The Canada Revenue Agency is the federal department that administers tax law and several social-benefit programs across Canada. For an individual, it's the entity you file your annual return with (the T1) and the one that issues your refund (or asks you to pay if you owed).
What the CRA tracks for you: - Your TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, and RESP contribution room. Always check the CRA's number, not your bank's — they're rarely wrong, and over-contributions attract monthly penalties. - Notice of Assessment (NOA) each year, summarizing what you reported, what they accepted, and any reassessment. - Your tax-deductible carryforwards — unused RRSP deduction room, capital losses, etc.
CRA My Account: the most useful online portal in Canadian personal finance. Set it up at canada.ca/my-account using your bank's sign-in service. Once in, you can see contribution room, prior NOAs, T-slips (T4, T5, T3), and request adjustments. Most disputes are resolved through messages here, not phone calls.
T-slips: forms employers and financial institutions send you each February summarizing your income for the prior year. T4 = employment income, T4A = pension or self-employment, T5 = investment income, T3 = trust/mutual-fund income, T2202 = tuition. They are also sent to the CRA, who pre-fills your return — but verifying them is your responsibility.
Filing deadline: April 30 (or June 15 if you or your spouse have self-employment income, though any balance owing is still due April 30).
For Kinly users: when we eventually integrate with the CRA's read-only APIs (target: Phase 3+), Kinly will be able to pull your contribution room automatically. Until then, you enter the numbers in Settings → Contributions by hand once a year.