My Account is a secure portal operated by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that lets you view your personal income tax and benefit information and manage your tax affairs online.

Services available include viewing of Notices of Assessment, tax slips issued by year, notices of benefit payments, account balances, and various government correspondence; ability to update personal information, change tax returns based upon new/missing information, submit documents to respond to government queries, and more. This is incredibly useful information for individuals, however you must follow basic security protocols to ensure that your portal access is not compromised.

Before you can register, you must have filed your income tax and benefit return for the current tax year or the previous one as some information will be required to verify your identity.

CRA will NEVER email you directly with information. Instead, they will send a notification to advise you to check your secure MyAccount portal as new data is available.

Here in Alberta, there are three ways to access the portal using the security protocols of a partner service such as your online banking platform, creating a CRA ID directly, or signing in through your MyAlberta account.

New in spring 2024, there is an option to verify your identity through Document Verification Service where you take a photo of your valid government ID and yourself. This is a faster alternative to the previous mailing of an identification code through Canada Post.

Treat your access to this information with the same security consciousness with which you would treat your banking information. Do not share your password or write it down; use a unique and complex password that is not used for any other application; do not use an email address associated with an employment situation; and carefully read each email purporting to be from CRA (many are scams) – do not click on any links – and check your MyAccount portal whenever a valid email states there is new mail on the secure platform.

Be aware that if CRA issues a review letter requesting information to back up information from a tax return, it is deemed received on the date that you receive the email notice and therefore the time limit for response is limited.