CRA Review of a Canadian Corporation: Documents to Assemble First

Blackridge Strategic Services · 21 Sep 2026

When CRA opens a review or sends an information request on a Canadian corporation, the first useful move is rarely a long narrative. It is a labelled pack that matches the ask: bank statements for the periods named, ledgers or book exports, invoices, and working papers that already exist. Volume without an index expands the conversation. A calm, indexed pack keeps the early days orderly — before anyone invents paper or dumps years CRA did not name.

General education for Canadian corporations and owner-managers. Not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Your letter, periods, and facts control. Education ≠ advice.

Match the ask — do not dump the hard drive

A review or information request is not an invitation to send every PDF the company has ever saved. The letter (or the schedule attached to it) is the work list. Read it for business number, program account, periods, and numbered asks. Build an index that mirrors that list. Labels and honest gaps beat a cloud-folder dump that mixes personal accounts, unrelated years, and half-finished “cleanup.”

If you are still sorting what kind of letter arrived, start with triage and first-day habits: how a Canadian corporation should triage a new CRA letter and what to do when a CRA letter arrives. Portal mail deserves the same treatment as paper: My Business Account weekly check.

Core pack categories (pull only what the letter names)

Use the letter as the filter. The list below is a practical menu — assemble what matches the ask, not everything on the shelf.

• Identity and letter spine. Corporate name as on the letter, business number, the letter itself (and envelope if you have it), reference numbers, and a one-page note of the periods CRA named.
• Bank statements. Operating and other corporate accounts for the named periods — complete statement PDFs, not cherry-picked pages. Match account names to the corporation, not the owner’s personal chequing by default.
• General ledger or books export. Trial balance, G/L detail, or accounting-system export covering the periods named. Prefer the version that existed when the letter arrived; preserve originals.
• Sales and purchase invoices. Invoices that match suppliers, customers, or categories CRA listed. Index them to ask numbers rather than sending an unlabelled binder.
• Payroll and source-deduction summaries. Only if the letter asks. Remittance summaries, T4 totals, and related reports for the periods named — not a multi-year surplus.
• GST/HST workings. If named: returns, worksheets, and support for the reporting periods on the letter. A GST ask is not automatically a corporate-income-tax ask; keep piles separate when both arrive.
• T2 working papers and schedules. For the tax years named — reconciliations, adjusting entries, and schedules that support the filed return. “Filed” here means the return trail, not a new story written after the letter date.
• Related-party agreements and invoices. If management fees, intercompany charges, rents, or loans are in scope: agreements, invoices, and payment trails that already exist. Thin paper is a fact to list, not a cue to invent. More on that habit: related-party paperwork.
• Minute book and director resolutions. When fees, distributions, loans, or authority for payments are in scope — resolutions and minutes that authorize what the books show.
• Correspondence log. What left the building, when, and how (portal upload confirmation, courier, registered mail). That log keeps the next reply from restarting from memory.

How to label the pack

One boring table is enough. Columns that survive the next letter:

• Ask # — numbered to match the letter’s schedule in your own words
• Document — statement, invoice set, G/L export, schedule, agreement
• Period — the dates or tax years CRA named (not “all years we have”)
• Status — have / partial / missing

Honest gaps belong on the table. Invented backdated agreements, rewritten ledgers after the letter date, or “reconstructed” minutes that never existed are a different problem from organizing contemporaneous records. Prefer gaps you can explain over paper that cannot survive a later look.

What not to invent early

Before you reply, restraint matters as much as gathering. Unless your letter and advisors say otherwise, the early days are usually the wrong time to:

• Backdate agreements that did not exist when the transactions happened.
• Rewrite ledgers after the letter date to make history look cleaner than the source records.
• Dump personal bank statements when the ask names the corporation and corporate accounts.
• Send multi-year surplus CRA did not name — extra years and side topics expand the conversation.
• Volunteer a narrative essay about motives, competitors, or “what a friend did” instead of exhibits tied to asks.

Preserve what exists. Label what is missing. Decide whether a staged, labelled partial reply fits that letter — do not invent a process the letter does not allow.

Three short scenarios

Scenario A — Information request, clean books

CRA asks for six months of operating-account statements and invoices for a named supplier. The ask list is clear. Early work: scan the letter, open the label table, pull statements from the bank portal, match invoices to the supplier name, and stop. Do not volunteer personal accounts, unrelated years, or a margin story. Exhibit labels beat storytelling.

Scenario B — Related-party fees, thin paper

The letter asks for management-fee agreements, intercompany invoices, and minutes authorizing the fees. The company paid fees for years with thin paper. Early work: preserve emails, bank trails, and any invoices that exist; list gaps honestly; do not invent backdated agreements in a rush. Organizing contemporaneous records is different from creating paper after the letter arrives.

Scenario C — GST/HST and corporate periods the same week

Two letters land close together — one GST/HST information request, one corporate review for overlapping dates. Triage both. One folder does not cover the other. Separate indexes, separate period lists, and separate “what left the building” logs keep the replies from cross-contaminating. Calendar every date printed on each letter.

FAQ

What should I assemble first when CRA reviews a corporation?

Start with the letter itself, the periods named, and a labelled table that matches each ask to a document or an honest gap. Bank statements, ledgers, and invoices for those periods usually come next — only as far as the letter reaches.

Should I send every record I have “just in case”?

Usually that expands the matter. Match documents to numbered asks. Extra years and personal material without a request often create new questions.

What if a requested document is missing?

Record the gap as partial or missing, keep searching primary sources, and do not invent a replacement. How you describe a material gap in a reply is situation-specific.

Is a review the same as an assessment?

Not necessarily. Some letters ask for records without stating a full proposed adjustment. Others examine a year or schedule and may invite comment. Read the face of your letter; working labels from triage help: corporate CRA letter triage.

Is this legal or tax advice?

No. General education for Canadian owner-managers. Your letter, periods, and facts control. Education ≠ advice.

Closing

When CRA asks for books on a corporate matter, the early advantage is order: match the ask, label the pack, preserve originals, and leave invented paper off the table. An indexed set of statements, ledgers, invoices, and working papers for the periods named will not decide your situation — it keeps the first reply from deciding it for you.