Collection Restrictions

Collection restrictions are the statutory limits on when the Canada Revenue Agency may take certain collection actions against an income-tax debt. For most individual income-tax amounts, the CRA is restricted from taking enforced collection while the assessment is within prescribed periods — for example, while a notice of objection or an appeal is outstanding. These restrictions do not apply uniformly: they are narrower for certain amounts such as source deductions and GST/HST. Whether a collection-restriction period applies on a given file affects what collection steps the CRA is permitted to take at a given time.