CRA online tax services available again after 2 day shutdown

The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) digital tax services became available again late Sunday afternoon after being offline for over 48 hours.

“Individuals, businesses and representatives are now able to file returns, make payments, and access other digital services available through the CRA’s website, including all our secure portals,” CRA spokesperson Patrick Samson said in a statement.

The agency had shut down some services Friday at around 2 p.m. ET after discovering a potential security risk. The services remained down until 5 p.m. ET Sunday.

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“The CRA takes the protection of Canadians’ tax information very seriously. Upon becoming aware of an internet vulnerability that affected some computer servers used by websites worldwide, the CRA acted quickly to temporarily take down our online services, including electronic filing,” Samson said.

While the CRA did shut down some services, Samson noted there was never a successful hack of their systems.

“We took this action as a precaution, not as the result of a successful hack or breach.”

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Among the services affected by the decision were: My Account, My Business Account, Represent a Client, the MyCRA mobile application, the MyBenefits mobile application, Netfile, EFILE and Auto-Fill My Return.

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Samson also said previously filed tax returns were still being looked at during the disruption.

“Tax returns filed have continued to be processed normally throughout the digital service interruption,” Samson said. “Canadians should not expect a delay in getting their refund.”