How to Check Your RRSP Contributions Using the CRA My Account Website

Posted on 2014 06 06 by BetCrooks

A few weeks ago, I signed up at the CRA website to use My Account. After I got my security access code in the mail, I could sign in to the detailed information. Out of curiousity, I reviewed my TFSA contribution history. Today, I started thinking about our RRSPs. We’ve been contributing since we started working, shortly after the last dinosaurs were driven out of the Alberta Badlands because the hikers resented tripping over their bones all the time. To say I have no idea what my cumulative lifetime contributions have been is an understatement. So I signed in to the CRA My Account website to see if I could find what my total RRSP contributions have been.

Does the CRA My Account Website Have a Succinct Pithy Summary of My RRSP Contributions?

No.

At least I couldn’t find one.

The My Account site lists how much you contributed including transfers in and repayments of the LLP and HBP for most years. However, this information is included in a web page with other data so you have to pick it out visually from the clutter. And you have to subtract the transfers and repayments yourself.

This is a bit surprising as the same site does provide a neat, complete summary of TFSA contributions.

How Can Someone Not Know How Much They’ve Contributed to Their RRSP?

Well you efficient organized people won’t understand this but some of the rest of you might.

So far I’ve invested (ha!) RRSP money at

2 big banks
1 internet bank
1 government Canada Savings Bond RRSP program

GICs
Canada Savings Bonds (I contributed the bonds “in kind” to make our annual contribution)
Daily interest savings accounts
Index mutual funds, when they were a new invention

Gradually, I’ve been rounding up all of these investments and shifting them to a couple of online discount brokerages (BMO InvestorLine and RBC Direct Investing.)

(I’ve always kept track of how much unused RRSP contribution room I have but I haven’t kept a deliberate running total of what I contributed.)

I could check my contributions from my tax returns. In fact, some where on the half-dead not-connected-to-the-internet computer, the numbers are probably already tabulated for my contributions, though not my husband’s. I just think it might be simpler to see what the CRA thinks I’ve done.

You can check your RRSP contributions, too. Here’s how.

Checking Your RRSP Contributions Online Using the CRA My Account Website

First, you must have a CRA My Account user ID and password set up. (I wrote up how to get one in this article.)

Go the My Account for Individuals website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/myaccount/

Sign in to your CRA My Account

Click on the CRA Login button.
In the User ID: field, type your id.
In the Password: field, type your password. This is not your CRA security code. It’s the password you picked before you got that code in the mail.
Answer the security question and click Continue.
If the date and time of last access is correct, click Continue
Click the RRSP and savings plans tab.
Click the RRSP link.

The RRSP Page

Hmmm. I’m not sure if any of these links leads to what I want to know. I’ll have to try some.
The “Calculation of 2014 RRSP deduction limit” and the “Calculation of your 2013 unused RRSP contributions” don’t sound promising but I’ll still look at them.

It looks like I may have to use several links to get all of the contributions from the past to the previous tax year of 2013. So…

The Calculation of 2014 RRSP Deduction Limit Link Page

Click on the link: Calculation of 2014 RRSP deduction limit

Ok, this has

my “allowable RRSP contributions deducted in 2013”
and
my “unused RRSP deduction limit at the end of 2013”

I’ll need both those numbers if I was carrying forward an unclaimed deduction (not an unclaimed contribution; an unclaimed deduction) and/or if I made a contribution in 2013 but didn’t deduct it, thus increasing my unused RRSP deduction limit at the end of 2013.

Unfortunately, neither number reports my actual “contribution” made in 2013.

If I carried forward some RRSP contributions and deducted them in 2013 they will make it look like I contributed more in 2013 than I actually put in.

And, if I decided not to deduct all of the RRSP contributions I made in 2013 but instead decided to carry some forward to 2014 or beyond, I can’t simply see how much new money went into my RRSP in 2013.

Next, I’ll check another one line wonder.

The Prior Year RRSP Deduction Limits and Calculations Link Page

Click on the link: Prior year RRSP deduction limits and calculations

This should have the data for 2012.

Actually, it has data for many years. For each year it lists:

that year’s RRSP deduction limit
that year’s unused RRSP contributions

Those are the ones you have contributed but have not yet deducted.

So this is of limited value for what I’m trying to do today.

OK, how about a third one line wonder?

The Calculation of Your 2013 Unused RRSP Contributions Link Page

Click on the link: Calculation of your 2013 unused RRSP contributions

Ah ha! One of the lines here is “2013 contributions” (including transfers)

It should probably also say (including HBP and LLP repayments) because those are subtracted in the following two lines.

So if you made a transfer from a spouse’s RRSP into your own (usually because of a divorce), you’ll have to know how much was transferred so that you can calculate how much of your own money you contributed in 2013.

