The Government of Canada has published a useful online guide explaining the tax responsibilities of legal representatives for the estates of deceased individuals. 

The guide sets out a 4-stage process:

1. Determining who is representing the person who died

• The legal representative is responsible for the administration of the estate.  Typically, the legal representative is the executor named in the will. 
• If there is no will or no named executor, individuals can apply through courts to become the administrator of an estate. 
• The legal representative may not be a tax expert, so they can appoint one or more authorized representatives to manage tax responsibilities on their behalf. 

1. Responsibilities of the legal representative, which include:

• notifying the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”) of the death
• notifying the CRA that they are the legal representative
• providing the CRA with any requested documentation
• cancelling or transferring payments or benefits received by the deceased while they were alive
• filing tax returns for the year the person died
• filing T3 Trust Income and Information Returns, if required
• filing returns for any previous years that the deceased neglected to file
• resolving all outstanding balances owed by the estate to the CRA
• applying for a clearance certificate before making any distributions

1. Notifying the CRA that they are the legal representative

• This step involves submitting several documents. 
• Documents are typically processed 28 business days from the date the documents are received. 
• Documents can be submitted via an online portal or via mail or fax.
• To submit documents online, the representative must register for “Represent a Client”, which assigns the representative a “RepID”. They must then prepare and submit the documents with their RepID and the Deceased’s Social Insurance Number on each document.
• To submit documents via mail or fax, the representative must prepare copies of the documents with the Deceased’s SIN on each document, and then mail or fax the documents to the mailing address or fax number of the Deceased’s tax centre.
• Once the required documents have been submitted and processed, the legal representative will have access to the tax records of the deceased. 

1. Authorizing additional representatives

• Legal representatives may authorize additional representatives to access the tax records of the deceased.
• There are different methods to authorize online and offline access to tax records.
  • Online: Additional representatives can be authorized through either “Represent a Client” or “EFILE”
  • Offline: The legal representative must complete Form AUT-01 and mail or fax it to their tax centre

This summary is not meant to be exhaustive, as the guide itself expands on each of the above tips in much greater detail. Hopefully, if you ever find yourself as a legal representative of someone’s estate, you will now have a better idea of what your job may entail. 

Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your day!

Suzana and James Macfarlane