In the previous posts in this series, we discussed why tax slips are important for filing your taxes and some ways that you can get tax slips, either from CRA or elsewhere. In this final installment, we will discuss how to get your tax slips by mail or by using CRA’s online MyAccount service. I will also tell you why you probably won’t be able to request your tax slips from CRA in-person.
You can request your tax slips by sending a letter to CRA. To do this, write a letter to CRA requesting that they mail your tax slips to you. Make sure you include the following information in your letter: your name, Social Insurance Number, date of birth, current address, and your signature. In your letter, you should also provide a short note about the information you are requesting. For example “I need the tax slips you have on file for me so I can catch up on my unfiled tax returns. Please send all tax slips on file for any years I have not yet filed my taxes.” You might also want to take the time to request that CRA change the address on file if your address has changed recently. You can do this by completing the one page Form RC325 (available on the CRA website), or you can just note the change of address and your moving date on the letter you are sending.
Notice that when you send a letter by mail, you don’t need to answer a challenge question like you do when you ask for information on the telephone (see the previous post for details). As I understand it, this is because your signature is considered to be sufficient verification of your identity and a challenge question is therefore not generally required.
After you’ve written and signed your letter, mail it to your Regional tax centre. For residents of BC, this is the Surrey Tax Centre. The mailing address is:
9755 King George Boulevard, Surrey BC , V3T 5E1
You should expect to wait two weeks or more to get a response. Waiting times will vary depending on the time of year and how busy the tax centre is when they receive your request.
If you are computer savvy, you can also use the CRA’s online MyAccount system to access certain kinds of tax slips including T4’s, T4E’s and T4A’s. Currently, MyAccount does not have T5007’s (Social Assistance Payments, including PWD or PPMB payments) on file so if you need this information you may not be able to get it from MyAccount. Also, to access tax slips on MyAccount you need to complete a registration process first. You can get information about registering for MyAccount on the CRA website. I will also discuss some of the reasons you should consider registering for MyAccount in a future post on this blog.
With that said, you now have three possible methods to get tax slip information from the CRA; phone, mail, or online. One method that will probably not work, at least as of the writing of this post, is to request your tax slips in-person. I had never personally tried to access tax slips by visiting a CRA office, but from time to time, clients will ask whether this is possible. Doing my due diligence, I took a stroll over to my local Vancouver tax services office to inquire about whether they could provide me with my tax slips. I was politely told that CRA offices have not provided this kind of in-person service for individuals for at least the past few years. This may change in the future, but for now it seems that going to your local tax services office to request your tax slips in-person is unlikely to yield results.
This concludes our three part series on obtaining tax slips. Thanks for reading! Any errors or omissions are the fault of the author. The next blog post is scheduled for October 9.
taxaiddabc.org 