Authorize a representative: Overview
New My Trust Account portal for representatives
The CRA has launched My Trust Account, a secure portal that lets legal and authorized representatives of trust accounts manage trust information online. You can securely access My Trust Account services through Represent a Client.
For more information, visit About My Trust Account.
Process for confirming a representative
In October 2022, we expanded the Confirm my Representative service, which helps individual taxpayers and business owners to protect their tax information using My Account or My Business Account, to include authorization requests received using certified tax software (EFILE) for business. To learn more about this service, go to Confirm my representative's authorization request.
All electronic authorization requests by representatives for individuals and business clients will not be activated until the representative has been verified. Clients may be contacted by the CRA to verify the representative's authorization request.
1. Overview
What your representative can do
When you authorize a representative, you are letting them represent you for your personal tax, business tax, non-resident tax, or trust tax matters.
With authorization, your representative could do one or more of the following:
- access your personal tax information, tax assessment or reassessment
- get information about your business tax accounts
- update some of your business number and program account information
- access your non-resident tax account information
- update some of your non-resident tax account information
- access trust account information
- update trust account information
- verify that they are authorized on your account by referring to their Client List in Represent a Client to verify your name and their authorizations levels (this does not apply to non-resident accounts or trust accounts)
Your representative's access to your tax information remains until you or they cancel the access or it expires (if an expiry date was included in the authorization request). Your representative's access will not expire when we are notified of your death, unless they were your legal representative.
For information on how to cancel authorization, go to Cancel authorization for a representative.
What you can do
In My Account, you can:
- once your representative has submitted an authorization request electronically, select the pending request to confirm or deny access to your personal income tax account
- select "Authorized representative(s)" to view all current representatives authorized on your personal income tax account
- select "View online transactions" to monitor the activities of your representatives on your personal income tax account
- add or delete representatives from your personal income tax account
In My Business Account, you can:
- once your representative has submitted an authorization request electronically, select the pending request to confirm or deny access to your business account
- select "Manage authorized representatives" to view all current representatives authorized on your business account
- select "Authorize a representative" to authorize a representative on your business account
- select "View transactions" to monitor the activities of your representative on your business account
- add or delete representatives from your business account
Who can be my representative
Your representative is a person, a group of people or a business that you authorize to deal with the CRA for you, such as:
- an accountant
- a bookkeeper
- your spouse or common-law partner
- another family member
- a friend
- a lawyer
- a customs broker
- an executor
- a power of attorney
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