Confirm a payment – Payments to the CRA

You can confirm that you have made or received a payment, or that you have a balance owing to the CRA. Some payments you make will not appear in your CRA account right away.

On this page

• Check your CRA account
• Transfer payments or balances
• Resolve an issue with a payment
• Make sure it's really the CRA contacting you

Check your CRA account

You or your representative can sign in to your online account to confirm CRA account payments and balances.

Before checking to see if the CRA has received a payment you sent, allow:

• 3 business days for online payments
• 10 business days (plus mailing time) for payments by cheque or money order

• Individuals

  In My Account select "Accounts and payments" to see your account balance, available payments and instalment payments.

• Businesses

  In My Business Account select "View and pay account balance".

CRA sign in

If you cannot access an online account, you or your representative can contact us about your balance by phone.

Transfer payments or balances

You or your authorized representative (level 2 or legal representative for individuals, level 2 or delegate authority level 3 for businesses) can sign in to your online account to transfer a payment.

• Individuals

  In My Account:

  1. Select "Accounts and payments"
  2. Select "Transfer payment(s)"

  Payments on an individual tax account that have not been applied to a particular tax year can be viewed in the “Available payment(s)” section of the “Accounts and payments” page.

• Businesses

  In My Business Account you can:

  • Transfer a payment from one interim period to another
  • Pay an amount owing within a program account
  • Transfer payments between program accounts of the same nine-digit business number

  Find out more about how to transfer business payments between accounts

CRA sign in

Resolve an issue with a payment

If you had a debt on your account, we may have automatically used your refund, benefit or credit to pay down the debt: How we automatically apply refunds and credits to your debt

Contact us for an issue with a payment you made to the CRA if:

• Your payment to the CRA was not applied to your account as expected and you are unable to transfer the payment or balance online
• You need money returned that you accidentally sent to the CRA

Contact us for an issue with a payment you expected from the CRA if:

• You have been notified that we sent you a payment but you have not received the payment after:
  • 3 business days for online payments
  • 10 business days (plus mailing time) for payments by cheque
• You were not sent a payment you were expecting, and could not find an explanation online or in a notice we sent you

For an individual tax or benefit account:

• Canadian residents: 1-800-959-8281 (opens up phone application)1-800-959-8281
• Non-residents
  • Canada or U.S.: 1-855-284-5946 (opens up phone application)1-855-284-5946
  • Outside Canada or U.S.: 1-613-940-8499 (opens up phone application)1-613-940-8499

For a business account:

• Call 1-800-959-5525 (opens up phone application)1-800-959-5525

When calling the CRA to resolve payment issues, you or your representative will need to provide additional information, such as details from one of your assessed tax returns, to verify your identity and ensure confidentiality.

Make sure it's really the CRA contacting you

If someone contacts you to say you owe money to the CRA, you can confirm whether or not this is true by checking your CRA account balance.

If you think you may have been the victim of a scam or fraud: Report a scam or identity theft