Next, I’ll check another link, the “Prior year RRSP contribution history”

The Prior Year RRSP Contribution History Link Screen

Click on the Prior year RRSP contribution history link.

4 pages. That seems more promising.

The pages show the following for each year (for 2012 in this example):

2012 RRSP Contribution History
Unused RRSP contributions available for 2012
Plus: 2012 contributions (including transfers)
Minus: 2012 HBP or LLP repayments
Minus: 2012 deducted contributions (including transfers)
Unused RRSP contributions available for 2013

Note: Those “transfers” likely are things like transferring some of your RRSP to a spouse due to a divorce. I can see they don’t mean transfers between financial institutions in your own name, because there is no data for my moves from one bank to a brokerage.

So I’ll still have to type out some numbers to find my total lifetime contributions to my RRSP. Pardon me for a minute while I open Excel.

Sorry about that delay. I did warn you that my history goes back to just shortly after the Burgess Shale was laid down.

So from the CRA website, for each year, I input my contribution (including transfers) and my HBP or LLP repayment and then calculated my contribution that was not a repayment. Fortunately, my husband is still tolerating me, so I didn’t have to deduct any transfers. This was not an ideal way to get at the data for which I was looking.

Anyway, to my dismay I found the CRA data only goes back to 1992. Rats. So I still have to boot up Ol’ Trusty or pull my old tax returns.

So for you young un’s or late starters, the CRA data may be useful. For us ol’ timers it has limited value.

Why Does the CRA My Account RRSP Data Not Go Back Before 1992?

Well, hating to admit it, it’s probably because of when computers became integral parts of our lives and jobs.

Believe it or not, in the 1980s there was no modern-day internet. Home computers were considered a bit silly: you could type out your recipes, and create a simple Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. It wasn’t until the 1990s that you could play Duke Nukem and even Leisure Suit Larry wasn’t coded till 1987.

I’m not sure when the CRA started digitizing all of its tax returns but it’s looking suspiciously like 1992. I wonder how big the push was to get and start using PCs once the Duke was available to play at lunch time? It probably took about a year to convince management…..

Another Way to Get My RRSP Contribution History from the CRA My Account Website

Sign in to your account.
Click on the Tax Returns tab.
Click on the View Returns link.
Double rats. They only have links to my returns from 2003 to 2013.
Click on the link for the return of interest.
Check
- Line 208 for your RRSP deduction
- Line 245 for the Total contributions made to your RRSP or your spouse or common-law partner’s RRSP
- Line 246 for the RRSP contributions designated as a repayment under the HBP
- Line 262 for the RRSP contributions designated as a repayment under the LLP
- Hopefully they will also show Line 240 Transfers but I can’t check since I don’t have any transfers to look up.
NOTE: if one of the lines is not applicable to your return, it will not be shown. So if you didn’t make a HBP repayment, there won’t be any Line 246 to look at.

So looking at your returns online is one way to tally up your RRSP contributions IF you only have been contributing for 10 or fewer years.

This appears to be a 10 year “rolling” list. So in 2015, I expect you’ll only be able to look at returns for 2004-2013.

Always Leave the CRA My Account Website Safely!

Click on the Logout button.
Click on the Exit button.
Clear your cache and close your browser session.

Related Reading

How to Get Access to the CRA My Account Website
How Can I Roughly Estimate the Return on my RRSP Contributions?

Join In
Have you kept meticulous track of every cent you’ve contributed to your RRSP? Or have you only kept a vague eye on your initial investment numbers so as not to despair too much about your overall low rate of return? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How to Change Your Income Tax Return by Mailing In a T1-ADJ Or a Letter

Posted on 2014 06 02 by BetCrooks

As I mentioned before, I realized this year, about 12 hours after NETFILEing my 2013 tax return, that I have a reporting error on my T2125 business return. Checking through my files, I discovered the error goes back at least 10 years because this numeric code has been copied, by me, erroneously from one year’s return to the next. Sigh. Because it doesn’t affect my taxes owing, I doubt Revenue Canada cares. But I’d like to keep my files accurate, so I want to adjust all of my returns. I decided to send a letter or a T1-ADJ in to the Canada Revenue Agency to change the info on my past tax returns.

NOTE: Each of these tax returns has been assessed and I have received the Notices of Assessment for them. The CRA does not like it if you try to amend your return while they are still processing it for the first time. Wait till you get your NoA before making corrections or phone them to discuss it if it is an urgent mistake.

Always pay any taxes you know you owe immediately. It puts you in a much stronger position to request they waive any interest or penalties.

Do I Have to Re-Do All My Taxes Because I Made a Mistake?

No.

You only submit a request to change the mistake. You do NOT re-calculate all of your taxes. Their computer will do that.

So if you forgot to report $51 in interest from a T5, you will only report a correction to Line 121. And pay the tax you owe as soon as possible.

