On this page

• Customers
• Sellers
• Digital platform operators

Customers

If you are only buying goods or services using digital platforms (not selling or facilitating sales), the rules do not apply to you. Your information will not be shared or reported under the rules.

Sellers

If you provide relevant activities through a digital platform and are considered a reportable seller, your information will be collected by your reportable platform operator(s) and be reported to the CRA. This information is referred to as the reportable elements.

Reportable elements

• Identification information

  • Name of seller (first and last name of an individual; legal name of an entity)
  • Seller's primary address
  • Each jurisdiction in which the seller is resident for tax purposes
  • Seller's tax identification number (TIN) and jurisdiction in which the TIN was issued, if issued or required to be collected by the jurisdiction of residence of the seller What is a TIN
    
    • In Canada: A TIN includes a social insurance number, a business number or an account number issued to a trust.
    • Outside of Canada: A TIN is a unique number used to identify an individual or entity for tax purposes.

      For more information on the use of TINs outside of Canada, refer to the OECD’s web page: Tax Identification Numbers

  • Any other TIN for the seller that is available to the platform operator, including jurisdiction of issuance
  • Date of birth (for an individual)
  • Business registration number (for an entity), if issued or required to be collected by the jurisdiction of residence of the seller
  • Any financial account identifiers (for example, bank account numbers) for the seller that are available to the platform operator. In particular, available financial account identifiers should be provided where the seller resides in a reportable jurisdiction or an immovable property with respect to which relevant services are being provided by a seller is located in a reportable jurisdiction
  • The name of the holder of the financial account to which the consideration is paid or credited (if different from the name of the seller and if available to the platform operator), along with any other identifying information in respect of that account holder available to the platform operator

• Activity information

  • Total consideration paid or credited to the seller in the reporting period in respect of relevant activities (broken down by calendar quarter) and the number of such relevant activities What is consideration

    Consideration is compensation in any form that is paid or credited to a seller in connection with relevant activities, the amount of which is known or reasonably knowable by the platform operator.

  • Any fees, commissions or taxes withheld or charged by the platform operator (broken down by calendar quarter)
  • Where the seller rented real or immovable property:
    • The address of each property listing
    • If available, the land registration number
    • Where available, the number of days each property listing was rented during the reporting period and the type of each property listing

Your platform operator(s) will provide you with a copy of the annual information that is collected and reported about you under the rules by January 31 of each year.

The information reported to the CRA will be shared with partner jurisdictions that have adopted similar rules if:

• The seller is a resident of a partner jurisdiction
• The seller rents real or immovable property in a partner jurisdiction

The CRA will also receive information from partner jurisdictions about sellers resident in Canada as well as non-resident sellers who are renting real or immovable property located in Canada.

For more information about the reportable elements, refer to: Chapter 6 of the Guidance on the Reporting Rules Digital Platform Operators

For more information about partner jurisdictions, refer to: List of partner jurisdictions

Expect your platform operator(s) to ask for your information

As a result of these rules, platform operators on which you are selling may ask you for additional information about you or your business in order to confirm whether or not you’re a reportable seller and fulfill their reporting obligations to the CRA.

Watch out for scams and fraud

Only share your information with trusted sources for your tax reporting purposes. To learn the signs of scams or fraud, refer to: Scam prevention and the CRA

Consequences for not providing the required information

If you do not provide your TIN to your platform operator(s), the CRA may assess you a penalty of $500 for each failure to provide your TIN.

Other tax obligations

For more information about your tax obligations as an online seller, refer to: Taxes and the platform economy

Digital platform operators

If you are a reporting platform operator, you must collect and report the following information under the rules:

• Information about you (and your businesses):
  • Legal name
  • Registered office address
  • Taxpayer identification number (TIN)
    
    • What is a TIN
      
      • In Canada: A TIN includes a social insurance number, a business number or an account number issued to a trust.
      • Outside of Canada: A TIN is a unique number used to identify an individual or entity for tax purposes.

        For more information on the use of TINs outside of Canada, refer to the OECD’s web page: Tax Identification Numbers

  • Identification (business names) of platforms in respect of which you are reporting, if applicable
  • Identification and activity information (reportable elements) about reportable sellers

You must also provide each reportable seller with a copy of the annual information reported to the CRA by January 31 of the year following the calendar year in which the seller is identified as a reportable seller.

A reporting platform operator does not have to report the required information concerning a seller to the CRA if they have obtained adequate assurances that another platform operator has or will fulfil their reporting obligations according to the rules in Canada or under substantially similar rules in a partner jurisdiction where the reportable seller is not resident in Canada.

For more details, refer to: Chapter 6 of the Guidance on the Reporting Rules for Digital Platform Operators

Due diligence procedures

As a reporting platform operator, you must take steps to verify the reliability of the information you collect and report under the rules.

More specifically, you must verify the reliability of:

• Information collected in respect of entities that are excluded sellers
• Seller information
• The address of each property listing, if applicable

These steps must be completed by December 31 of the reportable period to which they relate, except for transitional periods (that is, the first year a platform operator is considered a reporting platform operator under the rules).

For more information about due diligence procedures, refer to: Chapter 5 of the Guidance on the Reporting Rules for Digital Platform Operators