Direct deposit and CRA online mail: setting both up for your corporation

Two small administrative settings determine whether your corporation finds out about a CRA problem in three days or three months, and whether refunds arrive in a week or a month. Both take a few minutes and neither is done for you.

Online mail is now the default

Starting in May 2025, the CRA transitioned to online mail as the default method of delivering most business correspondence. Notices, letters, forms and statements now appear in the My Business Account portal instead of arriving by post. The change rolled out in two phases: new business number and program account registrations from 12 May 2025, and existing eligible businesses from 16 June 2025.

This applies to businesses already registered for My Business Account, to new registrations — including new corporations registered through federal or provincial incorporating authorities — and to businesses that have given online access to an authorized representative through Represent a Client.

Set up email notifications first

Because nothing lands in your letterbox any more, the notification is your only prompt. Adding an email address to a program account in My Business Account automatically registers you for CRA email notifications, so you get an email whenever new mail is available to view. You can add up to three email addresses for each program account, which lets you include the owner, the bookkeeper and your accountant.

Add the address for every program account you hold — corporate income tax (RC), payroll (RP), GST/HST (RT) — not just one. If you have not yet set the account up at all, start with our CRA My Business Account setup guide.

How to read your mail

Sign in to your CRA account, choose your Business account to enter My Business Account, then select Mail in the left navigation under Correspondence. Items can be viewed, printed or downloaded. An authorized representative follows the same path through Represent a Client after entering the business number and selecting Access BN.

Setting up direct deposit

Direct deposit gets refunds and credits into the corporate bank account faster and removes the risk of a cheque going astray. To sign up you need:

• The proper authority to make requests for the business — usually an owner, partner, director or an individual with delegated authority.
• Your banking information. If the business does not use cheques, you can pull it from online banking or ask the branch for a printed copy of the account details.
• A 15-digit CRA program account number for an eligible account, such as RC (corporation income tax), RP (payroll deductions) or RT (GST/HST).

There are two routes. Online, sign in to your CRA account, open your Business account, go to Profile, scroll to Direct deposit and select Manage direct deposit. Alternatively, many Canadian banks, credit unions and trust companies can submit the change for you — once you provide consent through the financial institution, your CRA direct deposit information is updated the next business day.

If you would rather have paper

Paper mail is still available, but it is now something you opt into. Only an individual with signing authority — an owner, director, legal representative, or a level 3 delegated authority — can make the request, and a representative with level 2 authorization cannot change the mail delivery method. You request it inside My Business Account, or by completing and mailing Form RC681, Request to Activate Paper Mail for my Business.

Three conditions come with it: the request must be renewed every two years; a new request is needed for each new program account you register, even if your existing accounts already receive paper; and if mail is returned undelivered, the account automatically reverts to online mail. Keeping the mailing address current is therefore still necessary even on paper.

Exceptions

The transition does not apply to an existing business that has neither owner access to My Business Account nor an authorized representative with online access — those continue to receive paper. The same carve-out applies to non-resident businesses with no Canadian-resident owner or director holding account access and no authorized representative. Charities continue to receive paper unless they request online mail.

Why this matters at year end

Instalment reminders, payroll notices, PIER results and assessment notices all arrive through this channel now. If the email notification is not configured, the first sign of a problem is often a balance that has been accruing interest for months. Pair the mail settings with the payment side — see corporate tax instalments — and with the payroll cycle covered in the payroll year-end checklist.

The bottom line

Add an email address to every program account, confirm who receives the notifications, and set direct deposit up once. Fifteen minutes of setup replaces the postal system with something you can actually rely on.

This article is general information for Canadian business owners and is current as of July 2026. It is not tax, legal or accounting advice, and it does not create a client relationship. Tax rules change and your situation is unique — please speak with a CPA before acting on anything here.