Which means I have to contradict myself and say you may *want* to re-do your taxes so you can pay the tax you owe sooner even though you will not be sending your re-calculated return to the CRA. Or you could overpay what might be owing and wait to get a refund after they re-assess your return. (For example, you could pay $50 in tax on the $51 mistake and wait a few months to get some of that overpayment back.)

Why Did I Submit My Tax Correction on Paper?

I have electronic access to my tax returns through the CRA My Account program. So why didn’t I just file a T1-ADJ online?

Two reasons:

I didn’t notice anything to click to select to adjust a T2125 online, although I could find how to change line 135 my net business income, if I needed to.
The correction I need to make is to a field that does not have a line number. It’s an informational field at the beginning of the form, not one of the numbers used to calculate my income, expenses or taxes.

In my situation, it seemed easier to explain what needed to be fixed in a letter than to try to summarize it into a tiny text field.

How to Adjust Your Tax Return With a Letter to the CRA

Write a letter including

a brief explanation of the cause of your error
what needs to be corrected
which year’/s’ return/s need/s correction
the line number, if applicable, of the number to be corrected
the name of the line that needs to be corrected
your social insurance number
your full name as used on your tax returns
your mailing address
a telephone number where you can be reached during CRA business hours

You’ll need to sign the letter.

Don’t explain more than necessary. For example, just say “I mistakenly reported my business code on my T2125.” Don’t bother saying “My uncle’s cousin insisted that code 1235 was for businesses importing chinchillas from Ecuador but not for businesses importing chinchillas and aardvarks which would be code 1236 and like the fool I am I believed him and used it not realizing that that was really the code for businesses exporting chinchillas from Ecuador.”

Enclose with your letter any required supporting documentation. For example, if you are *mailing* in a request to adjust your tax return because of an un-reported RRSP contribution, you should include the original RRSP contribution receipt. (If you are electronically filing a T1-ADJ for this problem you would keep the RRSP contribution receipt until they request it unless the website tells you to send it in.)

How to Adjust Your Tax Return by Completing a Paper T1-ADJ Form

If the change you need is easy to explain, for example you want to report some interest income that you received for which you only found the T5 a few weeks after you mailed your return, you may find it easier to fill in a T1-ADJ than to write a letter.

Go to the CRA website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t1-adj/README.html
And click on a link to either fill in and print a T1-ADJ or just print one and fill it in by hand.

As with a letter, you’ll need to fill in

your social insurance number
your full name as used on your tax returns
your mailing address
a telephone number where you can be reached during CRA business hours
which year’s return needs correction (fill in one T1-ADJ for each year that needs to be changed)

You’ll also need to list

the line number from the form or schedule of the number to be corrected
the name of the line from the return or schedule (probably in case they can’t read your printing for the line number; or because you’ve already admitted you make mistakes)
the incorrect original amount you reported
whether to add or subtract the next amount from that original amount
the amount to add or subtract
the revised, correct amount you should have reported

If you need to make an explanation or provide details, there is a space to do so.

You’ll need to sign the form.

They have an example on the form if that sounds confusing. Here’s my own example:

Say you reported $120 in interest income from a T5.
Then you found another T5 for $51 that you forgot to report.
You’d report:

Line number from return or schedule: Line 121
Name of line from return or schedule: Interest and other investment income
Previous amount: $120
+ -: +
Amount of change: $51
Revised amount: $171

Where Do I Mail My T1-ADJ or Letter Requesting an Adjustment to My Income Taxes?

You should be mailing your form or letter to the CRA office that handles your taxes. You can check which office this is by looking at your most recent Notice of Assessment. It’s on the top line after your Social Insurance Number and the Tax Year. For example, it may say “Sudbury ON P3A 5C1.”

You can get the complete mailing address online from the list on the CRA website. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cntct/prv/txcntr-eng.html

Yes, there is a tax centre in Shawinigan. What a surprise! (For those of you too young to know why put “the little guy from Shawinigan” in your search engine and become enlightened.)

How Long Will I Have to Wait for the CRA to Change My Tax Return (and Send Me My Money?)

This is where the bad news comes in. It’s slow to revise your taxes and even slower if you file a request by mail not electronically.

The CRA website says an online T1-ADJ request usually takes 2 weeks to process. A letter usually takes 8 weeks to process. They say it may take longer in late summer and fall and for a variety of other reasons.

So don’t buy anything on your credit card until AFTER they deposit your refund!

What Happened In My Case?

Well, I’ve just mailed my letter so I guess I won’t expect to hear anything till August.
I spoke with the CRA already about my mistake so I’m not really expecting to hear anything anyway. The representative told me that they likely will just add a copy of my letter to my file because the number I’m correcting isn’t really used for anything. (I wonder just how many of those fields we fill in on our taxes are never really used?!) Still, I feel better knowing I’ve done my part to make my returns “correct and complete” because “It is a serious offence to make a false return.”