Why We Need to Become Your CRA Representative
To provide high quality customer services, TaxWise Accounting needs to be authorized as your representative to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). This allows us to see the full information on CRA’s side, follow up on the filing result and discuss tax matters with CRA, if necessary. Authorization is important for us to perform accounting tasks effectively and efficiently.
To Obtain Complete Tax Information
By being your CRA representative, we can see online most of the information that CRA has about your business, including the tax returns’ due dates, the instalments and remittances that you have made. In addition, we can see most of the letters that CRA has sent to you and tax assessments issued in the most recent 4 years. This eliminates a lot of guesswork and allows us to see whatever CRA can see.
To Follow Up on the Results
After filing your income tax, payroll tax and sales tax returns, we would like to know whether CRA has successfully received them. Afterwards, we also would like to confirm that CRA has processed them as we had intended.
To Discuss Tax Matters on Your Behalf
CRA sometimes adjusts your tax returns after filing. If we are your Level 2 CRA representative, we can discuss it with CRA directly and submit additional documents in your defense.
At times, we may find out some tax credits that you forgot to claim. We can request a change on your behalf as well.
Steps to Authorize TaxWise Accounting (Businesses Clients)
Businesses and individuals use a similar authorization process but from different portals. Business authorization has more options so more choices to make.
Step 1: Log in to Your CRA Account
The first step to set up business authorization is to login to the CRA Account at
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/cra-login-services.html
In 2025, CRA has consolidated the e-services (individual, business and representative) to a single portal. If you have registered none of them, please finish account registration first. If you are inside CRA account but cannot see the Business section, you probably have to call CRA at 1-800-959-5525 for linking your account to CRA MyBusiness service.
Once you are inside your CRA account, simply choose the “Business” section for Business authorization.
NOTE: Online authorization is now the ONLY way to authorize access to your business tax accounts. In the past, an owner can sign off an authorization form created by us to grant us the access. CRA has removed that authorization method since a few years ago.
Step 2: Go to the “Profile” Section
After logging in, choose the “profile” on the left panel, as shown in the picture.
This will take you to the webpage for managing your business profile. Scroll down a little bit, you shall find the section called “Authorized representatives”. Please click the link for “Manage authorized representatives”.
Step 3: Add Us By Our Business Number (73883-1213)
Once you are inside the “Authorized representatives” section, please click “Authorize a representative” button in the middle of the page.
This is probably the most important step: Please enter the Business Number (BN) of TaxWise Accounting – 738831213 – without any space. Click “Next” to continue.
Step 4: Choose Authorization Options
Now you’ll be prompted to confirm your authorization options. There are 3 choices to be made:
Level of Authorization
The difference between Level 1 and Level 2 is that a Level 1 representative cannot file GST returns, T4/T5 returns or make changes to your prior returns.
We prefer to be a Level 2 representative.
Expiry Date
An expiry date is the date when TaxWise Accounting will lose access to your CRA account.
In theory, setting an expiry date should enhance your account security. However, what we see in practice is that, the most common reason why clients contacted us was when they had lost the their access to CRA My Business account and needed us to retrieve important information for them. If our access had also expired by then, we wouldn’t able to help either. As a result, clients would have no choice but to register for CRA My Business service all over again.
Therefore, we suggest you NOT to set up an expiry date by leaving it BLANK. If one day you decide to remove us from the list of your representatives, you could either delete us from CRA My Business Account service or call CRA directly.
Accounts To Grant Access To
You could choose which account (income tax, sales tax or payroll) you would allow us to see. For us to serve you effectively and efficiently, it’s imperative we see the complete picture of your tax situation.
Therefore, we ask you to kindly grant us access to ALL ACCOUNTS.
Select the confirmation box and click “Submit” to finish the authorization. Your authorization is now complete!
Steps to Authorize TaxWise Accounting (Non-Business Clients)
Who Should Use CRA My Account Service?
Sales tax, payroll and corporate income tax are all considered “business taxes” to CRA; these accounts should all be authorized through CRA My Business service.
Only personal income tax is categorized differently; authorization for it is given under the “Individual” section in CRA account.
Differences
The steps to authorize us are very similar. The biggest difference is that, instead of asking you whether you would grant access to “all accounts”, you will be asked to choose whether to grant us ONLINE access to your account. In our opinion, we can’t imagine why a client would deny us the online access and force us to contact CRA only by mail or phone calls. Therefore, we ask you to always choose YES to online access.
Alternative Method for Authorization
The good news is that, in the field of personal income tax, CRA still allows us to gain authorization through an alternative method: signing an authorization form. In other words, if you prefer not using CRA My Account service, please contact TaxWise Accounting directly for help.
Last Update: March 3, 2025
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