Transcript

Slide 1

Hello and welcome to our webinar. My name is Alicia and I am the Manager of the Digital Communications Section with the Canada Revenue Agency. I am here to talk to you about My Business Account – also known as MyBA, the CRA’s digital services for businesses. I will be focusing on what can be completed in relation to payroll accounts.

I would like to mention that today’s webinar will be recorded and posted on the Canada.ca/cra-videos at a later date.

Slide 2

For many years we have offered a wide range of online services to the public so that individuals, businesses and those that represent others for tax matters, such as accountants, tax preparers, or even family members, can interact with us online.

As more and more private industries and government organizations are going digital, we are also working to improve your experience with our digital services.

We started by offering the ability to file taxes electronically through Corporation Internet Filing and NETFILE, and online portals were built to support individuals, businesses, and representatives, specifically, the CRA’s My Account, My Business Account, and Represent a Client.

Slide 3

Today we’ll be highlighting payroll options inMy Business Account and the services available to you and your business.

We will talk about:

1. What is MyBA
2. Who can access MyBA
3. How to register
4. How to authorize a representative
5. How to use MyBA for documents
6. How to use MyBA for payroll
7. What is PIER
8. Filingand Balance Confirmation Letter
9. CRA BizApp and
10. How to settle an amount owing

Please submit your questions by using the “question box” throughout the presentation and I will respond to some of them today following my presentation.

Slide 4

My Business Account is a secure online portal that business owners, and their representatives through Represent a Client, can use to interact with the CRA on most business accounts.

My Business Account is:

Convenient – It’s available to you 21 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It’s easy to use – After registering, you’ll log in with your CRA user ID and password or use our sign-in partner option.
It’s fast – With up-to-the-minute information and transactions are processed immediately.
And it’s secure – We use up-to-date e-security, similar to financial institutions.

Slide 5

But before moving forward, to clarify, My Business Accountis for owners, partners and directors only.

Employees and representatives can access an account on behalf of their employer or business clients by using Represent a Client but they must be authorized by the business to do so.

Represent a Client is our secure online portal for authorized representatives which allows them to access their clients’ individual or business accounts depending on the authorization.

We will talk more about Represent a Client and how to authorize a representative, but first let’s start with taking a closer look at My Business Account.

Slide 6

You will need a business number to access My Business Account. You can register for a business number online through our Business Registration Online portal, also known as BRO. For more information, and to check if you are eligible, go to Canada.ca/taxes, and select My Business Registration from the options.

To access My Business Account, first go to canada.ca/taxes-business-online and select MyBA.

Then you have two sign-in options: using one of our sign-in partners or using a CRA user ID and password. If you are already registered for My Account then you might already have a CRA user ID and password or a Sign-In Partner that you can use to get started in My Business Account.

If you need to register for My Business Account, Step 1 is to provide personal information to help us verify who you are. You will be prompted to:

• Enter your social insurance number.
• Enter your current postal code or ZIP code.
• Enter your date of birth.
• Enter an amount you entered on one of your income tax and benefit returns. It could be from the current tax year or the previous one.

Then

You will need to create a CRA user ID and password or you can also use the Sign-in Partner option, which lets you log in with the user ID and password that you may already have for another online service, for example, online banking.

You will still have to provide your personal information if you use the Sign-in Partner option.

It’s important to know that none of your account information will be shared between the CRA and your sign-in partner. Your sign-in partner will not know which government service you are using.

You will then be asked to create your security questions and answers.

Step 2

You will have completed Step 1, depending on the method you chose, you will receive your security code by mail, or you can contact the CRA by telephone to obtain your CRA security code by email.

After you enter your CRA security code you will be prompted to enter your business number. You will then have access to all of the services available online.

If you would like to have someone else access your accounts such as an employee or a tax professional, you will need to authorize them as a representative. That gives them permission to access your account through our Represent a Client service.

You should never give your personal user ID and password to access My Business Account to anyone, including your representative.

Slide 7

The CRA needs your consent to deal with a representative for anything related to your business number and program accounts.

An authorized representative could be:

• A business and their employees that provide tax or payroll services;
• An employee of a business, such as an accounting or payroll employee; or
• An individual who files returns for others, such as a tax professional or a family member.

You can authorize a representative to have access to all your business accounts or you can restrict access to specific accounts.

With written authorization, the representative can:

• Access tax and benefit information such as an account balance;
• Conduct business online such as file a return; and
• Interact with the CRA such as using the enquiries service.

Our online service does not have a year-specific option, so your representative will have access to all tax years and periods.

When you authorize online access, the access by telephone, fax and mail will also be granted.

So, how do you oversee your representative’s activities?

You can view a list of authorized representatives we have on record for your business, and cancel or modify each representative's authorization.

You can also choose a date for the authorization to expire. If you do not, your authorization will stay in effect unless you cancel it. You can revoke the authorization at any time.

You can view activities and transactions performed online for your business accounts, by your authorized representatives, including employees.

How do you authorize a representative?

