If you operate a business in Canada, you may have received a notification from Canada Revenue Agency regarding the new Program Identifier (RZ) that attaches to your Business Number. You may be asking yourself; What’s that all about? How does this affect me?
A Canada Revenue Agency Account Number is comprised of 3 parts; a nine-digit Business Number (BN), a two letter program identifier and a four-digit reference number. Each business or legal entity should have one BN.
For example:
Business Number Program Identifier Reference Number
ABC Ltd. 123456789
Corporation income tax account 123456789 RC 0001
Payroll Account 123456789 RP 0001
Payroll Account (2) 123456789 RP 0002
GST/HST Account 123456789 RT 0001
Information Returns – T5 Group 123456789 RZ 0001
Information Returns – T5 Group 123456789 RZ 0002
Information Returns – Contract Payments 123456789 RZ 0003
Information Returns – TFSA 123456789 RZ 0004
Effective January 1, 2010, you will be required to use your BN with a new RZ account number to file any of the following information returns with CRA:
- T5 – Return of Investment Income
- T5007 – Return of Benefits
- T5008 – Return of Securities Transactions
- T5013 – Partnership Information Return
- T5018 – Contract Payments Information Return
- Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) Contribution Receipts Return
- The new Tax-Free Savings Account Annual Information Return.
If you employ third party administrators to issue receipts or returns you may not be affected. For example, if your RSP is through a large insurer who usually issues the receipts then the insurer may be responsible for submitting information using the new BZ numbers.
There isn’t a lot of information currently on the Canada Revenue Agency website. There are, however, a couple of sites that maybe useful:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/fncnvrsn/cctnmbr-eng.html
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/09-115/09-115-e.pdf
If you are responsible for information returns, I would recommend discussing this with your accountant/accounting department and any third party administrators to ensure that you are in compliance with the new requirements. Keep watching the CRA website as there maybe more bulletins posted as they receive more inquiries.
Happy Reporting!
