Learn about your taxes: The one about your notice of assessment

Congratulations! You’ve successfully done your taxes. It wasn’t so bad, right?

So, what happens now?

After we process your tax return, we’ll send you a notice of assessment. Pro tip: always open all your mail from the Canada Revenue Agency or the CRA right away.

A notice of assessment, also known as an N-O-A, looks like this and is a summary of your tax return. Each year that you do your taxes, we will send you a notice of assessment.

Your notice contains information that you may need when doing your taxes for the next tax year. It’s important to keep it in a safe, secure place because it has your personal information on it.

That information verifies your identity. For account security purposes, when you call us, the CRA agent will ask for information about you and your taxes, so your notice is helpful to have on hand.

The top part of the notice gives details such as: your name and address, the tax year of the notice, and the date we sent the notice.

The top part of the notice also includes your NETFILE access code, which I will explain a bit later.

See this middle section here? That’s where you can see the assessment of your tax return. You’ll see there that you may be getting a refund, you may not owe anything or, you may owe money to the CRA.

The section called “Tax assessment summary” shows the amounts used to calculate your refund or balance owing.

When you call the CRA, an agent may ask you for this information to verify your identity.

If you’re a student in post-secondary studies or in a trade school, you can claim your tuition fees on your taxes. If you didn’t use the full amount or transfer it to someone else, your notice will show unused tuition amounts.

If you have unused tuition fees, you can claim those fees in a future tax year. Your notice also includes statements on savings plans that you may have. It will show your deduction limit for your registered retirement savings plan, or RRSP.

If you contributed more to your RRSP than your deduction limit, then you may have to pay tax on the extra amount.

If you took money out of your RRSP to buy a home through the Home Buyers’ Plan, or to finance full-time training or education through the Lifelong Learning Plan, you’ll see that information on your notice.

You’ll also see the remaining balance you have to repay to your RRSP, and the minimum amount you’ll need to repay for the next tax year.

Ok, back to NETFILE. If you want to do your taxes online next tax year, your NETFILE access code is important. When filing online, you will be asked to enter your NETFILE access code. This eight-character code is also used to confirm your identity.

If you do not enter the code, you won’t be able to use information from that year’s tax return to confirm your identity when calling for help. So enter this code next year to help make managing your taxes easier!

And that’s it. I hope this helps you better understand your notice of assessment! That’s one more thing your parents don’t have to explain to you anymore!

Oh, and remember to keep the notices you receive in a safe place. If you don’t want paper notices, you can choose to receive them electronically when you register online for My Account!

For more about your taxes, follow us on social media, and go to Canada.ca.