It appears that Canadian corporations that do not have Canadian directors are not able to set up My Business Account, although it is possible to incorporate without Canadian directors (e.g. OBCA corporations), so they face an administrative burden when trying to access their tax information or interact with the CRA.
The CRA’s website states that if a director does not have a social insurance number, the CRA will also accept a temporary tax number (TTN), an individual tax number (ITN), or a non-resident representative number (NRRN) (if registering for a CRA account to access Represent a Client). However, non-resident directors will generally not have an SIN, TTN, ITN or NRRN if they have no other connection to Canada.
Please advise how Canadian corporations (and other affected types of entities) can go about setting up My Business Account in such cases.
CRA Comments
Without a Social Insurance Number, Temporary Tax Number, Individual Tax Number as well as the filing of a recent income tax return, individual officers/directors are unable to access the CRA online portals, including My Business Account (MyBA).
However, there is an option for a corporation to authorize a representative who has access to Represent a Client (RAC). Through this portal, they can access their client’s account. The representative may be a Canadian representative or a representative living in the United States who has a Non-Resident Representative Number (NRRN).
Normally, a corporation wanting to grant online access to their representative would have to confirm the request via MyBA’s Confirm my Representative. As that is not possible where a corporation’s officers/directors are non-resident and cannot access MyBA, there is an exception process that would apply in these situations.
It is imperative that a corporation provide the residency status and contact information for their officers/directors to the CRA. Without the officers/directors being identified as non-resident and a phone number provided to contact them, the corporation would not fall under this exception process.
Once the corporation’s officer/director residency status(es) and contact information have been updated, the corporation can direct their representative to submit an online authorization request. As the corporation’s officer(s)/director(s) have been identified as non-resident, the request will qualify for the above exception process. The authorization request will be manually reviewed and CRA will contact the owner/director to verify the authorization. If the review is successful, the representative will be granted online access.
For more information on requirements to register for MyBA, please go to Register for the CRA sign-in services - Canada.ca.
For more information about Represent a Client, please go to About Represent a Client – CRA account help - Canada.ca.
For more information about Confirming a Representative for Online Access, please go to Confirm my representative's authorization request - Canada.ca.