Business number and CRA program accounts: RC, RP, RT and RZ explained

Most Canadian business owners have puzzled over a fifteen-character string on a CRA notice. Many opened a payroll account they did not need, or found in year three they needed an information-returns account from year one. This guide shows how the business number is built, what each program account is for, and when you need one.

Registering a payroll or GST account for a new business? Our monthly bookkeeping includes setting them up correctly.

An account you never use still has a return the CRA is waiting for. Ask which of yours are live — no account needed.

What the nine-digit business number is

A business number (BN) is the standard identifier for your business or legal entity, used for provincial or territorial, municipal and other federal programs as well as the CRA. It is unique, nine digits, and belongs to the entity, not to any one filing.

An unincorporated business needs a BN only when it registers for CRA program accounts. New accounts are added to your existing BN; you do not collect business numbers. A new BN is usually needed only when a new legal entity is created.

How the 15-character program account number is built

When you register for a CRA program account such as GST/HST or payroll, a program identifier and a reference number are added to your existing BN. Together they form your CRA program account number, and that is what you use to report the relevant activity. The three parts are: Once registered, which province’s rate to charge depends on the place of supply rules.

• your unique nine-digit BN;
• a two-letter program identifier indicating the account type; and
• a four-digit reference number identifying program accounts of the same type.

The reference number exists because a business can hold several accounts of one type: a company with two distinct payrolls can have RP0001 and RP0002 under one BN. Most small businesses have one of each, until a second is opened by mistake and remittances land on an account nobody files for.

The program accounts

The table is not a list to register for. Use it to spot which accounts your activities trigger, and when a new activity adds an obligation mid-year.

RC: corporation income tax

The corporation income tax account holds the T2 return and usually arrives with incorporation. Incorporate federally through Corporations Canada and, once approved, you get a business number and your RC program account without registering separately. Several provinces also issue the BN and RC account on provincial incorporation.

Everything else is registered afterwards, starting with GST/HST and payroll, and the gap between incorporating and being fully registered is where most first-year problems start. The just-incorporated checklist walks through the sequence.

RP: payroll deductions

A corporation with employees needs a payroll account before its first payroll, including an owner taking salary. It is not needed if the owner takes only dividends, or if those paid are genuinely independent contractors, a distinction worth testing.

The RP account carries real risk, because unremitted source deductions are not the corporation’s money and directors can be held personally liable for them. The mechanics of withholding, remitter frequency and year-end slips are covered in the guide to payroll remittances and the RP account.

RT: GST/HST

GST/HST has a numeric trigger. Under $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters you are a small supplier and need not register, though you may if you make taxable supplies in Canada. Exceed $30,000 in a single quarter and you must charge GST/HST on the supply that crossed it, registered no later than that day. After that, late returns cost money; see how late GST/HST penalties are worked out.

A third case is often missed: exceed the threshold over four or fewer quarters but not in one, and small-supplier status ends the month after that quarter. Registering early often makes sense, since it unlocks input tax credits. See the GST/HST registration guide. The RT number CRA notices quote is your nine-digit BN followed by RT and a four-digit reference number, and it is the account you report GST/HST under.

RZ: information returns

The information returns account is the one most often missing from a tidy file. It reports payments, not your income, most visibly the T5018 in construction, and nothing in the usual filing rhythm prompts it. The T5018 guide covers who files and when. Put simply, the RZ account CRA correspondence refers to is this information returns account, kept separate from the T2 and the GST/HST return and running on its own deadline.

When you need a second account, and when you do not

Multiple accounts of one type are legitimate for separately administered payrolls or distinct divisions, but most duplicates are accidents: an owner registers online, misses an existing account, and creates one nobody files for.

A stray account has real costs. The CRA expects returns on every open account, nil or not; unfiled returns bring notices, and on payroll accounts arbitrary assessments. Close duplicates deliberately.

A change in legal entity also needs a second look. Adding an account to a BN is routine; a new entity may need its own BN. Incorporating a former sole proprietorship is the classic case: the accounts do not migrate just because the name stayed.

The bank asks for the business number too. See opening a business bank account for the documents needed.

Keeping track of what you have

The control is My Business Account, which shows every program account under your BN with status, balances and filing history. Check once a year that every account is needed and filed, and every activity has an account. Dormant accounts still expect returns. The My Business Account setup guide covers access.

Getting it right

Program accounts get neglected because nothing forces you to notice one is missing. Map activities to accounts at set-up and re-check when something changes: a first employee or subcontractor, crossing the GST/HST threshold, a second payroll. That avoids filings owed on accounts nobody opened, and returns due on accounts nobody needed.

Running payroll through your own corporation puts you on the other side of these rules. For the version that fits your company, send the question; a CPA answers, usually the same business day.

Program accounts are one step of several that a new corporation has to get right in sequence; the order the first-year steps go in is the rest of that list.

Program accounts are the first of several things a new corporation picks up in its first months; what year one actually looks like walks through the rest in order.

General information for Canadian business owners, current as of July 2026. Account types and registration change, so confirm on canada.ca or My Business Account first. Not tax advice; speak with a CPA before acting.