CRA - Recipient Name Characters
Acceptable Recipient Name Characters
CRA has clarified their restrictions on the characters (letters/numbers/symbols) that will be accepted in electronic submission (XML) files for a number of types of data fields. These restrictions apply to names, addresses and other data fields.
Recipient names (e.g., Surname or First Name) should only contain the characters shown in the table below.
| Recipient Name Characters Accepted by CRA | Description |
|---|---|
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Upper Case Characters |
| a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z | Lower Case Characters |
| 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | Numeric Characters |
| à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù | Lower Case French Characters |
| À Â Ç É È Ê Ë Î Ï Ô Û Ù | Upper Case French Characters |
| ’ | Apostrophe |
| & | Ampersand |
| - | Hyphen |
| . | Period |
| Space |
For all XML submissions, CRA will replace any character not shown in the table above with a space.
Below are examples of recipient names contining invalid characters, and how CRA will process them upon submission.
| Recipient Name as Entered/Imported | Recipient Name as Processed by CRA |
|---|---|
| García-Muñoz | Garc a-Mu oz |
| Müller | M ller |
| VÁZQUEZ | V ZQUEZ |
Recipient names will be written to the XML file as they exist within eForms, but the non-standard characters in the recipient names will be replaced with spaces by the CRA. There would be many other possible names that could include an invalid character.
What Will eForms Do?
AvanTax eForms will warn the user when it encounters characters that do not follow CRA’s guidelines as data is imported, and as XML files are generated, but will allow you to proceed without making any changes to your data.
eForms will automatically replace any non-standard quote or hyphen character with a CRA accepted character during XML creation; for example, eForms will replace an EM-Dash (long hyphen) with a standard hyphen. This preserves readability while ensuring compliance with the allowed character rules. However, any other character not on the accepted characters list above will prompt eForms to give you a warning, but will write the data to the XML file as it has been entered if you proceed.
What Should You Do?
The user has the choice of submitting the data as it exists, or manually re-writing the address only using valid characters. CRA may issue warnings about potentially invalid characters, but will usually allow you to proceed with the submission anyway. Even so, be aware that CRA may still reject the submission, at their discretion.
Other Acceptable Characters
There are other accepted character lists that apply to address, contact name, and other data; click one of the links below for details:
Addresses - Characters accepted by CRA
Contact Names - Characters accepted by CRA
Other Data - Characters accepted by CRA