1. August 6, 2019 – CRA released a Tax Tip (Protecting your personal information) summarizing various tips to safeguard tax information, including the following:

• Signing up for My Account or My Business Account and registering for email notifications when paper mail is returned to CRA, or when certain other changes are made on one’s account.
• Using CRA protocols to authenticate a caller’s identity. These will be enhanced in August 2019 with the option to set a unique Personal Identification Number which must be provided before a call centre agent can access the individual’s accounts.

confirming CRA callers 

• Verifying a purported CRA caller by requesting their badge number and calling the individual or business enquiries line for confirmation.

The Tip also provides guidance on steps individuals who may be victims of identity theft should take, including contacting CRA to request enhanced security measures be placed on their accounts.

resource for other community organizations

2. July 30, 2019 – CRA released a Tax Tip (Help your clients get benefits and credits: request a free outreach visit) highlighting their Outreach Program aimed at organizations which assist various groups including indigenous peoples, new Canadians and refugees, seniors, students and youth, disabled individuals, and housing insecure or homeless individuals. CRA outreach officers will give presentations and distribute information. They will also provide information on free tax clinics under the Community Volunteer Tax Preparer Initiative.

See Appendix A for a listing of recently released publications and forms.