The CRA business number, explained
Most Canadian businesses end up with a business number sooner or later. It is issued by the Canada Revenue Agency, not by the registry where you file your business, and it is easy to confuse with the numbers those registries hand out. This page sorts out which number is which and how you get yours.
What the business number is
The Business Number (BN) is a 9-digit number that identifies a business to the CRA. Programs run by provinces, territories, municipalities and other federal departments use that number too.SourceThink of it as the account number your business uses with government, starting with the tax authority. A business has only one BN. Each CRA program account it adds, such as GST/HST or payroll, hangs off that same number.Source
Do you need one?
You need a BN if you incorporate, or if you need a CRA program account (GST/HST and payroll are the common ones). An unincorporated business needs one only when it signs up for a CRA program account.SourceSo a sole proprietor who has not signed up for any tax account may not need one yet. A corporation always does.
When you get it automatically
In most of the country you do not apply to the tax agency at all: the number arrives as a by-product of setting up your business.
Incorporating federally. Once a federal incorporation is approved, the corporation gets a BN and a corporation income tax (RC) account. There is no separate CRA registration for these.Source
Registering or incorporating in a province. Registering or incorporating with Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island or Saskatchewan gives you a BN. Incorporating with one of them also opens a corporation income tax (RC) account.Source Saskatchewan’s registry, for example, says so on its own pages: Registering a business name and incorporating follow the same online steps, and registering also gets you a CRA Business Number.Source
If you already have a number from an earlier registration, that same number carries over. You don’t get a second one for the same business.
When you apply separately
Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Yukon don't hand out a BN: businesses there register for one with the CRA themselves.SourceYou also apply directly when you are not incorporating and the first thing you need is a tax account, such as a GST/HST account for a sole proprietorship.
To register directly, use the CRA's Business Registration Online (BRO) service, which needs a CRA account. If you can't use it, mail Form RC1 to your tax centre instead.Source BRO doesn't send your BN to you afterwards, so save or print it when you register.Source For a business located in Quebec, GST/HST is run by Revenu Québec, so you register for it there rather than with the CRA.SourceProgram accounts
The business number on its own does nothing for your taxes. Each kind of tax or reporting duty is a separate program account, and every program account is built on the business number.
A CRA program account number is the 9-digit BN, then a 2-letter code for the program (RT for GST/HST, RP for payroll, RC for corporation income tax, RZ for information returns, RR for registered charities), then a 4-digit reference number.SourceA business that collects GST/HST and runs a payroll has two program accounts on one business number. Opening a new account later, for example when you hire your first employee, adds to the number you already have.
Provincial numbers are different
Provincial and territorial registries give out identifiers of their own. These are for the registry’s records, and they are not your business number, even where the two look alike.
- Ontario. The 9-digit Ontario Business Identification Number is not the same as the CRA Business Number.Source
- Quebec. The registry uses its own enterprise number. A free search shows an enterprise's Quebec enterprise number (NEQ), its status, the names it uses and its addresses. We link to the search and do not copy what it shows about people.Source
- New Brunswick. The registry keys some services to the business number. There is no free public search. Each search is paid by card, unless you subscribe or are looking up your own business with its New Brunswick business number.Source
On the federal side, the business number is one of the ways to look up a corporation:
The federal search covers federally incorporated corporations only, not banks and other financial institutions or provincial and foreign corporations. Search by name, corporation number or Business Number.SourceWhen a form asks for a number, check whether it means the registry’s identifier or the business number before you fill it in.