CRA business number: What it is and how to get one

If you're starting a business in Canada, running payroll for the first time, or crossing the $30,000 GST/HST revenue threshold, your CRA business number is the first thing you need to set up. The Canada Revenue Agency uses this nine-digit identifier to track your business across every federal tax program—and once assigned, it stays with your business permanently, following you across GST/HST filings, payroll remittances, corporate income tax returns, and import or export activity.

What is a CRA business number?

The CRA business number (BN) is a unique nine-digit number that acts as your permanent federal tax ID. It covers all your interactions with the Canada Revenue Agency and most provincial and municipal programs.

The number itself is only nine digits. What makes it useful is the program account system the CRA layers on top of it. The CRA appends a two-letter code and a four-digit reference to your base BN, creating a 15-character identifier for each type of tax account you register for. Your GST/HST account, payroll account, and corporate income tax account all share the same nine-digit root but have different extensions.

This means you only deal with one identity at the CRA, even when you file multiple types of returns.

Who needs a CRA business number?

You need a CRA business number if you charge GST/HST, hire employees, import or export commercial goods, or operate as an incorporated business. Each of these triggers a distinct registration obligation, and understanding which ones apply to you upfront saves you from scrambling to register under deadline pressure.

• Charging GST/HST: You must register for a GST/HST account once you exceed $30,000 in taxable revenue in a single calendar quarter or across four consecutive quarters, though some businesses register voluntarily before then to claim input tax credits. Both thresholds apply independently, so if one big quarter pushes you over $30,000 on its own, that triggers registration.
• Hiring employees: If you pay salaries, wages, or taxable benefits, you need a payroll deductions account to remit income tax, CPP contributions, and EI premiums to the CRA.
• Importing or exporting commercial goods: A BN with an import-export program account is required to clear goods through the Canada Border Services Agency.
• Operating as an incorporated business: Federal and provincial corporations need a BN for corporate income tax filings, even before they have employees or hit the GST/HST threshold.

If you're a sole proprietor operating under your own legal name without employees, without imports, and below the $30,000 revenue threshold, you generally don't need a BN. You can file business income using your Social Insurance Number (SIN) on your personal tax return. If any of those conditions changes, BN registration becomes mandatory.

How do you register for a CRA business number?

The fastest way to register for a CRA business number is through the Business Registration Online (BRO) portal, which issues your BN within minutes. You can also mail or fax Form RC1, and in many cases a BN is issued automatically as part of provincial or federal incorporation. The routes below cover each path at an overview level.

1. Business Registration Online

Business registration online through the BRO portal is now the default way to register for a business number. You complete your application on the CRA website and receive your BN at the end of the session, and you can open program accounts for GST/HST, payroll, corporate income tax, and import-export in the same sitting.

Registration for a new BN or program account must now be done online. The CRA stopped accepting phone registrations for new numbers on Nov. 3, 2025, and as of July 14, 2026, you must sign in to your CRA account to reach BRO, using CRA credentials, a Sign-In Partner, or a British Columbia or Alberta provincial partner. Set up your CRA account access before you start the session.

You'll need basic information about your business:

• Legal name and operating name (if different)
• Business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation)
• The owner's Social Insurance Number (SIN)
• Physical and mailing addresses
• Business activity description
• Details about the program accounts you want to open

2. Form RC1 by mail or fax

If you can't or don't want to register online, you can complete Form RC1, Request for a Business Number and Certain Program Accounts, and send it to your local tax centre by mail or fax. Processing takes longer than the online route, usually a few weeks, so this option works best when you don't have an immediate filing deadline.

3. Through provincial incorporation

If you incorporate federally with Corporations Canada or provincially through your province's registry, a CRA business number is often generated as part of the incorporation process. In most provinces, the registry shares your incorporation details with the CRA directly, and your BN arrives without a separate application.

Check your incorporation paperwork before registering through the BRO portal. You might already have a BN you didn't realize was issued. For the full step-by-step, our BN registration guide walks through each route in detail.

What is the 15-character CRA program account ID?

The 15-character program account ID is your nine-digit BN plus a two-letter program code and a four-digit reference number that identifies a specific tax account. Each program account you open at the CRA gets one, and understanding the structure helps you avoid the misapplied payments and reconciliation headaches that trip up a lot of businesses at year-end.

The reference number distinguishes between multiple accounts of the same type. Most businesses have only one of each, so the reference defaults to 0001, while larger organizations with multiple divisions or branches might have RT0001, RT0002, RT0003 for different GST/HST accounts.

These are the four most common program codes:

When you correspond with the CRA, the program account ID tells them which specific tax stream you're asking about. When you file a GST/HST return, you reference your RT account, and when you remit payroll source deductions, you reference your RP account. Mixing them up is a common source of misapplied payments and reconciliation problems at year-end.

How do you find your existing CRA business number?

You can find your existing CRA business number through CRA My Business Account, past CRA correspondence, the CRA Business Enquiries line, or your accountant.

