Your tax refund: when it comes and why it might be smaller

When the CRA processes your return, it sends a notice of assessment with one of three results: a refund, an amount you owe, or a nil balance. If it’s a refund, here’s when to expect it, how to follow it, and why it might not match what your software showed.

How long it takes

The CRA’s service standards set these goals for returns filed on time:

• Filed online: a notice of assessment within two weeks of receiving your return.
• Filed on paper: within 12 weeks.

Any refund usually follows the same timeline as the notice. It arrives by direct deposit, or as a cheque mailed separately to your address on file. Non-resident returns can take up to 16 weeks.

The standards don’t cover returns filed late, several years’ returns filed together, or returns for someone who died, went bankrupt or left Canada. For late returns, the CRA says it makes every effort to process them in a timely way. Any return can take longer if the CRA selects it for a closer review or asks you for more information.

Get it by direct deposit

Direct deposit gets refunds and benefit payments to you faster, and securely. You need an account at a Canadian bank or credit union; otherwise the CRA mails a cheque.

• Online: in your CRA account, go to your profile and edit the direct deposit section, or sign up through your bank’s or credit union’s website. Either way, the CRA says your details are updated the next business day.
• By mail: the enrolment form can take up to three months or longer.
• Not by phone: the CRA no longer takes direct deposit sign-ups or changes over the phone.

Set it up before you file, because tax software can’t change your banking details. If you switch banks, keep the old account open until the first payment lands in the new one.

Track it

In your CRA account, the progress tracker shows your return’s status: received, in progress, then assessed. Once it’s assessed, your notice of assessment appears in the account, usually right away. If you’ve given the CRA your email address, you’ll get an email when there’s new mail in your account.

The two-week and 12-week times above are goals for issuing the assessment. Separately, the CRA’s refunds page asks you to wait before contacting it about your refund status: 12 weeks if you live in Canada, or 16 weeks if you live outside Canada. Until then, check the progress tracker. When you do call, the CRA’s automated line is 1-800-959-8281 (choose option 4). Have your social insurance number, full name, date of birth, complete address, and the total income amount (line 15000) from your most recent notice of assessment ready.

Why it might be smaller than you expected

The CRA changed your return. Your notice of assessment summarizes the amounts it used, and if it made corrections, an “explanation of changes” section says what changed and why. These are based on what you sent and what the CRA has on file. Compare the summary with what you entered. If something is wrong, see changing your return.

It went to pay a debt. The CRA can keep all or part of a refund if you have:

• an amount owing, including one that’s pending,
• a garnishment order under the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act,
• certain other federal, provincial or territorial debts, such as student loans, EI or social assistance overpayments, immigration loans, or training allowance overpayments,
• GST/HST returns you haven’t filed for a sole proprietorship or partnership.

If your refund went to a debt, you should get a letter or notice naming the program you owe and a phone number to call. Questions about the debt go to that program. It doesn’t work the other way, though: you can’t ask the CRA to transfer your refund to pay another person’s amount owing.

It’s tiny. The CRA doesn’t pay refunds of $2 or less.

Interest on refunds

In some cases, the CRA pays compound daily interest on a refund. For a 2025 refund, interest starts on the latest of:

• 30 days after the balance due date,
• 30 days after you filed, or
• the day you overpaid.

So filing late also pushes back when interest can start. The rate is the CRA’s prescribed rate for non-corporate overpayments, which it sets for each calendar quarter.

Putting it toward next year’s instalments

If you pay tax by instalments, you can have your refund moved to your 2026 instalment account instead. Choose that option when you file electronically, or attach a note to a paper return. The CRA applies the whole refund on the date your return is assessed.

No refund this year?

A notice that says “Balance: Nil” means you don’t get anything back and don’t owe anything. If you owe, see owing the CRA.

If you forgot to claim something, you can ask for a change and may get money back later. Online changes in your CRA account can go back 10 calendar years, and the CRA can’t issue a refund for a change requested more than 10 calendar years after the end of the tax year. See changing your return.

Quebec residents

Your Quebec return goes to Revenu Québec, not the CRA, so the timelines and tracking described here are for your federal return only.

What to do

• Set up direct deposit before you file.
• Check the progress tracker in your CRA account instead of calling early.
• Read your notice of assessment, especially any explanation of changes.
• If part of your refund went to a debt, call the program named in the letter.