Income Tax Act

Marginal note:Social Insurance Number

• 237 (1) Every individual (other than a trust) who was resident or employed in Canada at any time in a taxation year and who files a return of income under Part I for the year, or in respect of whom an information return is to be made by a person pursuant to a regulation made under paragraph 221(1)(d), shall,

  • (a) on or before the first day of February of the year immediately following the year for which the return of income is filed, or

  • (b) within 15 days after the individual is requested by the person to provide his Social Insurance Number,

  apply to the Minister of Human Resources Development in prescribed form and manner for the assignment to the individual of a Social Insurance Number unless the individual has previously been assigned, or made application to be assigned, a Social Insurance Number.

• Marginal note:Production of number

  (1.1) Every person and partnership shall provide

  • (a) in the case of an individual (other than a trust), the individual’s Social Insurance Number, and

  • (b) in any other case, the person’s or partnership’s business number

  in any return filed under this Act or, at the request of any person required to make an information return pursuant to this Act or the regulations requiring either number, to that person.

• Marginal note:Number required in information returns

  (2) For the purposes of this Act and the regulations, a person required to make an information return requiring a Social Insurance Number or a business number of a person or partnership

  • (a) shall make a reasonable effort to obtain the number from the person or partnership; and

  • (b) shall not knowingly use, communicate or allow to be communicated, otherwise than as required or authorized under this Act or a regulation, the number without the written consent of the person or partnership.

• Marginal note:Authority to communicate number

  (3) A particular person may communicate, or allow to be communicated, a Social Insurance Number or business number to another person related to the particular person where the other person is required, by this Act or the Regulations, to make an information return that requires the Social Insurance Number or business number.

• Marginal note:Authority to communicate number

  (4) An insurance corporation may communicate, or allow to be communicated, to another person the Social Insurance Number or business number of a particular person or partnership where

  • (a) the other person became the holder of a share of the capital stock of the insurance corporation, or of a holding corporation (in this subsection having the meaning assigned by subsection 139.1(1)) in respect of the insurance corporation, on the share’s issuance in connection with the demutualization (as defined by subsection 139.1(1)) of the insurance corporation;

  • (b) the other person became the holder of the share in the other person’s capacity as nominee or agent for the particular person or partnership pursuant to an arrangement established by the insurance corporation or a holding corporation in respect of the insurance corporation; and

  • (c) the other person is required, by this Act or the Regulations, to make an information return, in respect of the disposition of the share or income from the share, that requires the Social Insurance Number or business number.