23 December 2013 Internal T.I. 2013-0498811I7 - Confidentiality of Non-resident Account Number

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

Principal Issues: Whether the CRA may provide the Non-resident Account Number to a third party caller at the time of the call in situations where the caller has provided the information to open a new Non-resident Account over the phone on behalf of a taxpayer, but the third party had not yet provided authorization from the taxpayer to receive taxpayer information?

Position: No.

Reasons: The Minister may only provide taxpayer information in those circumstances provided for by the Income Tax Act. According to paragraph 241(5)(b) of the Act, the Minister may only provide taxpayer information to a third party if the taxpayer gives consent to the disclosure.

December 23, 2013

Policy & Legislative Research Section HEADQUARTERS
Trust Accounts Programs Division Income Tax Rulings
Directorate
Attention: May Ann McNulty Gillian Godson

2013-049881

Confidentiality and Non-resident Account Numbers

We are writing in reply to your email of July 23, 2013, requesting our views on the application of section 241 of the Income Tax Act (the "Act") with respect to the confidentiality of Non-resident Account Numbers.

Your inquiry indicates that you require clarification with respect to the confidentiality guidelines when setting up a Non-resident Account Number to a third party, who claims to be a representative of the taxpayer (the "Representative"). In the situation at hand, the Representative may call the Canada Revenue Agency (the "CRA") call centre in order to open a new Non-resident Account Number on behalf of the taxpayer. At the time of the call, the Representative provides all the taxpayer information required to open the new account. However, at the time of the call, the taxpayer had not provided the CRA with written authorization to permit the CRA to disclose any taxpayer information to the Representative.

Specifically, you have requested clarification of whether section 241 of the Act would allow the CRA to provide the Non-resident Account Number to the Representative at this time. You have advised us that currently when a new account is opened via a telephone call by a Representative to the CRA call centre, the new Non-resident Account Number is not provided to the Representative unless the taxpayer has provided the CRA with written authorization to disclose the information to the Representative.

Our comments

In general, the confidentiality provisions in section 241 of the Act prohibit any official or other representative of a government from knowingly providing to any person any taxpayer information. In that regard, "taxpayer information" is information of any kind and in any form obtained by or on behalf of the Minister for the purposes of the Act. The Non-resident Account Number of a taxpayer is taxpayer information and, as such, cannot be disclosed by the Minister except in certain circumstances where the Act provides for specific exceptions.

Paragraph 241(5)(b) of the Act provides that an official or other representative of a government entity may provide taxpayer information relating to a taxpayer to other persons, if the taxpayer consents to the disclosure. Therefore the Minister is not permitted to share the new Non-resident Account number with the Representative until authorization is received, despite the fact that the Representative may have provided the taxpayer information necessary to open the new account on the taxpayer's behalf.

We trust these comments will be of assistance.

Yours truly,

Terry Young, CA, CPA
for Director
International Division
Income Tax Rulings Directorate
Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch