My Account important notices
Privacy notice statement
The information you provide is collected under the authority of the Income Tax Act for the purpose of viewing your personal income tax and benefit information, changing your return, changing your address or telephone number, or disagreeing with your assessment or determination. The information will be retained in the CRA's personal information banks and will be used and disclosed in accordance with the conditions listed therein.
Under the provisions of the Privacy Act and the Access to information Act, individuals have the right to protection of, and access to, their personal information. For more information about your rights and the Government of Canada information holdings, go to InfoSource on the Internet.
Questions or comments about this privacy policy, or our administration of the Privacy Act may be directed to the Access to Information and Privacy Division by email at ATIPCPTG1@cra-arc.gc.ca. If you are not satisfied that we have adequately respected your privacy, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the Internet or by calling 1-800-282-1376.
Personal information banks
What are personal information banks?
Personal information banks provide a summary of the type of information about individuals that is held by federal departments and agencies. The Privacy Act requires that personal information banks include all personal information that is organized and retrievable by a person's name or by an identifying number, symbol or other particular assigned only to that person. Personal information banks must also include personal information that has been or is being used, or is available for use for an administrative purpose.
The My Account service uses the personal information banks listed below:
a. Individual income tax return
Description: This bank contains all information supplied by the taxfiler on the taxfiler's annual income tax return, as well as correspondence, third-party information and Agency working papers relating thereto. Access will not be permitted without authority and/or adequate proof of identification, including a Social Insurance Number and signature.
Class of individuals: Tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of this bank is to provide financial information required in the administration and enforcement of the Income Tax Act and Regulations of Canada and nine provinces, and the territories, parts of the Canada Pension Plan, and the Employment Insurance Act and Regulations, for which this Agency is responsible.
Consistent Uses: The principal use of this bank is to support the audit programs, enforcement procedures, and collection actions required, and to respond to tax filers' enquiries regarding their income tax affairs. Selected information from this bank is shared under approved sharing agreements with various provincial and federal authorities. Information received from employers and other sources is used to verify, for subsequent adjustment where necessary, income and deduction data reported by a taxfiler.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Tax returns of the majority of tax filers are retained in accordance with the provisions of the Access to Information and Privacy Acts. The remainder, which are required mainly for statistical purposes, are retained for an additional two years.
RDA Number: 92/005 and 92/006
TBS Registration: 002014
Bank Number: CRA PPU 005
b. Taxation individual accounting and master file
Description: Records maintained in this bank are categorized by status (e.g. credit available) and include all financial transactions between individual tax filers and the Agency. Access will not be permitted without adequate proof of identification including Social Insurance Number and/or authority. The ongoing master file is updated continuously. At year-end, the Records on the Master file are converted for processing in the new year format. Currently, no data is purged nor deleted from the file. Financial activities, including assessments, are maintained on-line for all clients since the start of the 1987 program year. Some data for processing years prior to 1987 is maintained on-line for those accounts active at that time.
Class of individuals: Individual tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of this bank is to account for T1 accounts receivable and instalment credits of individual tax filers, penalty, interest and law costs related thereto.
Consistent Uses: The principal use of this bank is to record amounts owed by individuals and any instalment payments being held for future use. Where applicable, information pertaining to a tax filer's indebtedness is supplied to the tax filer's debtors and the courts to facilitate attachment.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Data related to an individual accounting master is neither deleted nor purged, it is converted annually to the new year format.
RDA Number: 92/006
Related to PR#: CRA ACB 190.
TBS Registration: 002018
Bank Number: CRA PPU 055
c. Taxation Rapid information
Description: This bank contains selected data from the taxpayer master file and the centralized accounting and collections master file, e.g. identification, filing, assessment, refund data and amount, and tax accounting transactions and collection data. Coverage is restricted to individual tax filers.
Class of individuals: Individual tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of this bank is to provide on-line access from tax offices to individual tax filers' computer records of their tax assessment, accounting and/or collection data. The principal use of this bank is to provide immediate responses to enquiries received at any tax services office from individual tax filers and their authorized representatives. Access will not be permitted without adequate proof of identification, including Social Insurance Number and/or authority. New rapid files are created every calendar year and updated as activity occurs in the "parent" files.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Where the new file is created the old file is destroyed.
RDA Number: 92/006
Related to PR#: CRA ACB 191.
TBS Registration: 003540
Bank Number: CRA PPU 045
d. Taxation taxpayer master file
Description: This bank serves as a depository for information on individuals, which consists of name, address, account number and tax data. The tax data is available as current information, which commences with the 1987 year and historic information, which commences with the 1978 year. Access will not be permitted without the necessary authority and/or adequate proof of identification, including a Social Insurance Number and signature.
Class of individuals: Individual tax filers.
Purpose: This bank provides statistical data for several analysis and support systems; provides and maintains a uniform account number system for tax filer identification by using the Temporary Taxation Number, or Social Insurance Number which is used in Canada by the Central Index; and enables Canada Revenue Agency to administer, under the approved authority, the Employment Insurance Act and Canada Pension Plan Act. The Social Insurance Number may be used to match information slips filed by employers and payers (such as banks, trustees, executors and administrators) with returns in this bank, for the purpose of income verification and identification of people who have not filed an income tax return. The information in this bank concerns persons who have filed a tax return for a given year. The principal use of this bank is to assess T1 individual tax returns. Identification and income data is provided to Human Resources Development Canada to verify claims for the Guaranteed Income Supplement Program, and to provide a Canada Pension Plan record of earnings. Information is exchanged with Citizenship and Immigration Canada provided for under the Canada Pension Plan Act and Employment Insurance Act. Use of selected information from this bank is made by Statistics Canada in light of entitlement prescribed in the Statistics Act.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Records are maintained since 1977.
RDA Number: 92/006
Related to PR#: CRA ACB 171, CRA ACB 276.
TBS Registration: 003537
Bank Number: CRA PPU 040
e. Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) System Database
Description: Client information concerning their Pre-Authorized Payment Plan is stored by individual Social Insurance Number. The database stores all Pre-Authorized Debit information, payment plan option, frequency and amount for up to three years.
Class of Individuals: All taxpayers.
Purpose: To offer T1 individuals who pay by instalments or who are in arrears a new simpler payment option. Pre-Authorized Debit is one of the CRA's new Electronic Commerce initiatives.
Consistent Uses: The database is used to view clients' banking information, which is stored in the T1 Individual Ident Database, for identification and authentication purposes only.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Each expired or cancelled agreement is stored on the PAD Database for 3 years. Afterwards, the agreement is sent to archives where it is stored on tape for an additional seven years and then destroyed.
RDA Number: 92/006
Related PR#: CRA ACB 280
TBS Registration: 005098
Bank Number: CRA PPU 185
f. Tax filer Representative Identification System (TRIS) Databank
Description: This system has two separate databanks that serve as depositories for information pertaining to tax filer representatives. The first databank contains information on legal and authorized representatives (individuals, third parties and corporations) to whom the CRA has been authorized, by the respective client(s) or by the courts, to release confidential tax filer information upon request. In order for an authorized representative to be entered into the databank, clients must provide either a properly completed and signed consent form or a letter of authorization. In order for a legal representative to be entered into the databank, the client or representative must provide legal documentation identifying that person as the legal representative (holder of a power of attorney, executor of a will, administrator of an estate, etc.). The second databank contains specific information related to trustees in bankruptcy and tax discounters. These individuals and corporations are not authorized to have access to confidential tax filer information unless it has been granted by their respective clients and has been entered into the first databank.
Class of Individuals: Individuals and corporations.
Purpose: The purpose of the databanks is to maintain an up-to-date electronic record of authorized tax filer representatives, trustees in bankruptcy, and discounters for use by authorized agency staff.
Consistent Uses: This first data bank enables authorized employees to verify and respond to third party enquiries by verifying that they are authorized representatives. The second data bank is used by various CRA systems and personnel for various processing purposes.
Retention and Disposal Standards: The information on this database will be retained indefinitely or until such time as a client authorizes it be modified or deleted.
RDA Number: 92/006
Related PR#: CRA ACB 305, CRA ACB 222, CRA ACB 126, CRA ACB 131, CRA ACB 139
TBS Registration: 004467
Bank Number: CRA PPU 175
g. Individual (T1) Tax Arrears – Collection Action
Description: Information on the implementation of Agency policies and procedures for collection of duties and taxes, specific client accounts, statistical information for inclusion in annual reports, and refunds of taxes paid. The bank consists of collections made, internal instructions, debits and credits by client name, statistical files on outstanding arrears, fiscal year reports, summary of trial balances, computer-generated printouts, records of delinquent collection cases and information relating to assessments raised by collections. The information contained in the centralized individual accounting and collection system (T1) computer file is sent electronically to the Revenue Enforcement Management Information Tracking System (REMITS), for use by Collection Call Centre agents in resolving individual (T1) tax arrears. Agents record details of actions taken in the REMITS: List of Activities. Accounts whose tax arrears are not resolved at the Collections Call Centre are either immediately or eventually transferred to the Automated Collections and Source Deductions Enforcement System (ACSES) for action by tax services office collection officers who note details of actions taken and/or planned based on information gathered from audits, third parties, legal opinions, court actions, personal contact, etc. In cases where such information is voluminous, or necessarily includes the retention of documents, the printout information may be supplemented with a collection file or docket. Access to this information in ACSES will be permitted where there is adequate proof of identification, including Social Insurance Number, signature and/or authority.
