Canadian Charities to receive easier access to their info with CRA My Business Account (MyBA) access

The Charities Directorate of CRA has just announced that Canadian Charities can receive easier access to their info with CRA My Business Account (MyBA) access.

CRA on their website notes:

My Business Account

My Business Account (MyBA) is a secure and convenient way for businesses and organizations to access their Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) account information online.

On October 5, 2009, MyBA was launched for charities’ accounts. This is just the first phase and allows a registered charity’s representative to view information on our Web site about the charity, including the charity’s name and address as recorded with CRA, without having to contact us by phone or mail.

MyBA for charities allows us to better serve charities now, and provides a foundation for developing additional services for charity’s accounts in the future. Many charities have payroll and GST/HST accounts; some are already signed up for MyBA with these accounts. Once the charities’ representatives sign up for their charity’s MyBA account, they automatically gain access to all of the other services that are currently available.

There are many benefits to signing up for MyBA. MyBA will:

•allow a charity’s representatives to view and confirm that their charity’s information is up-to-date;
•allow a charity’s representatives to choose an authorized representative for their charity;
•give a charity’s representatives access to the charity’s payroll and GST accounts online, where they can file T4 slips, file GST returns, and much more (many charities already make use of the tools available through MyBA for their GST and Payroll accounts);
•allow a charity’s representatives, through their payroll account, to complete and file T4 slips online, and view the charity’s account balance, transactions, and remitting requirements;
•enable a charity’s representatives to file the charity’s GST/HST return and view the status of the return through their GST/HST account;
•make it simpler for charities to meet many of their annual obligations; and
•continue to expand with more self-serve options throughout the years to come.
To learn how to sign up and to find more information about MyBA, visit About My Business Account. To sign up for MyBA, you will need a Government of Canada epass, which is available at CRA epass services page.

Once your charity is enrolled, we will send you a CRA Security Code within one week. This process ensures the protection of your identity and your charity’s account.

For the original document see http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/prtng/tlbx/myba-eng.html

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Mark Blumberg is a lawyer at Blumberg Segal LLP in Toronto, Ontario.  To find out more about legal services that Blumbergs provides to Canadian charities and non-profits please visit http://www.canadiancharitylaw.ca or http://www.globalphilanthropy.ca He can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or at 416-361-1982.

This article is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice. You should not act or abstain from acting based upon such information without first consulting a legal professional.