Form T1013, Authorizing or Cancelling a Representative, is the official Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) form used by taxpayers to grant or revoke a representative's authority to access their confidential tax information and to act on their behalf in dealings with CRA. This form is the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. IRS Form 2848 (Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative), though the Canadian version operates under a different legal framework and provides more graduated levels of access.

The legal authority for the T1013 comes from subsection 241(5) of the Income Tax Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 1 (5th Supp.)), which creates an exception to the general prohibition on disclosure of taxpayer information found in subsection 241(1). Under this provision, CRA is authorized to disclose a taxpayer's information to a person who has been authorized by the taxpayer in the prescribed manner — and the T1013 is the prescribed form for this purpose. The information collected is also protected under the Privacy Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. P-21), which governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by federal government institutions.

The T1013 provides three distinct levels of authorization, allowing taxpayers to control exactly how much access their representative has. Level 1 permits disclosure only (viewing information), Level 2 adds the ability to request changes to the taxpayer's account, and Level 3 further adds authorization to use CRA's online electronic services such as the Represent a Client portal.

A T1013 form is needed whenever a taxpayer wants an accountant, tax preparer, bookkeeper, lawyer, or any other person to access their CRA account information or to communicate with CRA on their behalf. This is one of the most commonly used CRA forms, as the vast majority of individuals and businesses that use professional tax services must file a T1013 to authorize their tax professional.

Common situations requiring a T1013 include hiring a new accountant or tax preparer to handle personal income tax (T1) or corporate income tax (T2) returns, authorizing a bookkeeping firm to manage GST/HST filings, allowing a payroll service provider to access payroll account information, and granting a lawyer access to respond to CRA audits, objections, or appeals. The form is also needed when changing tax professionals — the new professional will need their own T1013, and the taxpayer may want to cancel the previous professional's authorization.

Businesses with multiple CRA program accounts (GST/HST, payroll, corporate tax) may need to authorize different representatives for different accounts, or authorize one representative for all accounts. Each T1013 covers one representative, so multiple forms are needed if the taxpayer wants to authorize more than one person. The form can also be used to cancel all existing authorizations at once, which is useful when a taxpayer is switching accounting firms.

A complete T1013 form requires the taxpayer's full legal name and either their Social Insurance Number (SIN) for individuals or their Business Number (BN) for businesses. The SIN is a 9-digit number in XXX-XXX-XXX format, while the BN is a 9-digit number followed by a program identifier (e.g., 123456789 RT0001). The taxpayer must also provide their current mailing address and telephone number so that CRA can verify the authorization if needed.

The representative must be identified by their CRA-assigned RepID (for individual representatives) or GroupID (for firms or groups of representatives). The representative must be registered with CRA's Represent a Client service before they can be authorized. If the representative is part of an accounting or law firm, the firm's business number should also be provided.

The authorization level must be clearly specified: Level 1 for disclosure only, Level 2 for disclosure plus the ability to request changes, or Level 3 for full online access. The scope of the authorization must indicate which CRA program accounts are covered — personal income tax (T1), corporate income tax (T2), GST/HST, payroll (PD), trust (T3), or other specific accounts. The taxpayer must also specify whether the authorization covers all tax years (past, current, and future) or only specific tax years.

The form must include the taxpayer's signature and the date of authorization. The taxpayer should indicate whether the authorization has an expiry date or remains in effect until cancelled. If the taxpayer wants to cancel a specific existing representative or all existing representatives, this must be clearly indicated. CRA processes the authorization and notifies both the taxpayer and the representative when it takes effect.