eForms News

For several weeks we have helped you to deal with multiple issues introduced by recent changes to CRA's XML submission site. During this time, we have also repeatedly asked CRA for an extension to their filing deadline to make up for the delays caused by these changes.

Today, we are happy to report that CRA has extended the submission deadline from February 28, 2025 to March 7, 2025 for all returns having a submission deadline of February 28, 2025.

On January 15, 2025, CRA's updated XML submission site went live. Since that date, many clients have contacted us to report various issues when submitting their XML files to CRA. These issues concern the CRA and cannot be resolved by updating eForms, we list them here to make you aware of some problems you may run into:

♦ Previous year's XML submissions to CRA will be rejected unless they are in the 2024 XML format.

♦ Transmitter names with an ampersand may be rejected for including an invalid character.

♦ The CRA XML schema allows the Transmitter Account Number in Transmitter Setup to be a BN9, BN15, NR4 or Trust account number, and the CRA submission site requires that this number match the log in account number. Since the CRA site accepts BN15 only, log in will fail if Transmitter Setup includes a BN9, NR4 or Trust account number.

♦ The CRA XML schema allows the option of using a Transmitter Account Number or a RepID Number in Transmitter Setup. Log in will fail if the Transmitter Account Number is blank.

♦ Several clients have informed us that CRA XML submissions will be rejected if they contain abbreviated numbered street names, such as '17th Ave.'.

♦ The CRA XML submission site allows XML uploads to be continued, despite receiving pre-processing validation notices.

1 - We have updated eForms to include the new version of the T2200 form which was recently released by CRA. Since this form was introduced on Jan 21, 2025, we added the new form along side of the previous version. Users of eForms can continue to use the previous form, or prepare their T2200 forms using the updated version. To distinguish between the two forms, the original one is called T2200 and the updated one is called T2200REV25.

The older and newer versions of the T2200 are similar, but have enough differences to make an automated conversion between the two impossible.

2 - We've updated the messages displayed while sending recipient slips via email. It will now include a status message showing the progress of the emails being sent.

3 - eForms users who file Partnership Information Slips (T5013) will want to update to the current version. We corrected a minor issue with the XML file preparation. We recommend that you update eForms before submitting your T5013 slips to CRA by XML.

We have created a utility to help you update previous year XML files to the 2024 format.

It has come to our attention that the CRA XML submission site fails to validate XML submissions when the filer name (transmitter name) contains the "&" character. Until such time as CRA resolves this issue, you can prevent the error by opening the Transmitter Setup dialog in eForms, and replacing "&" with "and" in the "Name line 1" field under "Transmitter Information". You will need to do this once for each eForms user who generates XML files for submission to CRA.

Additionally, due to changes made by CRA to the XML submission process, CRA now requires that XML submissions for previous years must include the 2024 version of the T619 record. We are working with CRA to minimize the impact of this requirement, and will post further details here as they become available.

And finally, the XML submission site which was used to upload XML submissions in the past has been deactivated. We have updated eForms accordingly, and CRA has (on our suggestion) updated the deactivated page to redirect filers to the new XML submission site by clicking the "Internet file transfer application - Disclaimer" link, as shown in the image below.

This release corrects an issue on the User Administration screen where an error message would appear when the "Copy User" function is used.