How to register for a CRA business number: BRO online, RC1 by mail

How does BN registration work in 2026?

Since November 3, 2025, new BN and CRA program account registrations must be done online, and callers to the Business Enquiries line are sent to Business Registration Online (BRO). BRO creates a new BN, registers program accounts, or adds program accounts to a BN the client already has. The BN and account numbers appear on screen right away and no confirmation is mailed, so save or print that page canada.ca.

Your client signs in to their CRA account, selects + Add account, then Business account, then the business registration option, confirms their identity and answers the "Determine registration requirements" questions canada.ca. Check first whether the client already has a BN: one business or legal entity gets only one BN, and new program accounts go on that existing number canada.ca.

Three practical limits: the session times out after 10 minutes of inactivity, progress can't be saved partway, and the service is down from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern for maintenance. Clients in Ontario and Nova Scotia can transfer to the provincial registration site after finishing in BRO, which ends the BRO session canada.ca.

Have this ready before you start: each owner's name, title, phone number and SIN, the legal and operating names, mailing and physical addresses, a description of the main activity with each product's estimated share of revenue, and the incorporation date, jurisdiction and certificate number if incorporated. Each program adds its own questions, such as fiscal year end and reporting period for GST/HST, or number of employees, pay frequency and first pay date for payroll canada.ca.

Which program accounts can BRO open?

A program account number is the 9 digit BN, a 2 letter program identifier and a 4 digit reference number, for example 123456789 RP 0001 canada.ca. For a resident business, BRO handles the first eight codes below; the rest need a BN first and then their own forms canada.ca.

Form RC1 covers the BN, GST/HST, payroll, corporation income tax, registered charity and information returns accounts. It can't be used for the underused housing tax or luxury tax accounts canada.ca.

When does your client still need Form RC1?

BRO refuses a handful of situations, and those still go by phone to the Business Enquiries line or on paper with Form RC1, Request for a Business Number and Certain Program Accounts, sent to the client's tax centre canada.ca. The CRA's October 2025 notice of the change names three of them: reactivation, a business owned by another business, and nonresident owners canada.ca.

The temporary SIN rule cuts both ways: a sole proprietor whose SIN starts with 9 registers for GST/HST through BRO, while directors, partners and trustees with that kind of SIN must mail Form RC1. Check the CRA account barrier early: a CRA account can't be created for someone who has not filed taxes or who has enhanced protection turned on, and without one BRO is closed canada.ca. The current RC1 is a fillable PDF that has to be downloaded and opened in Acrobat Reader, not in a browser canada.ca.

Nonresidents use a separate route. A business incorporated or located outside Canada, or an owner whose SIN starts with 0 or who has no SIN, registers through the CRA's nonresident online registration form; if that fails, Form RC1 goes by mail or fax to the nonresident registration unit at the Atlantic Tax Centre in Summerside, PEI canada.ca.

Does incorporation give your client a BN automatically?

Yes, in most of the country. Incorporating federally with Corporations Canada gives the corporation a BN and an RC account automatically, with no separate CRA step. Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan do the same when the business incorporates or registers with them canada.ca.

Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut don't issue a BN, so a corporation from one of them registers with the CRA separately canada.ca. An Ontario business identification number or a Quebec enterprise number (NEQ) can't stand in for the 9 digit BN on the CRA application canada.ca.

Either way, GST/HST and payroll are never automatic. Once the BN exists, add those accounts through BRO canada.ca. An unincorporated business needs a BN only when it registers for a CRA program account.

Worked example: a new Ontario corporation hires and crosses $30,000

Your client incorporates in Ontario on September 8, 2026. Because Ontario is a partner jurisdiction, the corporation gets its BN and its RC corporation income tax account with the articles. Nothing else is open yet.

The corporation invoices $14,000 in October and $19,000 on November 18, 2026. That takes the October to December quarter to $14,000 + $19,000 = $33,000, past the $30,000 small supplier limit in a single quarter. The corporation stops being a small supplier on the November 18 sale, charges GST/HST on that invoice, and the effective date of registration is no later than November 18 canada.ca. It then has 29 days from the effective date to register: November 18 plus 29 days is December 17, 2026. The full threshold rules are on the GST registration threshold page.

Its first employee starts December 1. Your client signs in to their CRA account, goes into BRO, and adds an RT account and an RP account to the existing BN in one session. The new numbers share the same nine digits as the RC account, for example 123456789 RT 0001 and 123456789 RP 0001, and appear on screen at the end canada.ca. If the client was required to register, or was charging tax, more than 30 days before the date it registers, ask the CRA separately to backdate the GST/HST registration canada.ca.

Change one fact and the route changes: if a holding company owned the shares instead of an individual, BRO would refuse the registration and the RT and RP accounts would go through Form RC1 or the Business Enquiries line.

What about clients in Quebec?

For a business physically located in Quebec, Revenu Québec administers the GST/HST, so the client registers and files GST/HST returns with Revenu Québec on its forms, not with the CRA canada.ca. Payroll and corporation income tax accounts with the CRA still go through BRO, and Quebec incorporation does not create a CRA BN on its own canada.ca.

To let your firm act on the new accounts once they exist, the client authorizes you separately; see how representative authorization works.