The fastest self-serve option is CRA My Business Account. Correspondence, the phone line, and your accountant are fallbacks when you can't sign in.

• CRA My Business Account: Log in to the My Business Account portal. Your BN and every program account associated with it appear on the main dashboard, which makes it the most reliable way to find your number.
• Past CRA correspondence: Notices of Assessment, GST/HST returns, payroll remittance vouchers, and T4 summaries all include your BN and the relevant program account ID. If you have any prior CRA mail on file, the number is likely on it.
• CRA Business Enquiries line: Call 1–800-959–5525 for general account support. You'll need to verify your identity before the agent can confirm the number.
• Your accountant or bookkeeper: If you've worked with an external accountant, they almost certainly have your BN on file. Asking them is often faster than working through the CRA directly.

To confirm another business's number, like a supplier's, use the tools described in the next section.

How do you verify a CRA business number?

You can't validate a bare nine-digit BN on its own. You confirm what it's attached to, using two free official tools: the CRA GST/HST Registry for tax registration, and the MRAS Canadian Business Registry for corporate registration. Which one you reach for depends on whether you're checking a tax account or a company's incorporation:

The CRA GST/HST Registry is the tool to use for a business number lookup before you pay an invoice. To check a supplier's GST/HST number, enter the first nine digits of their account number, the exact registered name, and the invoice date; the registry returns a yes/no match for that date. Watch for one common format error: putting "RT" in front of the digits fails, so enter the nine digits only.

A "no match," "not registered," or "inactive on that date" result usually points to a typo, a name that doesn't match CRA's records, or a registration effective-date issue, not necessarily fraud. Confirm the exact legal name and the date before assuming the number is bad.

How do you use your CRA business number day to day?

Your business number is the reference point for nearly every interaction with the CRA. If you charge GST/HST, add your registration number to your invoices so your customers can claim their input tax credits. Use the appropriate program account ID when remitting payroll deductions, filing T4s, paying corporate income tax, or filing GST/HST returns.

You'll reference the BN on invoices, on GST/HST returns, on payroll remittances, on T4s, and on corporate income tax filings.

The CRA also requires you to keep your business information current. If your legal name, address, or business structure changes (for example, a sole proprietorship that incorporates), you need to update the CRA. In some cases, like a change in legal structure, you'll need a new BN entirely because the old entity no longer exists from a tax perspective.

If you're managing GST/HST, PST, or QST across transactions, the coding work adds up fast, especially when you're hand-entering provincial tax line by line into QuickBooks or Xero at month-end. Ramp's expense management auto-codes each transaction from context at the point of sale and syncs it to your ERP in real time, so your HST/GST/PST/QST mapping is done before month-end instead of by hand.

How do you get organized before you register?

A few hours of preparation before you register can save you from filing corrections later. Getting these details sorted ahead of time makes the process faster and reduces the risk of opening the wrong program accounts or missing a filing obligation from day one.

1. Confirm your legal business name and structure: Sole proprietorship, partnership, federal corporation, and provincial corporation each carry different filing obligations. Get this right before registering.
2. Decide which program accounts you need now: You can open a GST/HST account, payroll account, and others during the same BRO session, but only register for accounts you'll use in the next few months. Because BRO now runs through your CRA account sign-in, have that access set up before you start.
3. Gather your basic business details: Mailing address, business activity description, expected annual revenue, and the date you started or plan to start each activity
4. Decide on your GST/HST reporting period: The $30,000 small-supplier threshold decides whether you register for the RT account at all. Most small businesses file annually, but you can elect to file quarterly or monthly.
5. Set up a system to track filing deadlines: Once your accounts are active, missed filings create penalties even if you owe nothing. A simple calendar with reminders for each program account's deadlines is enough at the start.

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Stay organized after registration with Ramp

Getting your CRA business number is the easy part. What comes next is where most early-stage businesses run into trouble: filing returns on time, remitting payroll deductions accurately, tracking GST/HST collected and paid, and keeping clean records for each program account.

The underlying problem is usually the same. Transactions, receipts, and tax codes live in different places, and someone on the finance team has to pull it all together manually before every filing deadline. When you're hand-coding HST/GST/PST line by line in QuickBooks or Xero, chasing down employee receipts over email, and reconciling spend across separate bank cards, the month-end close becomes the bottleneck.

The fix is getting the work done as transactions happen, not after. Ramp's AI accounting software closes your books 3x faster and auto-codes 3.5x more transactions than rules-only tools, so expenses are categorized and tax-coded the moment they're incurred and each entry keeps a clean audit trail your ERP can use.

Ramp brings that together for Canadian businesses. Corporate cards in CAD and USD on a single login, automated expense management with HST/GST/PST/QST auto-coding, bill pay with native sync to QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, all in one platform. No more reconciling across three or four tools. No more manual tax coding at month-end.

Canadian businesses that switch to Ramp save an average of 7.5% and close their books faster. See what it looks like for your team.