, review letters and statements of account, most correspondence will only be posted electronically through CRA’s secure online portal, My Business Account. This change will apply to the following:
- Any new business number and program account registrations, which includes payroll, GST/HST, import/export accounts, etc.
- Businesses signed up for My Business Account
- Any businesses with a representative that accesses the online business account as the authorized representative
What this means is that if you are currently receiving paper mail from CRA and have authorized our firm as a representative for your business (applicable to the majority of our clients), you will no longer receive paper mail and will be automatically switched to receiving online mail only, unless action is taken. If you do not have a CRA My Business Account, all online mail will be emailed directly to our office.
Charities will continue to receive CRA correspondence by paper mail, as well as non-resident businesses that don’t have My Business Account access through their representative or an owner that is a Canadian resident.
We strongly urge you to take the steps to sign up for a CRA My Business Account now if you have not already done so. If you do not wish to receive electronic mail, but do not take the appropriate steps to opt out and your electronic mail is sent to us by default, as your business’ authorized representative, there will be an annual fee charged for administration of this correspondence on your behalf.
Get Prepared
To ensure you are receiving email notifications when new correspondence is posted online by CRA to your business account, sign onto My Business Account and confirm your email address is up to date to ensure you don’t miss important notifications regarding your business account.
If you have not yet signed up for My Business Account, you should do so right away. Detailed instructions on how to register for a CRA account can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/cra-login-services/register-cra-sign-in-services.html?account=mya
Opting Out of Online Mail
If you would prefer to receive your CRA business account correspondence via paper mail, a request can be made in one of two ways:
- Log onto your My Business Account and select paper mail as your default delivery method (see steps below).
- Fill out and mail form RC681 – Request to Activate Paper Mail for Business*
Steps via My Business Account to select paper mail as your default delivery method:
- Access your client profile by clicking on your business name at the top right of the screen
- Scroll down and click on the ‘Manage mail for my business’ link
- Hit the Start button, select Online as the mail delivery method that you want to opt out of, check off all program type accounts that show as online and hit Next
- To confirm, check both confirmation boxes and hit Next
- Finally, confirm the paper mail delivery method is accurate and hit Submit
*Note that this request can only be made by someone with signing authority such as an owner or legal representative and cannot be made your authorized representative. If you submit this form to activate paper mail, you may still receive online correspondence prior to CRA processing the request.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes, please contact our office.
Elaine, Janine, Brian and the Hughesman Morris Liversedge team.