Authorize a representative: Overview

1. Overview

What your representative can do

When you authorize a representative, you are letting them represent you for your personal tax, business tax, non-resident tax, trust tax, or registered plan administration matters.

With authorization, your representative could do one or more of the following:

• access your personal tax information, tax assessment or reassessment
• get information about your business tax accounts
• update some of your business number and program account information
• access your non-resident tax account information 
• update some of your non-resident tax account information
• access trust account information
• update trust account information
• verify that they are authorized on your account by referring to their Client List in Represent a Client to verify your name and their authorizations levels
• access and update your registered plan information, if you are a registered plan owner

Your representative's access to your tax information remains until you or they cancel the access or it expires (if an expiry date was included in the authorization request). Your representative's access won't expire when the CRA is notified of your death, unless they were your legal representative.

For information on how to cancel authorization, go to Cancel authorization for a representative.

What you can do

In the "Profile" section in My Account, under "Authorized representative(s)," you can:

• select "Confirm pending authorizations" to confirm or deny electronic authorization requests submitted by representatives
• select "View authorized representatives" to view authorized representatives on your personal account
• select a specific representative to view, modify or delete their authorization
• view the online transactions done by a representative on your personal account, when viewing a specific representative
• add a representative to your account
• select "Deleted/expired representative list" to view representatives that were previously authorized to act on your behalf
• view the online transactions done by a deleted or expired representative on your personal account, when viewing a specific representative

In the "Profile" section in My Business Account, select "Manage authorized representatives" to:

• view all current representatives authorized on your business account
• view, modify or delete a specific representative's authorization
• view the online transactions done by a representative on your business account, when viewing a specific representative
• select "Authorize a representative" to add a representative on your business account
• select "Confirm pending authorizations" to confirm or deny electronic authorization requests submitted by representatives

For information about corporations, go to Access to corporate tax information.

In the “Profile” section in Non-Resident Withholding Tax, under “Authorized representative(s),” you can:

• select "Confirm pending authorizations" to confirm or deny electronic authorization requests submitted by representatives
• select "View authorized representatives" to view authorized representatives on your non-resident tax account
• select a specific representative to view, modify, or delete their authorization
• view the online transactions done by a representative on your non-resident tax account, when viewing a specific representative
• add a representative to your account
• select "Deleted/expired representative list" to view representatives that were previously authorized to act on your behalf
• view the online transactions done by a deleted or expired representative on your non-resident tax account, when viewing a specific representative

To access My Trust Account, enter the Trust Number (T3) on the Represent a Client welcome page.

In the "Profile" section of the trust account, under "Authorized representative(s)," you can:

• select "Confirm pending authorizations" to confirm or deny electronic authorization requests submitted by representatives
• select a specific representative to view, modify or delete their authorization
• view the online transactions done by a representative on your trust account, when viewing a specific representative
• add a representative to your account
• select "Deleted/expired representative list" to view representatives that were previously authorized to act on your behalf
• view the online transactions done by a deleted or expired representative on your trust account, when viewing a specific representative

In the “Profile” section of the Registered Plan Administrator Account, under “Authorized representative(s),” you can:

• add a representative to your account
• select "Deleted/expired representative list" to view representatives that were previously authorized to act on your behalf
• select "Confirm pending authorizations" to confirm or deny electronic authorization requests submitted by representatives
• select "View authorized representatives" to view authorized representatives on your Registered Plan Administrator Account

Who can be my representative

Your representative is a person, a group of people or a business that you authorize to deal with the CRA for you, such as:

• an accountant
• a bookkeeper
• your spouse or common-law partner
• another family member
• a friend
• a lawyer
• a customs broker
• an executor
• a power of attorney
• an employee or service provider of a registered plan owner