Online mail for business

Starting May 12, 2025, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will transition to online mail as the default method of delivering most business correspondence. This means you’ll start receiving most of your business notices and other correspondence through the My Business Account portal in your CRA account, instead of in the mail.

This change applies to all of the following businesses:

• New business number and CRA program account registrations
• Existing businesses already registered for My Business Account
• Businesses who have given online access to a representative to view and/or modify information on their behalf via Represent a Client

This change is part of the CRA's ongoing commitment to improve service delivery by making it:

• Faster – enable quicker communication with the CRA and receive important business correspondence faster than paper mail
• Convenient – access and manage your business taxes quickly and easily from your computer or mobile device 21 hours a day, 7 days a week (see Hours of service)
• Secure – The CRA uses sophisticated security techniques to protect our site and your privacy
• Eco-friendly – help reduce paper use, contributing to a cleaner and greener future by cutting down on waste

Important dates

The CRA will use a phased approach to transition to online mail as the default method of delivering most business correspondence.

Phase 1: New business and program account registrations

Effective May 12, 2025, by default, new business and program account registrations will receive most of their business correspondence online in the My Business Account portal of their CRA account. This includes new corporations registered through the federal or provincial incorporating authorities.

If you are not registered for a CRA account, go to Register for a CRA account - Canada.ca.

Phase 2: Existing businesses

Effective June 16, 2025, existing businesses that meet the conditions will be changed to CRA online mail as the default method of receiving most business correspondence.

Where to view your business correspondence online

Business correspondence refers to notices, letters, forms, statements, and other documents that are sent by the CRA to communicate important information about your business tax account or returns.

With the change to online mail, your business correspondence will be considered received on the date that it is posted to My Business Account. You will need to sign in to your CRA account to access, view, print, or download your business correspondence. Follow the steps below to access your business correspondence:

Step 1: Sign in to your CRA account

Step 2: Select the mail icon in the Business tile

Step 3: Select and review your mail items

If you are an authorized representative

Step 1: Sign in to your CRA account

Step 2: Select your Representative account to go to Represent a Client

Step 3: Enter the business number and select Access BN

Step 4: Select Mail in the navigation menu on the left, under Correspondence

Step 5: Select and review the business correspondence

How to prepare for this change

Accessing My Business Account

To prepare for the change to online mail, the CRA recommends signing in to your CRA account to ensure you have access to all your business numbers and the ability to view your business correspondence.

If you are not registered and would like to take advantage of the benefits of a CRA account, go to Register for a CRA account.

For more information on the CRA’s digital services, go to Digital services.

Email notifications

Make sure your email address is added to your account and is up-to-date.

Email notifications from the CRA let you know when important changes are made on your account and when you have mail to view in My Business Account. You register to receive email notifications from the CRA when an email address is added to your account.  Without an updated email address, you may miss important notifications about the receipt of correspondence and confirmation of changes made to your account.

Once you sign in, select your Business account to go to My Business Account, and check your notification preferences to make sure your email address is up-to-date. To confirm, add, or change your email address, complete the following steps:

Step 1: Sign in to your CRA account

Step 2: Select your Business account to go to My Business Account

• If you are an authorized representative, select your Representative account to go to Represent a Client

Step 3: From the navigation menu on the left, select Profile

Step 4: In the "Notification preferences" section, select Manage notification preferences

Step 5: Review any accounts registered to receive email notifications and the associated email address for accuracy

Step 6: Select the applicable change option available on the page and complete the steps

For more information see Email notifications from the CRA – Businesses

New business number and CRA program account registrations

Businesses registering for a new business number or a CRA program account will need to register for a CRA account and provide a valid email address if they haven’t already done so to receive notifications and access account updates and correspondence.

Register for a CRA account

Non-resident directors’ or officers’ access to the CRA’s portals

Non-residents do not have the same access to My Business Account through a CRA account because of security and authentication requirements. If you are a non-resident director or officer and you do not have a Canadian social insurance number, you must inform the CRA of this during your BN or program account registration. This will allow the CRA to send your business correspondence using the appropriate delivery method.

For more information, see Non-resident directors of Canadian corporations

Exceptions

Existing businesses that do not have access to My Business Account

Existing businesses that do not have access to My Business Account through a CRA account by the business owner and an authorized representative (via Represent a Client) will continue to receive their CRA correspondence by paper mail.

Charities

Charities will continue to receive their CRA correspondence by paper mail unless they request to receive their CRA mail online.

Non-resident businesses

Non-resident businesses that do not have an owner or director that is a Canadian resident or do not have access to My Business Account through a representative will not be transitioned to online mail and will continue to receive their correspondence by paper mail.

If the representative or the owner of a non-resident business has access to My Business Account through their CRA account, the default delivery method will change to online mail.

Requesting paper mail

If you would like to receive your business correspondence by paper mail, you’ll need to make a request to activate paper mail. The request can only be made by an individual with signing authority such as an owner or director or legal representative.

You must keep your mailing address up-to-date to ensure you receive all correspondence. Any undeliverable mail will result in a change back to online mail. To keep receiving paper mail you’ll need to make a request to activate paper mail every two years.

Starting May 12, 2025, paper mail can be requested in one of only two ways:

• In My Business Account
• Fill out, sign, and mail form RC681 – Request to Activate Paper Mail for my Business to your Tax Centre