Obtaining a Business Number
You will need to obtain a Business Number ("BN") when you open your new law office. A BN is assigned the first time you register with a participating Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) program. The CRA website contains useful information on many income tax, GST/HST, CPP and EI topics, as well as information about who must register and how to register.
Most law offices will register for a payroll account for employee deductions (for income tax, CPP and EI); Harmonized Goods and Service tax (or GST/HST); and corporate income tax accounts (only if you practise through a law corporation). Note that this module will not address tax issues related to the individual lawyer's personal income or law corporation income.
The first program that you register with will provide you with a Business Number. The BN is a unique government numbering system that identifies your business and the various accounts you maintain. The BN is the root of the 15-character program account numbers that are assigned by CRA. A program account number consists of:
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a nine-digit BN. This number is the same for all programs with which you register;
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two letters identifying the type of account. For example, the letters RP will be used when you register for the CRA payroll accounts, and RT when you register with GST/HST; and
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four numbers for the specific account reference. For example, if you have two payroll accounts, the BNs will end with 0001 and 0002.
For example, a BN for a firm that is registered once with GST/HST would look like:
123456789 RT 0001.
The same firm that is registered twice for federal payroll deductions would have two accounts:
123456789 RP 0001 and 123456789 RP 0002.
It is important to reference the correct program account number when you are corresponding with CRA.
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