Quick answer: A T1 review letter asks for documents behind specific personal return claims. Owner-managers get more, because the most-reviewed claims are theirs: vehicle and home-office expenses, salary and dividends matching corporate slips, and money moving between you and the company. Answer exactly the lines named.
A review is a document request with a deadline, and one complete answer usually ends it. Ask what to send.
On this page
Why owner-managers get more of these
An employee’s return is mostly slips the CRA holds. An owner’s carries judgement: business use of a vehicle, home-office claims, and amounts that must match corporate filings. Each is a review category, none a problem when records exist.
The support each common claim needs
- Vehicle: the contemporaneous log — kilometres, dates, purpose. Our free log exists because this is the request that catches people without one.
- Home office: the workspace calculation and the bills behind it, and for incorporated owners, consistency with how the corporation treated the same costs.
- Dividends and salary: the T5 and T4 the corporation issued. Where the corporation’s filings and your return disagree, fix the source, not the symptom — the shareholder loan record is usually where the answer lives.
Respond precisely, on time, in writing
Quote the reference number, answer the named lines fully and nothing more, through the stated channel by the stated date. Conceding an unsupportable claim costs less than a reassessment; if you disagree with the outcome, the objection route has its own clock.
A T1 review is a documentation request rather than an accusation, and it is answered quickly when personal returns filed with the receipts already matched has already done the matching.
General information, not tax advice. A letter’s own wording and dates govern — confirm anything that affects a decision by sending us an enquiry.
Common questions about T1 review letter
Why was my return picked if nothing changed?+
What if the records are with my old accountant?+
Can this turn into a corporate review?+
Other CRA letters, decoded
Not sure which letter you have? Start with the full list and match what yours says.
One letter often follows another. These cover the ones owner-managers see most.