Canadian · Validation
Business Number validator.
Check the shape of a CRA Business Number and look up what its program identifier (RT, RP, RC, RM, RR, RZ) actually means — including registered charities and non-profits.
Important, up front: unlike a SIN or a VIN, the CRA has never published a check-digit algorithm for the 9-digit Business Number itself. It is an assigned identifier, not a self-checking one. This tool validates shape and looks up the program identifier — it cannot confirm a number was ever actually issued.
Inputs
Result
Enter a Business Number and press Check.
How the Business Number is structured
Every business the CRA deals with gets one 9-digit Business Number (BN). Registering for a specific program — GST/HST, payroll, corporate tax, and so on — adds a 2-letter program identifier and a 4-digit reference number to that same root, giving the full 15-character BN you see on a Notice of Assessment or a GST/HST account (for example 123456789 RT 0001).
| Code | Program |
|---|---|
| RT | GST/HST |
| RP | Payroll deductions |
| RC | Corporation income tax |
| RM | Import/export |
| RR | Registered charity (also covers most registered non-profits seeking charitable status) |
| RZ | Information returns (e.g. T5, T5013, T5018) |
CRA is known to use a few additional, less common identifiers (for example RD for excise duty). Those are deliberately left out of the table above rather than guessed at, since they could not be independently confirmed against a primary CRA page this session — this tool reports an unrecognized code as "not in our reference list," never as invalid.
No checksum exists on the BN itself
A Social Insurance Number and a VIN both carry a real, published check digit that lets you catch a typo mathematically. The CRA Business Number does not: it is simply an assigned 9-digit number with no self-check built in. That means this tool can tell you a BN is the right shape, and what a program identifier means, but it cannot tell you whether a specific 9-digit root was ever actually issued to a real business — only the CRA Business Registration Online service or a direct CRA enquiry can do that.
Format check only — not a CRA lookup
This tool checks shape and looks up program-identifier meanings entirely in your browser. It does not query the CRA, and a shape-valid result is not proof the number was ever issued. Nothing you type is transmitted, stored, or logged.