Notice of Assessment: Verify Amounts and Keep the Record
Compare income, contributions and credits with your return and verify carried-forward room before filing the notice away.
In this article
People too often read the notice of assessment on a single line, the refund, before filing it forever. Ten minutes of method get far more out of it. First compare income, contributions and credits with your return, line by line. Each discrepancy carries an explanation code. A credit denied for a missing document can be recovered through a simple online adjustment request, with the scanned document attached. Next note the carried-forward room, the document's hidden wealth: unused RRSP room and the TFSA limit as the tax authority calculates them. Copy them down before any contribution, because an excess triggers a monthly penalty. Finally confirm the balance, interest included, when the deposit arrives. Note the formal objection deadline as soon as the notice arrives: ninety days that pass quickly. The original notice, amended notices and supporting documents join the permanent tax file, kept for the prescribed number of years. This article guides the full reading, the adjustment request and the archiving.
Compare the notice with the return filed
A notice of assessment is not a simple confirmation. It is the result of processing your return, and it can differ from what you filed. Compare the key amounts line by line: income reported, deductions allowed, credits applied, tax calculated. Discrepancies often come from a slip the administration received but your return did not include, or from a credit denied for lack of supporting documentation. Do this comparison on receipt, while the documents are at hand and the facts are fresh.
Note the carried-forward contribution room
The notice contains information that serves you all the following year: registered retirement savings plan contribution room, unused tax-free savings account room, carried-forward losses, unused tuition amounts and carried-forward donations. These figures are the most useful part of the document. Copy them into your financial notes rather than rediscovering them a year later. If you misjudge contribution room, you risk excess contributions, which trigger a monthly penalty that runs as long as the excess remains.
Confirm the balance and the interest
The notice states a refund or a balance owing, with interest and penalties where applicable. Verify a refund in fact: its deposit can be withheld to offset another government debt, and the notice explains this when it happens. A balance owing has a due date, after which interest accrues daily at a rate well above commercial rates. Paying even partially by the due date reduces that interest. If you cannot pay, ask the administration for a payment arrangement rather than letting the balance accumulate without contacting it.
Note the objection deadline on receipt
You contest an assessment through a notice of objection, within a limited period calculated from the notice's date, often ninety days. Note that deadline first, because it conditions every later recourse. A simple calculation error or a forgotten slip is corrected more easily through an adjustment request, with no formal objection. Keep the notice and supporting documents with the return for the prescribed retention period. The administration can ask for the supporting records several years after the notice was issued.
Quebec scenario
The notice of assessment lands in the portal of an electrician in Terrebonne three weeks after his return. For fifteen years he has checked only one line, the refund, then filed the document forever. This year, an error found in a colleague's notice convinces him to give it ten minutes, with a method. First the comparison: he lays the notice beside the return and checks total income, contributions and credits, line by line. He spots a discrepancy. A tool credit was denied, with an explanation code pointing to a missing attachment. Next the carried-forward room, the most valuable part of the document: his unused RRSP room and his TFSA limit as the tax authority calculates it. He copies them into his planning note, because contributing from memory leads to over-contribution penalties. Then the balance, confirmed with interest. The refund, reduced by the denied credit, arrives by direct deposit. The difference is $212, and he does not accept it in silence. He also notes the objection deadline on receipt: ninety days to object formally. But he tries the simple route first, an online adjustment request with the tool invoice scanned. The adjustment arrives six weeks later, with an amended notice: $212 plus a few dollars in interest. The original notice, the amended notice and the invoice join his permanent tax file, kept for the prescribed number of years. His takeaway: a notice of assessment is not a receipt to file away. It is an answer to verify, and sometimes to contest.
Checklist
- Compare the notice with the return line by line
- Decode each discrepancy by its explanation code
- Copy down the calculated RRSP and TFSA room
- Confirm the balance or refund with interest
- Note the objection deadline upon receipt
- Settle discrepancies through an adjustment request
- Attach the scanned document to the request
- Escalate to a formal objection if necessary
- Archive the notices and documents for the prescribed years
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