What does it mean when CRA sends a Notice of Confirmation?
A Notice of Confirmation is CRA's formal response to your Notice of Objection when the Appeals Officer has reviewed the matter and decided to uphold the original assessment without any changes. In plain terms, it means CRA is standing firm — it believes the assessment was correct.
Receiving a Notice of Confirmation is not the end of the road. It is the trigger for the next step: appealing to the Tax Court of Canada. You have 90 days from the date on the Notice of Confirmation to file a Notice of Appeal with the Tax Court. If you let that deadline pass without filing, the assessment becomes final and cannot be challenged further.
Before deciding whether to appeal to Tax Court, assess your case honestly with professional help. Tax Court litigation is more formal, time-consuming, and expensive than the objection process. If your case has strong legal merit and the amount at stake justifies the effort, proceeding makes sense. If the issue is one of missing documentation that you cannot now produce, the outcome at Tax Court may not be different. Having a tax lawyer assess the strength of your appeal after receiving a Notice of Confirmation is a valuable step before committing to litigation.
Key takeaways
- A Notice of Confirmation means CRA upheld the assessment after your objection — it disagrees with you.
- You have 90 days from the Notice of Confirmation to file an appeal to the Tax Court of Canada.
- Missing the 90-day Tax Court filing deadline makes the assessment final.
- Get a professional assessment of your case's merits before committing to Tax Court.