RC145: close CRA accounts online or by mail within 6 months of signing

Which route closes which account?

Your client can close CRA program accounts online in My Business Account, and an authorized representative can do it through Represent a Client. Form RC145, Request to Close Business Number Program Accounts, is the paper version: one form with a part for each account type canada.ca.

The form has to be signed by someone with signing authority: an owner, partner, director, corporate officer, officer of a nonprofit, trustee, authorized representative, individual with delegated authority or legal representative. The CRA won't process it if the signer's name doesn't match its records. Send it to the Prince Edward Island Tax Centre or the Sudbury Tax Centre within six months of the date it was signed, or it won't be processed at all canada.ca.

The current version is RC145 E (19). It's a fillable PDF that has to be downloaded and opened in Acrobat Reader, not in a browser canada.ca.

What must be filed before an account will close?

Closing an account doesn't end the obligations attached to it. The CRA expects every final return and payment before, or alongside, the closing request.

The payroll dates come straight from RC145 Part C and the employer's guide: remit within seven days, send the T4 slips and T4 Summary within 30 days of the day the business ends, and close the business number and accounts only after all final returns and amounts owing are processed canada.ca. The CRA's closing page adds the pension adjustment calculation and giving former employees their slips canada.ca. The 30 day slip rule replaces the usual February date, as covered on the T4 slip deadline page.

The seven days are calendar days, and the same final remittance clock starts when a sole proprietor or partner dies, the legal status changes, the business goes bankrupt or into receivership, or it's restructured or amalgamated. A remittance more than seven days late attracts the 10% penalty tier canada.ca.

Clicking "I agree" on the online payroll request doesn't close the account on the spot. The RP account closes once all payroll deductions are remitted and all information returns are filed, and only the owner or a representative with level two authorization can make the request canada.ca.

The final GST/HST return is split in two and taxes what's left on the shelf

When your client closes the business, the cancellation date is the day the business closes. The CRA treats that as two separate reporting periods: one ending the day before the account closes, and one starting on the closing day and running to the end of that month, which needs a return only if there's tax to remit. Each return is due one month after its period ends canada.ca.

That one month applies to annual filers too. The CRA's own example is an annual filer that closed on October 21, 2022: the return for January 1 to October 20 was due November 20, 2022, not three months after a year end canada.ca. The normal schedule is on the GST filing deadline page.

Property doesn't leave the GST/HST system for free. Under ETA 171(3), a person who stops being a registrant is deemed to have supplied each property other than capital property, held for commercial activities, immediately before that time, and to have ceased using capital property in commercial activities laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. In practice your client remits GST/HST on the fair market value of inventory on its final return, and generally repays all or part of the input tax credits claimed on capital property under the change in use rules canada.ca. The capital property side is covered on change in use of property.

A sale of the whole business is the way around that. If the buyer is a registrant acquiring at least 90% of the property needed to carry on the business, the two can jointly elect on Form GST44 so no GST/HST applies to the sale canada.ca. See the section 167 election.

What does an Ontario sole proprietor closing on November 16, 2026 file, and by when?

Your client is a sole proprietor in Ontario, a quarterly GST/HST filer with two employees. The last day of trading is Sunday, November 15, 2026, and the business is closed from Monday, November 16. At closing it holds unsold stock worth $12,000 at fair market value, plus a van it used in the business.

The $1,560 uses the 13% Ontario HST rate canada.ca. It goes on the return ending November 15 as tax collected, because the deemed supply happens immediately before the client stops being a registrant laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. Request the payroll closure with November 15 as the date payroll stopped, close the RT account with a November 16 cancellation date, and expect the RP account to stay open until the December 16 slips are in. The business income itself still goes on the client's 2026 T1.

Change one fact and the GST/HST bill changes: if a registrant buyer took over at least 90% of the business assets on November 16 and the two filed a GST44 election, there's no deemed sale of the stock to report.

What changes for a dissolved or amalgamated corporation?

For a corporation incorporated federally or in a province that uses a federal business number, the CRA closes the RC account automatically once the incorporating authority tells it the corporation is dissolved, and no RC145 or call is needed. By the time your client has the articles of dissolution, its RT, RP and RZ accounts are already closed too canada.ca. The partner provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan canada.ca.

A corporation from Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec or Yukon doesn't get a BN from its incorporating authority canada.ca. It sends RC145 with a copy of the certificate of dissolution or letters patent of dissolution, and the two together are the request to close the RC account canada.ca. Skip that and the CRA treats the corporation as still existing, so it has to file a T2 even with no tax payable canada.ca. Either way, a final T2 is due up to the dissolution date; the dates are on the T2 deadline after dissolution.

Amalgamations are excluded from RC145 entirely: call the CRA at 1-800-959-5525 canada.ca. For GST/HST, the predecessor files returns up to the day before the amalgamation canada.ca. The tax side is on section 87 amalgamations.

Money left in a dissolved corporation's accounts generally becomes the property of the Crown. After a voluntary dissolution, with every program account in good standing, a designated individual can ask for the refund with a signed Form RC278, Release and Indemnification, for each account with a credit, plus the dissolution certificate and the shareholder list. An involuntarily dissolved corporation has to be revived first canada.ca.

Quebec businesses and a sole proprietor who dies follow different rules

For a business physically located in Quebec, Revenu Québec administers the GST/HST canada.ca. So the RT account closes with Revenu Québec, not through RC145 Part B. The CRA payroll and corporate accounts still close with the CRA.

When a sole proprietor dies, give the CRA the date of death as soon as possible. The final GST/HST return covers a period ending on the day of death, due one month later, and the account stays open until every obligation of the estate is met canada.ca. Payroll slips are due 90 days after the date of death instead of 30 canada.ca, while the final remittance still runs on the seven day clock canada.ca.

Close the BN and the business accounts only after all the final returns and amounts owing have been processed canada.ca. The individual return is covered on the final return for a deceased person.