Who can apply
When events beyond your control prevent you from meeting your tax obligations, cancelling or waiving penalties and interest may be possible.
You may request relief of penalties and interest. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will consider all requests. While this page lists certain criteria, meeting them does not guarantee that relief will be granted.
Situations when relief may be possible
To apply to have penalties and interest cancelled or waived, you need to explain why you are asking for this relief. The following are common situations:
Extraordinary circumstances
Extraordinary circumstances may include, but are not limited to, the following examples:
- natural or human-made disasters, such as a flood or fire
- civil disturbances or disruptions in services, such as a postal strike
- serious illness or accident
- serious emotional or mental distress, such as death in the immediate family
Extraordinary circumstances experienced by an authorized representative or third party:
- Your authorized representative or third party experienced an extraordinary circumstance, such as described above, that prevented you from meeting your tax obligations.
Note: When an adverse event has prevented a large number of taxpayers from meeting their tax obligations, we may issue a news release to announce that we may give special consideration to providing relief. In such cases, taxpayers need to make a request to get relief. CRA news releases on adverse events that qualify for relief can be found at News releases.
Video: Taxpayer Relief
Financial hardship
When we have confirmed that you are not able to pay what you owe, we may waive or cancel interest in whole or in part to allow you to pay your debt. For example, this may occur when:
- you cannot pay due to financial hardship
- interest charges make up a major amount of what is due and you are unable to make a reasonable payment arrangement
- for individuals, paying the interest would make it difficult to provide basic necessities, such as food, medical care, transportation, or shelter for a prolonged period
- for businesses, paying the interest would jeopardize the continuity of business operations, employees' jobs, and the welfare of the community as a whole
Actions of the CRA
The CRA may cancel or waive penalties and interest when they result from CRA actions, including:
- processing delays that result in you not being informed within a reasonable time, that an amount was owing
- errors in CRA materials which led you to file a return or make a payment based on incorrect information
- incorrect information provided to you by the CRA
- errors in processing
- delays in providing information, resulting in you not being able to meet your tax obligations on time
- undue delays in resolving an objection or an appeal, or in completing an audit
Other circumstances
The CRA may also grant relief if your circumstances do not fall within the situations described above.
If you send us a request for relief, we will review it and determine if we can grant relief due to your circumstances.
Reminder: Make sure to send any information and documents that you feel support your request.
Third party errors or delays
You are generally considered to be responsible for errors or delays made by your representative or third party. However, there may be exceptional situations where we may consider granting relief because of errors made or delays caused by your representative or a third party acting for you for tax related matters.
Penalties and interest from the past 10 years
For penalties, the CRA will consider a request only if it relates to a tax year or fiscal period ending in any of the 10 calendar years before the year in which you make a request. For example, a request made in 2023 must relate to a penalty for a tax year or fiscal period ending in 2013 or later.
For interest on a balance owing for any tax year or fiscal period, the CRA will consider only the amounts that accrued during the 10 calendar years before the year in which you make a request. For example, a request made in 2023 must relate to interest that accrued in 2013 or later.
Refer to: Limitation period on exercising discretion and the deadline for requesting relief
Situations that do not qualify
The following do not qualify for relief under the Taxpayer Relief Provisions:
- penalties and interest that fall outside the 10-year period
- assessed tax
- when the CRA has no legislative authority
- for example, the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) gross negligence penalty charged under section 285 of the Excise Tax Act (ETA)
- administrative charges such as bank chargeback fees
- call the CRA general enquiries number or the telephone number provided on the correspondence received for more information
Other options that may better fit your situation
These options include:
- disputing an assessment or reassessment
- find out how to file a formal objection to the applicable Notice of Assessment or Notice of Reassessment, see: File and objection
- making a voluntary disclosure to fix errors or omissions on a previously filed return, or file a missing return
- change your personal income tax return or change your corporate tax return to correct any errors you need to change
- filing an income tax return to refund or reduce the amount payable beyond the normal three-year period
- making a request to file a late, amended or revoked election to choose a different tax treatment for income tax purposes
For information about how to pay your debt, refer to:
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