Quick answer: A T1 review letter asks for documents behind specific claims on your personal return, and owner-managers see them more than employees do, because the claims that get reviewed most are the ones business owners make: vehicle and home-office expenses, dividends and salary reconciling to the corporation’s slips, and moving money between you and the company. The letter names the lines; the response is the paperwork behind exactly those lines.
Why owner-managers get more of these
An employee’s return is mostly slips the CRA already holds, so there is little to review. An owner’s return carries judgement: business use of a vehicle, home-office claims, and amounts that have to agree with what the corporation filed. Each of those is a named review category, and none of them is a problem when the 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 completely, send nothing beyond them, and respond through the channel the letter states before its stated date. If a claim turns out to be unsupportable, conceding it in the response costs less than defending it into a reassessment, and if you disagree with the outcome, the objection route exists and 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 on a free consult.
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.
Got a letter you’d rather not face alone?
Send it over before you respond. A CPA reads it, tells you what it actually asks, and what to send — free.
Book a free consultation“Personal. Professional. Responsive. Plus he saved me a bundle!”