There are three ways to authorize a representative. You can do it by using My Business Account, or your representative does it by using Represent a Client or using e-File.

Option 1: Using My Business Account

Make sure your representative is registered with Represent a Client. You will need to enter their RepID and your CRA-issued business number to complete the authorization.

Authorizing your representative online through My Business Account gives your representative immediate access to your business accounts. Most services offered through My Business Account are available to representatives, however they would access them through Represent a Client.

Option 2: Your representative uses Represent a Client

You may select this method if you are not registered with My Business Account and you prefer that your representative request authorization. They can submit business authorization requests electronically. Using Represent a Client, your representative completes the authorization request and you will need to sign the certification page. Your representative will then submit the signed certification page using "Submit documents" in Represent a Client.

Option 3: Through EFILE

EFILE is an automated service that allows approved tax preparation service providers, financial institutions and discounters to send individual income tax return information to the CRA directly, from EFILE–certified tax preparation software. Taxpayers may take their tax slips and supporting documents to a registered tax preparer, and for a fee, the tax preparer will prepare their return and send it to CRA electronically using EFILE.

Efilers can now submit the RC59 Business Consent form through the tax preparation software.

Now that we’ve talked about how to set up and access your My Business Account and representatives, we’d like to move on and tell you about all the great things you can do with it.

Slide 8

In the past, the CRA sent and received millions of letters by mail and faxes every year. Advancements in digital technology helped us develop several new digital services to help your business with all your tax obligations.

With My Business Account, you can conveniently avoid all that paper by updating your address, direct deposit, and operating names online.

You can choose to receive information from us online too. Email notifications is a secure digital service that allows business owners and representatives to view certain letters from the CRA online. When you sign up for email notifications, the CRA will no longer print and mail the letters, but instead, you will receive an email when there's mail to view in My Business Account. No more paper! For payroll accounts, you will receive your mail in My Business Account, and you can submit documents in My Business Account.

On June 25, 2018, we started sending email notifications when important changes are made to your business account, such as your address, or banking information for direct deposit.

Now let’s talk about sending things to the CRA. We have developed services called Submit documents and Attach-a-doc to give you the ability to send documents to us electronically.

The Submit Documents service gives business owners and their representatives the ability to submit supporting documents to the CRA online through My Business Account or Represent a Client. Once documents have been submitted, we will send you a confirmation number and a reference number for future communications with the CRA. You can submit documents that have been requested by us that have a related case number or you may submit documents on a voluntary basis by uploading and selecting the reason for their submission from the pick list. Payroll program was recently added to this pick list, and is identified as ‘Submit supporting documents for PD4R, TX14, PIER, PD1114, PD7A and other Payroll account notices”.

Slide 9

Services in My Business Account are dependent on the types of programs that you have. Displayed in the slide are the tasks employers and their representatives have related to their payroll account.

For example, you can file your return, view return details or provide nil payroll remittances.

You can also submit requests related to payroll accounts, such as filing an information return without a web access codeusing the File a return option. You could also let us know that there are no deductions to report for a period of time using the nil remittance option, or notify us about the status of a worker or workers under the Canada Pension Plan and/or Employment Insurance Act by using the request for a ruling option.

These are just some of the many account specific services available in Payroll. We will go into more in the next few slides.

Slide 10

Now let’s talk about the My Business Account services that allow you to make online requests.

These services allow an employer to make requests related to their payroll account without having to send in correspondence or contact our Business Enquiries line to submit the information. These requests, as seen on the right hand side of the example screen above, are:

• Initiate a payment search: If an employer or their representative submits an amount that does not appear on their account, employers can provide details on this payment for the amount to be located.
• Request a refund: If an employer has a credit on a payroll account, employers can request that amount to be refunded. They will need to provide details on why the credit should be refunded.
• Transfer of a misallocated credit: Allows businesses to transfer credits within a payroll account to correct a misallocated payment.

Slide 11

Let’s look at some more My Business Account services for payroll.

Respond to notices: Allows employers and their representatives to reply to all of the letters with an attached form that require completion.

Each form type is explained in the letter received. This letter can also be viewed on the ‘view mail’ option in My Business Account. Each of these options provides employers with selectable fields to respond to the form accurately.

If an employer has already completed the form, they can send us a digital copy using the ‘submit documents’ function as opposed to rewriting their answer to these digital forms.

Slide 12

The View Return Details service will display a list of returns on file, allow you to filter your list of returns by type, search for slips, download returns, and view summary and slip information and file amendments.

The key here is that you will be able to see all the details on slips that were filed with us, plus you will be able to change ONLY the specific field you want to change.

Slide 13

You can download invalid SIN Surname mismatch reports which contain a list of invalid, blank, or valid SINs where the surname on the slip does not match what is on record.

You can review this report, investigate the issue and file an amendment with the corrected SIN and/or name.

If your report contains 3,000 slips or less, it will be available in a single CSV file. If your report contains more than 3,000 slips, it will be presented in a single ZIP file, which will contain multiple CSV files, each containing a maximum of 3,000 slips.

