The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has issued me a business number. Now what do I do?

In Canada, once a company is assigned a business number then it needs to request which type of program account it needs to be setup. There are five types of accounts:

1. Corporate Tax Return
2. Payroll
3. Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST)
4. Import/Export
5. Information Return

Discussion:

Each account is identified by two letters and is added onto the nine digit business number.

1. Corporate Tax Return (RC) – This account is used when filing your corporate tax return.
2. Payroll (RP) – This account is used when filing and remitting payroll deductions, as well as annual employee payslips (T4 slips).
3. Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) (RT) – This account is used when filing your GST/HST return. In addition, you are required to include your GST/HST account number on your invoice so that customers can claim the GST/HST paid on their GST/HST returns. Your GST/HST account number would be your business number followed by RT.
4. Import/Export (RM) – This account is used to process customs documents when importing/exporting goods into/out of Canada.
5. Information Return (RZ) – This account is used to file information returns such as Statements of Investment Income (T5 slips), Returns of Securities Transactions (T5008 slips) and Partnership Information Returns (T5013 slips).

Recommendation

If you think your company may need to register for an additional program account, contact us.