What your Notice of Assessment means

This article was originally published December 2018 and has been updated.

As tax time rolls around, there’s one key document that you’ll need to have—a Notice of Assessment. This is a document you’ll receive from the Canada Revenue Agency if you filed a tax return (or had a return filed on your behalf) previously. Your Notice of Assessment will contain key information like your name, address, SIN, and your balance. But the exact information contained will depend on your unique financial situation.

Here are some of the basics you can expect to see:

Account Summary: This outlines your personal information, your assessment date, and if you have a refund, an amount owing, or a zero balance.

Tax Assessment: This includes your key tax info based on what you filed in your return. This will include a summary of your total income and deductions in your net income. Depending on your situation, it could also include things like tuition and education carry-forward amounts or net capital gains/losses.

RRSP/PRPP Deduction Limit Statement: The details in this section will depend on your income, contributions to your RRSP, pension adjustment amounts (if applicable), and room from previous years that has been carried forward. If you’re a recent grad, pay attention to this one. The money you pay into tuition can be carried over after you graduate and the amount can be found here.

Home Buyer’s Plan Statement: This will only appear if you’re participating in the Home Buyer’s Plan. If you are, it will include a breakdown of the total amount you’ve taken out under the plan, how much you’ve repaid, how much you need to repay in the current year, and the total amount outstanding.

Lifelong Learning Plan Statement: This will only appear if you’re participating in the Lifelong Learning Plan Statement. If you are, it will include a breakdown of the total amount you’ve taken out under the plan, how much you’ve repaid, how much you need to repay in the current year, and the total amount outstanding.

Everybody’s assessment is different, so if you don’t see all these things, don’t sweat it.

Your Notice of Assessment will include your full name, SIN number, tax year, and tax centre. You’ll also see if any corrections have been made to your tax return.

If this all sounds a little confusing and dense, not to worry. We broke down the general buckets of information you can expect to see on your Notice of Assessment.

Click the images below to see more detail on what each portion of the NOA means.