How to authorize a tax preparer for your corporation on CRA

The fastest way is to add your preparer in My Business Account, using the ID number they give you. It takes about five minutes and gives them online access to your corporation's tax account. If your preparer sends the request instead, you just confirm it in the same place.

Before you start

You need a CRA account with My Business Account added. (CRA: Authorize a representative) Your preparer will give you one of these identifiers (CRA: How do individuals and businesses authorize me?):

• RepID: authorizes one individual
• GroupID: authorizes a group of people at a firm
• Business number (BN): authorizes all employees of that business

Option 1: Add your preparer yourself (fastest)

CRA's steps (CRA: Authorize a representative):

1. Sign in to your CRA account.
2. On the Welcome page, select your Business account.
3. Select Profile from the left-side menu.
4. In "Authorized representatives," select Add.
5. Read "Before you begin" and select Start.
6. Enter and confirm the required information, including your preparer's ID.

Option 2: Confirm a request your preparer sent

A preparer with a RepID can send the request through CRA's Represent a Client service. It stays inactive until you confirm it (same source):

1. Sign in and select your Business account.
2. Select Profile, then Confirm pending requests under "Authorized representatives."
3. Select your preparer's name under "Pending authorization requests" and confirm.

This is how T2Returns works: we send the request when you sign up, and our onboarding email links you straight to step 1.

Option 3: Paper form (phone and mail access only)

Form AUT-01 gives a representative offline access only, by phone, mail, fax or in person. It "does not give online access." You send one form per representative to the tax centre listed on it, within six months of signing. (CRA: Authorize a representative) Use it only if online options aren't available to you.

Example

The owner of Lakeshore Physio Corp. signs up with T2Returns on Monday. We send an authorization request through Represent a Client the same day. They sign in to My Business Account, open Profile, select Confirm pending requests, and approve it. We can now see the corporation's CRA account, including prior assessments and instalment payments, which saves asking for them.