How to Authorize or Remove Someone to Deal With the CRA for Your Personal Tax Account

Who can you authorize to deal with the CRA?

The Canada Revenue Agency lets you authorize another person, a group of people or a business to deal with the CRA on your behalf. This is useful when an accountant prepares your taxes, a spouse or family member helps manage your tax affairs, or you want a lawyer, bookkeeper or trusted friend to communicate with the CRA for you.

The CRA specifically lists representatives such as accountants, bookkeepers, spouses or common-law partners, family members, friends and lawyers. Authorizing someone does not mean giving them your CRA username or password. Instead, you formally add them as a representative so the CRA can recognize the access you have approved.

You are responsible for deciding who should represent you and how much access that person should receive. You can review your current representatives later and remove access when it is no longer needed.

Which CRA representative access level should you choose?

For a personal tax account, the CRA provides two authorization levels.

• Level 1 allows the representative to access information only.
• Level 2 allows the representative to access information and make certain account changes.

Choose the lowest level that lets the representative do the work you actually want them to perform. For example, if someone only needs to review tax information, level 1 may be sufficient. If your accountant or another representative needs to perform CRA services that involve permitted account changes, level 2 may be necessary.

The exact online services available at each level are listed on the CRA's services for representatives of individuals page.

How do you authorize someone through CRA My Account?

For an individual who already has access to My Account, the CRA describes My Account as the fastest way to initiate the authorization yourself.

1. Go to the official CRA individual tax services as applicable and sign in to your CRA account.
2. On the Welcome page, select your Individual account to enter My Account.
3. Select Profile from the left-side menu.
4. Find the Authorized representative(s) section and select Add.
5. Read the information displayed under Before you begin and select Start.
6. Enter and confirm the information requested by the CRA.

The representative identifier may be a RepID for an individual representative, a GroupID for a group, or a business number registered with Represent a Client when you are authorizing a business.

What if your accountant or representative sends the authorization request?

A representative who has a RepID can submit an authorization request through the CRA's Represent a Client service. If they choose the option requiring you to confirm the request in My Account, there is an important deadline.

You must confirm or deny the request within 10 business days. If you do not act within that period, the request is cancelled. If you still want the authorization afterward, the representative must submit a new request.

How to confirm the pending request

1. Sign in to your CRA account.
2. Select your Individual account to access My Account.
3. Select Profile.
4. Under Authorized representative(s), select Confirm pending authorizations.
5. Select the representative's name under Pending representative authorizations.
6. Review the request carefully and confirm or deny it.

The CRA recommends reviewing the representative and requested access before confirming it. You can read the official Confirm my Representative instructions before approving a pending request.

Can a representative be authorized without confirming the request in My Account?

For an individual account, the CRA also provides an alternative process in which you give your representative information from a notice of assessment associated with a return that was processed at least six months ago. The representative supplies that information with the initial authorization request, and you must sign the certification page before the representative submits it through Represent a Client.

The signed certification page is submitted electronically by the representative. The CRA says not to mail or fax a copy of that certification page because mailed or faxed copies will not be processed or returned. The CRA may still contact you or your legal representative to verify the authorization. The CRA states that a representative request using this alternative process will generally be processed instantly.

Can you authorize someone by mail instead?

Yes. If the representative only needs to deal with the CRA by phone, mail, fax or in person, you can use Form AUT-01, Authorize a Representative for Offline Access.

This form does not provide online access to your account information. You must complete and sign a separate authorization form for each representative and send it to the appropriate CRA tax centre listed on the form within six months of the date it is signed.

Use the CRA's official representative authorization instructions to choose the correct route.

How do you check who is authorized on your CRA account?

In My Account, open Profile and look under Authorized representative(s). The CRA lets you view authorized representatives, select a representative to review or modify their authorization, see online transactions performed by that representative, and review representatives whose authorization was deleted or expired.

This is worth checking after changing accountants or whenever another person no longer needs access to your tax information. Authorization normally remains in place until you or the representative cancels it, or until an expiry date included in the authorization is reached.

How do you remove a CRA representative?

The fastest option is to remove the representative online through My Account. The CRA states that online removal immediately cancels the representative's access.

Sign in to My Account, go to Profile, open the Authorized representative(s) area, select the representative and delete the authorization. A representative can also cancel their own authorization through Represent a Client.

For a personal tax account, you or your representative may alternatively call the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 to cancel authorization. A mail option is also available using Form AUT-01X, Cancel Authorization for a Representative. If using AUT-01X, mail it to the appropriate CRA tax centre listed on the form within six months after it is signed.

You can obtain the current AUT-01X cancellation form from the CRA.

Common mistakes when authorizing a CRA representative

• Do not share your CRA sign-in credentials. Use the CRA representative authorization process instead.
• Check whether level 1 or level 2 is actually needed before granting access to a personal account.
• If a representative sends a request that requires My Account confirmation, do not miss the 10-business-day confirmation period.
• Do not use AUT-01 if the representative needs online access. AUT-01 provides offline access only.
• If mailing AUT-01 or AUT-01X, make sure the CRA receives the form through the appropriate route and that it is submitted within six months of the date it was signed.
• Review your authorized representatives periodically and remove people or firms that no longer need access.

What happens after you authorize someone?

Once authorization is active, the representative can deal with the CRA within the level and scope of access you approved. When the representative contacts the CRA, the agency may ask questions to verify the representative's identity and confirm that they are listed on your account.

You can continue using your own CRA account while a representative is authorized. You can also review, modify or delete their authorization later. If you set an expiry date, access ends when that authorization expires; otherwise, it remains until you or the representative cancels it.

Business accounts, non-resident tax accounts, trusts and registered plan administrator accounts have their own authorization options and access rules. The CRA's representative authorization overview provides the appropriate route for each account type.