The mortgage industry has waited years for a workable CRA verification solution, and Newton has now delivered one with a new service that retrieves documents in under 48 hours
On Monday, Dominion Lending Centres–owned technology provider Newton Connectivity Systems will launch VerifyCRA through a designated microsite, with plans to integrate it into the Velocity platform early in the new year. The service will be available to all mortgage brokers, not just those within the DLC network.
Brokers only need to input the client’s first and last name, social insurance number, email address, phone number and line 15000 from their most recent tax return. If that information is correct, they’ll receive two years of the client’s Notice of Assessments, tax slips, income statements, a statement of account and Canada child benefit information in under 48 hours.
“Christmas came early,” says Newton’s Vice President of Broker Experience, Kate Henderson. “You provide that one line 15000, and we can collect all of the documentation from the CRA on your behalf.”
A quick fix to a longstanding problem
CRA document verification is often the slowest and most tedious part of the mortgage application process.
It often requires brokers to ask clients to find, scan and send the right documents manually. If clients do not have those documents readily available, or haven’t already register for an online CRA account, they may need to sign up and wait for a security code to arrive by mail.
Industry stakeholders, including Mortgage Professionals Canada, have been urging the federal government and the CRA to create a direct verification pathway for lenders and brokers. Budget 2024 acknowledged the need and said the CRA would explore potential options, but little has moved forward since. In July, the CRA released findings from its industry consultation confirming broad support for a secure, real-time digital tool, but no timeline for implementation was provided.
“We knew that there was always a bottleneck in the industry in terms of being able to collect CRA documentation,” Henderson says. “The whole process is really time consuming, and we wanted to eliminate the time that it takes and just make it so much easier for the client themselves.”
The manual approach that brokers typically need to take is also less secure, as documents are not being provided directly from their source. “This is really about compliance and anti-fraud, which you have to have your eye on all the time in this industry,” adds Henderson.
How the authorized representative model works
Others have tried to offer a direct way for brokers to access customer CRA documentation over the years, but none have proven sustainable.
Such solutions used what the CRA refers to as “EFILE Authorization,” a pathway that was originally created for accounts filing taxes on behalf of their clients.
Instead, Newton partnered with Fastkey, which accesses customer CRA accounts as an “authorized representative.” That status allows the company to view and download — but not submit or edit — customer documents directly through the CRA.
“They were using a pathway which was never intended for that usage, and eventually the CRA became aware that they had 1,000 representatives on the account but never filed a tax return or did any tax filings,” Fastkey president and co-founder Sam Khajeei told Canadian Mortgage Trends in 2024. “Those parties either had their account status blocked or authority to access the CRA revoked.”
The CRA ultimately ended its EFILE authorization program in July, replacing it with a new “Represent a Client” portal for tax professionals.
“Now, instead of the client logging in and approving a representative, the authorized representative can obtain access by providing one item – line 15000 from their Notice of Assessment — plus client authorization, and retrieve docs on their behalf,” Henderson explains.
Launched in April of 2024, Fastkey previously charged brokers a fee of $19.99 per application, but soon after began a 90-day pilot with Newton, which initially made the tool available to a select group of brokers for free.
A year and a half later, VerifyCRA is now available to all brokers for free, with a temporary limit of 50 requests per day across the platform, with plans to make it available for unlimited use directly through the Velocity platform.
“Although we’re launching this as a micro-site to begin with — which means it’s outside of our velocity platform — the long term-goal is to embed it into the platform itself, so there could be two entry points to the system,” Henderson says. “It could be that there’s a client who’s filling out the online application, and it will just ask the question, ‘do you want us to collect this information on your behalf?’ they click ‘yes,’ and then we’ll send you the authorization form and get it done.”
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Last modified: November 27, 2025