The list of slips you download is current as of the date of download.

Slide 14

You can view an interim balance of payments and credits received for a period end of a return not yet processed. You can also view a balance for the result of a return processed for a specific period, minus any held credits and any amounts under dispute that are not yet applied or not yet due.

Slide 15

Pensionable and insurable earnings review, or PIER, is a service recently introduced for My Business Account.

This new service shows:

• An overview of PIER cases
• It displays a list of PIER cases sorted by tax year or case number
• It links to reply to PIER, PIER summary, and download PIER case
• It shows a summary of PIER discrepancies
• It displays a detailed calculation of deficiencies for the selected tax year
• There are buttons that allow users to make a payment, view employee listing, or reply to PIER
• There are also buttons that allow user to view PIER summary, make a payment and scroll through employee listing
• It has a list of employees included in the PIER
• It gives a detailed account of each employee, including total earnings, pensionable earnings, insurable earnings, deductions reported, deductions required, deficiencies; and
• Lists can also be filtered by tax year

Employers are able to use the service to download PIER cases and reply electronically to the CRA.

We have some exciting new changes coming to the PIER service.

In January 2019, the PIER report will have a new T4 information code for wage loss replacement plans. We will also be removing other information boxes 37, 53, 72, 73, and 84 from T4 slips.

In February 2019, we are introducing a way to make it easier to make payments at Canada Post outlets, through the QR code option on the ‘Remittance Voucher PIER Deficiencies’. We will also have a full copy of your PIER report available to view in My Business Account.

Slide 16

A new service was introduced through My Business Account in May 2018 that provides business owners and their authorized representatives the opportunity to self-generate an accessible electronic "Filing and balance confirmation letter" for their business accounts. Those accounts could be your GST/HST, Corporation Income Tax, or Payroll program. This letter will provide a summary of the program accounts, registration dates and any outstanding returns and balances associated to a particular Business Number.

This letter is important for businesses because it demonstrates if there are any amounts owing in any of your accounts. In Ontario, the provincial government requires this letter for job bids over $25,000. In other provinces and territories, lawyers or banks might request this letter as proof your business is compliant. In the future, the Government of Canada may request this letter for contract bids over $25,000 from the business owners as the Government of Ontario does today.

You can access this new service through the My Business Account portal at the BN-9 level off the left sidebar. This letter summarizes if the taxpayer is compliant with the filing of returns and if any balance is owing. If there is a non-compliance in either up-to-date filing or balance owing, this letter will present a table to show you what program line you need to work on, a yes or no for whether your returns are up-to-date, and the balance owing for each program account in order to help you understand and get back on track.

Slide 17

The mobile world is constantly growing and changing. To keep up with our business clients’ wants and needs, we have developed the CRA Business Tax Reminders app and the CRA BizApp.

CRA Business Tax Reminders is our only native app for businesses. This app can be downloaded from the app store on your mobile device. It creates custom reminders and alerts for key due dates related to instalment payments, tax returns, and remittances. This app does not give access to personal or business information. For account specific information you can use CRA BizApp.

The CRA BizApp is designed for small businesses and sole proprietors. This web-based app is available for download at Canada.ca/taxes, under E-services.

The CRA BizApp lets you do all sorts of things such as:

• Check balances owing
• Make payments by pre-authorized debit, through My payment, or generate a QR code to pay by cash or debit
• You can pay installments for GST/HST returns
• View account transactions
• View expected GST/HST returns
• And view the status of filed GST/HST and corporation income tax returns

And for payroll you can make payroll remittances, including nil remittances, and view payroll return status.

You can find more information about the CRA BizApp at canada.ca/cra-biz-app.

Slide 18

There are many ways to settle an amount owing to the CRA.

First let’s talk about Pre-authorized debit. It’s a secure, online, self-service payment option for individuals and businesses. This option lets users set the payment amount, and authorize us to withdraw from their Canadian chequing account to pay their taxes on a date, or dates, they choose. This option of payment is now available in the new CRA BizApp, as well as My Business Account where you are able to view, create, modify, cancel or skip a payment. My Payment is available from the navigation menu in MyBA.

My Payment now includes Debit MasterCard. Much like when Visa Debit was introduced, changes have been made to the CRA’s My Payment service to give Debit MasterCard holders the option to provide direct payments to the CRA.

You can also pay CRA business taxes online from a business bank account just like you would a utility bill online. Be sure to provide accurate information to help the CRA apply your payment to the intended business account.

You can use a third-party service provider that offers payment by credit card or Paypal. The third-party service provider will send your business or individual payment and remittance details online to CRA for you. There is a fee for this service.

And now you can also pay amounts owing to the CRA in person with cash or debit at any Canada Post outlet across Canada. To do so you will need a self-generated QR code. This QR code will be personalized and will contain information that will allow the CRA to credit your account. Canada Post uses a third party service provider to generate and process the QR code. There is a small fee associated with this payment method.

I hope that this webinar has provided you with a better understanding of My Business Account.