CRA - Other Data Characters
Acceptable Characters for Other Data
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.
Specified fields other than name, contacts and address (e.g., Cities, Company and buisness names, amendment notes) should only contain characters shown in the table below.
| Data 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 |
| * | Asterisk |
| @ | At sign |
| / | Backslash |
| : | Colon |
| \ | Front Slash |
| , | Comma |
| $ | Dollar sign |
| ! | Exlamation mark |
| - | Hyphen |
| ( ) | Left and right parentheses |
| { } | Left and right curly braces |
| [ ] | Left and right Square braces |
| # | Number sign |
| % | Percentage sign |
| . | Period |
| + | Plus sign |
| “ | Quotation mark |
| ? | Question mark |
| ; | Semi-colon |
| Space | |
| | | Vertical bar |
For all XML submissions, CRA will replace any character not shown in the table above with a space.
Below are examples of data contining invalid characters, and how CRA will process them upon submission.
| City/Company Names as Entered/Imported | City/Company Names as Processed by CRA |
|---|---|
| Cañon City | Ca on City |
| Düsseldorf | M ller |
| Sølvgade | S lvgade |
| 360° Solutions | 360 Solutions |
| Acme® Holdings | Acme Holdings |
| Decorative flower ✢ Coop | Decorative flower Coop |
| Hāna Foods Canada | H na Foods Canada |
| Müller Steel Fabrication | M ller Steel Fabrication |
Data will be written to the XML file as they exist within eForms, but the non-standard characters in the data will be replaced with spaces by the CRA. There would be many other possible names that could include an invalid character.
What Should You Do?
By default, AvanTax Filing Services will create and submit XML files which include all characters in your data, even if they are not on the lists above. Prior to uploading your data, you have the choice to either use characters not on the lists above (knowing that CRA will replace them with spaces), or edit your data to replace those characters with suitable alternatives from the list above.
Your employees / recipients may notice that non-standard characters in their names and addresses have been replaced by spaces in their CRA accounts, but all forms created by AvanTax Filing Services will show the data exactly as it exists in the data which we received from you.
What Will CRA Do?
CRA may issue warnings about potentially invalid characters in the XML file, but should allow XML submission to proceed. CRA has confirmed that XML files which include characters not in the lists above will be accepted, but those characters will be replaced by spaces during processing.
Please note that CRA could still reject an XML submission, for validation issues not discussed above.
Other Acceptable Characters
There are other accepted character lists that apply to address, recipient name, and contact name data; click one of the links below for details:
Addresses - Characters accepted by CRA
Recipient Names - Characters accepted by CRA
Contact Names - Characters accepted by CRA\