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Many businesses may not be aware that they will no longer receive paper mail from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), starting as early as May 12th (for new businesses) or June 16th (for many existing businesses). Affected businesses will need to log in to their CRA My Business Account to retrieve most of their CRA notices and correspondence.
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, 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.
Phase 2: Existing businesses
Effective June 16, 2025, existing businesses will be changed to CRA online mail as the default method of receiving most business correspondence.
Exceptions to the mandatory online mail transition
These businesses will not be forced to enroll in online mail delivery at this time:
- Existing businesses not registered for My Business Account through the business owner
- Existing businesses that do not have an authorized representative (via Represent a Client);
- Charities;
- Non-resident businesses that do not have an owner or director that is a Canadian resident, and do not have access to My Business Account through a representative will continue to receive their CRA correspondence by paper mail.
Impact
If you operate a business and either have an online CRA My Business Account, or have authorized our firm as a representative, that likely puts you into the Phase 2 transition. This describes a majority of our business clients. You now have a choice to make about your CRA mail delivery – transition to the online mail delivery, or opt out to continue to receive paper delivery.
Action Checklist
Online Mail Delivery:
To ensure you do not miss any CRA correspondence, log into your CRA My Business Account and ensure appropriate emails address(es) are on file. You can add up to three email addresses per program account. If you are already receiving email notification for online mail delivery, no action is required.
Opting Out of Online Mail Delivery:
Should you wish to continue receiving paper mail, you may do so by filing a request to activate paper mail. This request remains in effect for two years. Upon expiration you will be reverted to online mail delivery unless a new request is filed. You can opt out of online mail delivery in one of two ways:
- In your CRA My Business Account
- Fill out and mail form RC681 – Request to Activate Paper Mail for My Business
Due to a potential Canada Post strike, you should consider your method of delivery to your local tax centre. In person/courier to the tax centre might be your best option. You may also want to reconsider if you want to opt out of online mail delivery at all, as online mail delivery would not be affected by any potential strike. CRA will still consider the mail delivered once it is concurrently sent via paper mail and posted to your online CRA business account.
Additional information is available from the following CRA bulletin: