Change my return: online adjustments for income tax and benefits returns

Overview

Change my return is a secure My Account service that allows you to request a change to your income tax and benefit return after you receive your notice of assessment or notice of reassessment.

We have improved features in Change my return to make it easier to change your return online. These new features guide you through common adjustments such as adjustments to add tax information slips and claiming the disability tax credit.

The enhancements to Change my return include questions and messages when additional information is needed, errors are detected, or supporting documentation is needed to finalize your request.

Claim the disability tax credit

If you have been approved to claim the disability tax credit (DTC) for yourself, your dependant(s), or your spouse or common-law partner, this option will be available to you. If not, it will not be shown. See What is the DTC for information on who is eligible for this credit and how to apply.

If do not want to claim the DTC, click Next to bypass this credit and continue to Change my return.

You can claim the DTC on one or more of your returns by using this option. It will apply both the federal and provincial or territorial credits to their maximum amounts, if available, for each year:

• Disability amount for self
  • Select each year for which you would like to claim the DTC. Do not select years for returns where you have already claimed it.
• Disability amount transferred from a dependant
  • If you only have one eligible dependant, select each year for which you would like to claim the DTC. Do not select years for returns where you have already claimed it.
  • If you have multiple dependants for whom you are eligible to claim in the same tax year(s), select all dependants and tax year(s) you want to claim, including any dependant(s) already claimed on your return(s).
• Disability amount transferred from your spouse:
  • Select each year for which you would like to claim the DTC. Do not select years for returns where you have already claimed it.
  • If needed, you can update your Spouse’s or common-law partner’s adjusted taxable income on lines 351/36100 and 5912/59120. For more information, see Schedule 2.
• For all types of claims:
  • If you or the person you are claiming the credit for are under 18 years of age at the end of the year, you will be prompted to enter any related child care expenses or attendant care expenses claimed in the year by you or another individual. For more information, see Attendant care and care in a facility and the federal/provincial/territorial worksheets.

After you have made your selections and updated the required fields, click Next. You will be asked if you would like to make any further adjustments to your return(s).

• Select Yes if you would like to make more changes. This will take you to the Select the year screen where you can choose which year you would like to make changes to.
• Select No if you do not have any more changes to make. This will take you to the Provide additional information screen, followed by the Review and submit screen which will show you a summary of your changes.

Select the year

Select the year you want to change from the list of available years in the drop-down menu and then select Next.

Generally, you can request a change only to a tax return from any of the 10 previous calendar years. For example, if you make a request in 2023, it must relate to the 2013 or later tax returns.

If you want to change a return for a year that does not appear in the list in the drop-down menu, send the request to your tax centre in writing.

If you select a year you have already completed, the entries you made in the Provide Additional Information step for that year will not be saved, and you will have to redo the step.

New options in Change my return

You can now make online requests for the application of certain losses:

• carry-back amounts, such as capital or non-capital losses
• carry-forward amounts, such as farming or fishing losses or restricted farm losses

You can now make an online election to split pension income.

You can now use Change my return to change certain international and non-resident returns, such as:

• deemed resident returns
• factual resident returns
• immigrant returns
• emigrant returns
• section 115 and deemed non-resident returns

For more information on filing a non-resident return, see Non-residents of Canada - Ca-ciconline.com.

You cannot use Change my return to change:

• a tax return that has not been assessed
• a tax return where nine reassessments have been processed for a tax year
• a bankruptcy return
• a return for the year before the year of bankruptcy
• certain international and non-resident returns not listed above
• a return where you have income from a business that has a permanent establishment outside your province or territory of residence (complete Form T2203, Provincial and Territorial Taxes for Multiple Jurisdictions)
• a return that was filed by the CRA under subsection 152(7) of the Income Tax Act

Also, you cannot use Change my return to apply for the:

• Canada child benefit
• disability tax credit
• goods and services tax / harmonized sales tax credit

In any of these cases, send all of the following to your tax centre:

• a completed Form T1-ADJ, T1 Adjustment Request, providing the details of your request (including the years of the returns you want us to change), your social insurance number, your address, and a phone number where we can reach you during the day
• supporting documents for the entire amount, including amounts you already claimed but did not previously send documents for

Search feature

Enter a line number from the income tax and benefit return, such as "12600," or text to describe the line you want to find, such as "rental income." Then select Search.

From the search results list, find the line you want to change and click on it, for example, click on line 12600.

If you want to go to a specific section of the return, select it from the drop-down menu below the Search box. For example, you can find line 12600 by clicking on Total Income in the drop-down menu.

Change a line

If you use the Search feature, the cursor appears in the new amount box of the line that you want to change. Enter the dollar amount you want to show on your return after the change is complete.

If you select the section of the return from the drop-down menu, enter the new amount in the box beside the line you want to change. If the line does not appear, use the Search feature to enter the line and select it to add it to the related section below. Enter the dollar amount of the change you want to make in the New Amount box.

Add amounts from tax information slips

Use this option to add amounts from the tax information slips that are on file with us.

The slips on file with the CRA will be grouped together based on their type and labeled with their last "Date modified." If the date is bolded, the slip was changed after the most recent (re)assessment.

Some slips have additional fields that can be changed as needed. If applicable, update these fields before adding or matching your slips:

• Exchange Rate
  • If a slip is not reported in Canadian dollars, enter the rate used to convert this to $CAN. These rates can be found on the Bank of Canada website. The default rate is 1.00.
• Percentage of Slip Claimed
  • If a slip has income from a joint account, enter the percentage of the slip you are claiming on your return. The default amount is 100%.

You have two options:

• Add selected slips to my return
  • Select each slip you want to add to your return from the list and select this option to have them added to the Old Amount reported on your return.
  • Only add the slips you have not previously reported on your return to avoid duplicating the amounts.
• Match all slips to my return:
  • Select this option to total all of the information slips shown in the list and change the New amount reported on your return to equal the sum of their values.

After selecting one of the options, you may asked to determine the location for the information to be reported.

Then you will get a summary of the changes that you are requesting. You will be able to modify any of the values listed to match any additional information you have or remove a change from the list.

If you agree with what is shown on the summary, select Add changes to include these amounts to your existing request. 

You can add any additional changes or review your request before submitting the changes to your return.

Provide additional information

After making changes, you may need to provide more information:

• A Mandatory correction – You must provide the identified information before you can proceed with your submission.
• A Mandatory question – You must provide a yes or no response or you will be unable to submit your change. Once you respond, select Continue.
• An optional correction – You may want to provide more information if the warning applies to your tax situation.

After each stage, select Confirm my answers to continue with your request.

Select Back to return to the Change my return page. Any entries you have made during this step will not be saved and you may have to make corrections or answer questions again.

If no additional information is required, or you have provided all responses, click Next to get to the Review and submit page.

Review and submit your changes

The Review and submit page summarizes the changes you made.

• Old Amount is the dollar amount currently showing on your return.
• Change Amount is the dollar amount of the increase or decrease you are requesting.
• New Amount is the dollar amount you want to show on your return after the change is completed.

You may receive a message stating that certain amounts were changed automatically. The results of these changes can be seen in the summary for each year.

If you want to make other changes, select Edit. This will take you to the Provide Additional Information step for this year and you will have to redo the step.

If you want to make changes to another year, select Add another tax year (when available).

If you do not need to make further changes, read the certification statement, tick the box to agree, and click on Submit changes.

Confirmation number

Keep the confirmation number for your records, and keep all your receipts and supporting documents in case we ask to see them.