What is a Business Number?

The Business Number (BN) is a unique number assigned to a company by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Companies use this number to identify themselves when in contact with any federal, provincial or local government program.

The business number consists of two parts - the business number and the program account. The entire number has 15 characters:

Corporate Registry's Role

The Corporate Registry issues Business Numbers automatically through Corporate Online.

For new companies, Corporate Online automatically requests a Business Number from CRA. After the request, CRA generates and sends the new Business Number to the Corporate Registry. Then the registry will notify the company.

For certain other filings, Corporate Online requests the existing Business Number and sends it to CRA.

For assistance or additional information, contact CRA at 1-800-959-5525 from 8:15 am to 8:00 pm, Monday through Friday, excluding statutory holidays or visit their Web site.

Business Number (BN9):
When a BC company is first created CRA assigns it a 9-digit business number (BN9). The business number stays the same for a company no matter how many or what types of program accounts it has.

Program Account (BN15):
When a company registers for its accounts for provincial sales tax or hotel room tax with Ministry of Small Business and Revenue, coverage with Workers' Compensation Board, or GST/HST, corporate income tax, payroll deductions or import/export tax with CRA an additional 6 digits are added to the number. This creates a unique identifier of 15 digits called the program account (BN15).

For example:

Business number issued by CRA (BN9)	123456789
Company incorporated in BC (BN15)	123456789 BC0001
Company applies for PST number with Consumer Taxation Branch (BN15)	123456789 BT0001
Company applies for a 2nd account with Consumer Taxation Branch (hotel tax or PST) (BN15)	123456789 BT0002
Company registers with Workers' Compensation Board (BN15)	123456789 BW0001
Company registers with Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (BN15)	123456789 BB0001

Agencies that use the Business Number include Ministry of Small Business and Revenue (MPR), Workers' Compensation Board (WCB), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Corporate Registry, OneStop Business Registry and Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB).