How do my clients authorize me?

After your clients, family members, or friends authorize you to act for them, you can get access to their information.

How to get authorized

Individual taxpayers

Your clients can authorize you for their income tax and benefit account online through My Account.

If you have an active RepID, you can log into Represent a Client to submit an electronic authorization request for your client’s approval or you may have the option of providing your client’s tax information from the previous year. For a request to be completed, you must provide all required information during the electronic authorization process, as well as scan and send a signed and dated certification page from your client. After the CRA receives the electronic authorization request and certification page, the request will appear in a pending status for the client to approve within My Account. The client will need to review, validate, and either approve or deny the request within 10 business days or it will be cancelled. If the client’s tax information was provided with the original request, it will not be placed in a pending status for the client to confirm but it may be confirmed through other methods.

Your clients can also authorize you for access to their tax information over the phone, by mail, by fax, or in person by submitting a completed Form AUT-01 Authorize a Representative for Offline Access  to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Note that Form AUT-01 will not give a representative access to taxpayer information in Represent a Client

For more information, go to Authorize a representative: Overview.

Business clients

Your clients can authorize you for their business account online through My Business Account.

If you have an active RepID, you can log into Represent a Client to send an electronic authorization request. For a request to be completed, you must provide all required information during the electronic authorization process, as well as scan and send a signed and dated certification page from your client. After the CRA receives the electronic authorization request and certification page, the request will appear in a pending status for your client to approve within My Business Account. The client will need to review, validate, and approve or deny the request within 10 business days or it will be cancelled.

Your business clients can also authorize you for access to their tax information over the phone, by mail, by fax, or in person by completing and submitting Form AUT-01 Authorize a Representative for Offline Access. Note that Form AUT-01 will not give a representative access to taxpayer information in Represent a Client

For more information, go to Authorize a representative: Overview.

How to access your clients’ information

To access information online for any clients you represent, you first need to register for Represent a Client and get a representative identifier (RepID). If you are registering for a GroupID to authorize a group of representatives, you will use the GroupID number as an identifier for this service. If you are registering a business as a representative, you will use the business number (BN) of your business as an identifier for this service. You will then give your RepID, GroupID or BN to your clients, so they can authorize you to access their tax information online.