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

Since May 2025, the CRA delivers most business correspondence by online mail in My Business Account rather than by post. New business number and program account registrations moved from 12 May 2025, existing eligible businesses from 16 June 2025.

Related: CRA program account numbers explained.

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

With nothing in your letterbox, the notification is your only prompt. Adding an email address to a program account in My Business Account registers you for CRA email notifications whenever new mail arrives. Each program account takes up to three addresses, so the owner, bookkeeper and accountant can all be included.

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

In your CRA account, open your Business account to reach My Business Account, then select Mail under Correspondence to view, print or download. Representatives use Represent a Client, enter the business number and select 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).

Two routes. Online: sign in, open your Business account, go to Profile, then Direct deposit, Manage direct deposit. Or many Canadian banks, credit unions and trust companies submit it for you; once you consent through them, CRA updates it the next business day.

If you would rather have paper

Paper mail is available, but you must opt in. Only someone with signing authority — an owner, director, legal representative or level 3 delegated authority — can request it, not a level 2 representative, in My Business Account or by mailing Form RC681, Request to Activate Paper Mail for my Business.

Three conditions apply: renew every two years; file a new request for each new program account, even if others get paper; and if mail returns undelivered, the account reverts to online mail. So keep the mailing address current.

Exceptions

The transition skips existing businesses with neither owner access to My Business Account nor an online authorized representative, and non-resident businesses with no Canadian-resident owner or director holding access and no representative. Both keep paper; charities do too unless they request online mail.

Why this matters at year end

Instalment reminders, payroll notices, PIER results and assessment notices now arrive this way. Without email alerts, the first sign of trouble is often months of interest. Pair the mail settings with payments, see corporate tax instalments, and with 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, so please speak with a CPA before acting on anything here.