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What a taxpayer can do in My Account

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Knowing what is in My Account changes what an agent does with a call. A large share of enquiries are for information the caller could see themselves in less time than the call takes, and a smaller but important share are for things the portal genuinely cannot do. Being able to tell those apart quickly — and then telling the caller where to look rather than reading it to them — is the single highest-leverage habit in this line, because it leaves the caller able to answer the same question themselves next time. This tutorial covers what the portal shows, what it can change, where its figures come from, and the places where a displayed number needs a caveat rather than a straight reading.

How to work through this tutorial

This works outward from viewing to changing to the limits: 1. Learn what My Account displays, and where each figure comes from. 2. Learn which figures carry a caveat and must never be read out flat. 3. Learn what a taxpayer can change themselves. 4. Learn what the portal cannot do, so you can say so with confidence. 5. Understand why redirecting to self-service beats reading the answer aloud. 6. Work through an example where the displayed figure was not the answer. 7. Check your work against the common errors. 8. Verify every specific against CRA's published guidance before relying on it.

What it shows

My Account brings together what CRA holds about one individual. On the tax side: notices of assessment and reassessment, the status of a return in processing, the balance on the account, instalment information, and the information slips issuers have filed. On the benefit side: benefit and credit payment amounts and dates, and the determination underlying them. On the registered savings side: contribution room figures CRA has calculated — for RRSPs and for a TFSA — along with the transaction history behind them. On the personal side: address, marital status, direct deposit details, and the representatives currently authorised on the account. The organising fact behind all of it is that the portal is a window onto CRA's records. It does not compute anything on demand, and it cannot show what has not reached CRA.

The figures that need a caveat

Three displayed figures cause more trouble than the rest combined, and each needs a sentence of context rather than a straight reading. **TFSA contribution room.** CRA calculates it from information the issuers file, and issuers file periodically rather than instantly. A figure shown today may not reflect a contribution or withdrawal made recently. A taxpayer who relies on a stale figure and contributes to it can create an excess. Never present this number as a spending allowance; present it as CRA's calculation as at a date, and say that recent activity may not be in it. The value of the annual limit itself is published and changes — look it up, never recite it. **RRSP deduction limit.** Same shape: it is calculated from assessed returns, so it moves when a return is assessed or reassessed, and a pension adjustment reported by an employer feeds into it. **Account balance.** A balance reflects what has been processed. A payment made recently, or a return not yet assessed, may not be in it. The common thread is timing. The portal is accurate about what CRA holds and silent about what has not arrived.

What a taxpayer can change themselves

A substantial set of transactions no longer needs an agent at all. A taxpayer can update their address, update or add direct deposit information, and report a change in marital status. They can manage who is authorised to represent them, including cancelling an authorisation. They can submit documents CRA has asked for, and they can sign up for or opt out of electronic correspondence. They can also request a change to a return already filed, which is the one worth knowing well because it is asked about constantly and because the alternative — a paper adjustment request — is much slower. What matters for a call is not memorising the list but knowing that the list is long. The default assumption should be that a routine change is self-serviceable, and the check should be whether this particular one is an exception.

What it cannot do, and why saying so is useful

The portal is not a complete substitute for every interaction, and pretending otherwise wastes a caller's afternoon. It does not negotiate. A taxpayer who cannot pay does not arrange that through a screen. It does not exercise discretion: anything requiring a decision by a person is not a self-service transaction. It does not show what has not been filed — a missing slip is missing from CRA, not hidden in the interface. And it does not resolve a disagreement; an objection is a formal process with its own route. Being able to say "that one genuinely does need us" quickly, and mean it, is what makes the redirection credible on all the other calls. An agent who pushes everything to self-service is eventually ignored.

A worked example: the number was right and the answer was wrong

Teaching example. The figures below are invented to show the method. They are not CRA figures, and no amount here should be used for a real taxpayer.

The figures and details in this example are invented for teaching. Nothing here should be quoted as CRA's position, and the amounts are not real limits. Suppose Wesley signs in and sees a TFSA contribution room figure of $8,300. He is pleased, and contributes $8,300 the same afternoon. What the screen was telling him was CRA's calculation from the information issuers had filed as at the date shown. Wesley had, two months earlier, contributed $5,000 at a different institution. That institution had not yet filed. The figure was a correct statement of CRA's records and a poor statement of Wesley's actual room. He has now over-contributed by $5,000, and an over-contribution attracts a monthly charge for as long as it remains. Nothing in this story is a system failure. The portal did exactly what it says it does, and Wesley read it as something it never claimed to be. The agent's move is one added sentence: "that figure is CRA's calculation as at the date shown, and a recent contribution may not be in it yet." It costs nothing and it prevents this entire outcome. Note also what an agent must not do here — work out Wesley's real room for him. Point him at his own records and the published rules.

Common errors

Reading a TFSA contribution room figure aloud as though it were an allowance. It is a calculation as at a date, and recent activity may be missing. Stating the value of an annual limit from memory. Name the limit, point at where it is published, and let the taxpayer or the guidance supply the figure. Calculating a taxpayer's real contribution room for them. That is not an agent's job and it is not this platform's job either. Treating an account balance as final when a payment or a return is still in processing. Saying a slip is missing when the issuer has not filed it. It is absent, not lost. Reading information aloud that the caller could see, and leaving them no better equipped for next time. Redirecting to self-service for something that genuinely requires a person. It costs credibility on every future redirect. Assuming the list of self-service transactions is what it was when you learned it. It grows.

What to verify this tutorial against

This was drafted without a source document. What My Account offers changes as services are added, so confirm the current list rather than this one. CRA's My Account overview and its list of available services is the primary reference for everything in the first four sections. CRA's TFSA guidance covers how contribution room is calculated, how issuer reporting feeds it, why a displayed figure can lag, and what an excess contribution costs. The annual limit itself is published separately and by year — take it from there, never from memory or from this tutorial. CRA's RRSP guidance covers how the deduction limit is calculated and what feeds it, including the pension adjustment. CRA's guidance on changing a return sets out the online route and the paper alternative, and which situations are excluded from the online route. CRA's processing-time pages are the reference for how long a return, a payment or an adjustment takes to appear. CRA's guidance on objections is the reference for the boundary between a correction and a dispute, which is where the self-service line falls.

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