Class of Individuals: Licensee companies and individual tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of the bank is to maintain records that support and document collection activity. The information is used by collection officers in their enforcement duties regarding payment of taxes in cases where accounts have been referred to a tax services office for collection action. Information pertaining to a tax filer's indebtedness may be included in documentation issued to third parties indebted to the client and the courts, to facilitate attachment.
Consistent Uses: This databank enables authorized employees to access the history of a collections account to facilitate collection action.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Information in this bank is retained for two years after an account is paid in full and archived for a further two years on tape, at which time it is destroyed.
RDA Number: 92/005 and 92/006
Related PR#: CRA RCB 190
TBS Registration: 002017
Bank Number: CRA PPU 050
h. Canada Child Benefit (CCB) DataBank
Description: This bank contains information used to determine an individual's eligibility and entitlement for the CCTB and records any subsequent activity on that individual's CCTB account. This bank also contains information used to determine an individual's eligibility for the Child Disability Benefit (CDB), which is a supplement of the CCTB program. Eligibility for the CDB is determined by information accessed from the Disability Tax Credit program (program record CRA ACB 325). Information is also used to administer other provincial and territorial programs on behalf of those provinces and territories along with the Children's Special Allowance (CSA) program.
Class of Individuals: Individual tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of this bank is to provide an accurate and current record of all activities on an individual's CCTB account. This databank enables authorized employees to reply to clients' enquiries accurately and quickly and supports programs that validate information to support eligibility and to facilitate correct calculation of benefits.
Consistent Uses: In addition, information related to the National Child Benefit Supplement, a component of the CCTB, is provided to an individual's resident province or territory to allow the province or territory to adjust the individual's social assistance payments or payments made under a provincial or territorial law. As well, the Agency transfers information to other provincial and territorial departments where legislation authorizes them to obtain CCTB information.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Information will be retained for a period of two years following the last administrative action and then destroyed.
RDA Number: 98/011
Related PR#: CRA ACB 126, CRA ACB 131, CRA ACB 305, CRA ACB 315, CRA ACB 325
TBS Registration: 003210
Bank Number: CRA PPU 063
i. Goods and Services Tax / Harmonized Sales Tax Credit (GST/HST credit) DataBank
Description: This databank contains the information used to determine an individual's eligibility (including eligibility for the Newfoundland Harmonized Sales Tax Credit, the Saskatchewan Sales Tax Credit and the Newfoundland and Labrador Senior Benefit), along with all applicable financial transactions and the reasons why a payment may have been withheld (e.g. debt owing to the Agency). In addition, it records any subsequent activity on an individual's GST/HST credit account (e.g. changed eligibility or entitlement, and additional cheque issued).
Class of Individuals: Individual tax filers.
Purpose: The purpose of this bank is to provide an accurate record of all the activities on an individual's GST/HST credit account for each tax year.
Consistent Uses: This data bank enables Agency field staff, who are the principle users of the system, to reply to individual tax filers' enquiries accurately and quickly thereby increasing the level of service to tax filers. It also supports programs that validate information in order to support eligibility and to facilitate correct calculation of credits.
Retention and Disposal Standards: Information will be retained for a period of two years following the last administrative action and then destroyed.
RDA Number: 98/008
Related PR#: CRA ACB 222
TBS Registration: 003016
Bank Number: CRA PPU 140
Timed log out
To protect against unauthorized access to your secure session, the system is designed to automatically terminate your secure session through a timed log out that occurs after 20 minutes of inactivity during the log in process or 20 minutes of inactivity during the My Account session.
Accuracy of information
The CRA makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the material it posts on its Web site. Because changing circumstances affect individual tax situations and child and family benefits, the CRA represents that the information on this site pertaining to any particular taxpayer's account is accurate to the best of the CRA's knowledge at the time of posting. The CRA may change tax or benefit information at any time to reflect the most current and reliable information in its possession. In the event of a difference between any tax, refund, interest, instalment, penalty, or other amount shown in a taxpayer's account on this Web site and the amount in the most current CRA records, the most current CRA records take precedence.