Does Canada Revenue offer 24 hour customer service?
A:Not at this number; hours here are Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm EST.The least busy day is Thursday, and the most busy day is Monday.Schedule a call when the call center is open and when it's convenient for you.
Q:
How long will I wait on hold?
A:The average hold time is 59 minutes.The longest hold times are on Wednesday, and the shortest are on Friday.You can skip the hold time for free.
Toll-free · Mon-Fri 9am-5pm EST · Call this number for questions about GST/HST Credits. Just wait, don't press anything even if asked for a "valid response" · · Free tools available: Talk for me, Skip the wait, Schedule my call
Toll-free · Mon-Fri 9am-5pm EST · Do nothing when prompted for your SS number (twice) and you will get to a human · · Free tools available: Talk for me, Skip the wait, Schedule my call
How do I get through the phone menu to a live person?
Consider using our free service that calls and talks to customer service for you, then sends you a report. Or use our free service that waits on hold and tells you when a human rep is on the line. But if those options don't appeal to you, our team has also documented the phone menu for Canada Revenue below.
Our AI powered phone can dial, navigate the phone menu, wait on hold, and even talk to customer service for you, for free. You don't even need to learn about the path through the various phone options.
That same, free GetHuman Phone can call and navigate the menus and wait on hold for you, but you can opt to do all the talking. We notify you when a rep is on the line and ready to talk, so no need to worry about changing menu options and weaving your way through the maze.
Of course, we completely understand if you prefer to do all the dialing, waiting, and talking yourself. All of these free tools are optional.
GetHuman researchers routinely call this Canada Revenue phone number to document the phone system.
Here is our latest tip for weaving through the phone menu to get to a real person the fastest:Press 1 then * at each prompt.
Below are some clips we've found from Canada Revenue's phone menus and tips that help give an idea of what you will encounter when you call. We've highlighted why they are important as well:
Heard when the phone system first answers
"You for calling the Canada Revenue Agency's individual tax inquiry service.
Please listen carefully to our menu before you make a selection as some of the options have changed.
Please choose one of the following five options.
For online services, including unlocking my account, press one.
For forms or publications, press two."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Wednesday, January 3, 2024 4:49 PM
They may ask for information for security purposes
"Thank you for calling the Canada Revenue Agency's individual tax inquiry service.
For quick answers to general tax or benefit questions?
Our new AI powered chatbot is here to help.
Visit canada dot c a slash c r a dash a I dash bot For your security, do not share personal details like your sin or financial information."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Thursday, July 3, 2025 5:30 PM
They may ask you to enter information with the dial pad
"Thank you for calling the Canada Revenue Agency's individual tax inquiry service.
Please choose one of the following five options.
For online services, including unlocking my account, press one.
For if you are receiving an error message when attempting to log in or register for a CRA online service, please try using a different web browser.
Update your current web browser to its most recent version, or clear your web browser's cache and history.
You can find additional answers to accessing a CRA account and other commonly asked questions on our contact us page at canada dot c a slash c r a help.
If you are still locked out or have unable to recover your username or password, you will need to speak with an agent.
Please have your tax documents ready to validate your identity. If you need help registering for my account, press one.
If you already have a CRA my account and have if you tried to enter your authentication information more than five times and you were not successful, or if you try to enter your CRA security code more than three times and you were not successful, you will not be able to try again and will need to call back to speak to an agent."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Friday, October 25, 2024 11:03 PM
The first phone menu
"Thank
You for calling the Canada Revenue Agency's individual tax inquiry service.
For estates and trusts, to update your personal information or all other If you are receiving an error message when attempting to log in or for a CRA online service, please try using a different web browser.
Choose one of the following five options. For online services, including unlocking my account, press one.
For forms or publications, press two."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Monday, April 21, 2025 6:30 PM
After you press 1
"For registered plans or the tax free savings account, press three.
If you need help registering for my account, press one."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Thursday, April 11, 2024 4:54 PM
After you press 4
"For estates and trusts, to update your personal info if you are not able to meet your tax due to the twenty twenty four wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Northwest Territories, taxpayer relief requests can be made by telephone for the cancellation of penalty and interest.
To repeat this message, press star. Or to return to the main menu, press pound.
For your account balance, how to make a payment, or about misallocated payments, press one.
For your income tax refund, press two."
Excerpt from a call with Canada Revenue
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 5:10 PM
What are the hours and when should I call?
Canada Revenue operates the call center for this 800-959-8281 phone number Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm ET.The short answer is that you should call on a Thursday.This observation and the following section are based on analysis of a sample set of 315 calls made in the last 90 days using our free, web-based phone (see above).
Call when they- and you- are open
When you use our free AI-powered phone to call and talk, wait on hold, or navigate for you, you can also schedule the call with Canada Revenue at a time when they are open and when it works for you. We will confirm you are ready before placing the call, just in case. That means you can "set it and forget it" ahead of time.
An important note: busy times vs hold times vs best time to call
When we refer to busy or less busy times, we are talking about the volume of calls. The busiest times are when the most people are calling this Canada Revenue phone number (least busy times have fewer people calling). This high call volume does not necessarily mean that you will have a long hold time when you call. Companies like Canada Revenue staff their call centers differently based on the time of day and day of the week, so you may experience a shorter wait on hold at the busiest of times. When we refer to the best time to call, we are referring to the optimal combination of lower call volume and shorter wait times.
The least busy time to call
The least busy day to call Canada Revenue is Thursday.The most busy day to call is Monday, which averages 45% more phone calls by comparison.Again, this is based on a sample of 315 calls made with our AI-powered, web-based phone in the last 90 days.
Mon
Busiest
Tue
Wed
Thu
Quietest
Fri
The shortest wait on hold
We measured the shortest hold times to be on Friday.The longest wait in the queue on average occurs on Wednesday.
In summation, the best day to call Canada Revenue is Thursday.This is not the day with the shortest wait on hold in the phone system, but we still recommend it for its ideal combination of low call volume and short hold times. Plus we believe that Canada Revenue staffs the call center well on Thursday.
Calling this number is actually not recommended, as Canada's Revenue Service is currently so overwhelmed that you can't get through at all. The system wastes no time telling you exactly that, as it doesn't even give you a chance to enter personal information before it tells you that because of high call volumes, all representatives are currently busy assisting other customers. It doesn't even give you the option to wait on hold or make an appointment to speak to someone; it instead directs you to call back another time or visit Canada Revenue's website.
If you do choose to hang around, you are given the opportunity to interact with Canada Revenue's automated system. However, you cannot use the automated system to get to a live person; you can only use it to get information about frequently asked questions.
I was able to use the automated system to get a detailed explanation on how to file a tax return in Canada, as well as when I would need to file and how long I should expect things to take. After it provided its explanation, the system offered me several other options if I wanted to continue requesting information. At no point was I asked to request a call or set up a time to talk to someone, confirming that this cannot be used in that manner.
Based on this, I would use this number to get information on basic questions if I couldn't find them online. Otherwise, I wouldn't, as you cannot use it to speak to someone. I appreciate that this number exists, as it gives all users a way to get some questions answered. But for deeper help, you'll need an internet connection.
Jeff truly believes that all customers deserve good service. He’s been building tools, inventing phone tree hacks and helping customers since before his days at GetHuman. He's also a Google GDE and involved in the Angular community.
Why Customers Call Canada Revenue
If you have time to do a bit of reading before you call Canada Revenue, we recommend you read over some of our problem-specific articles.
Click the link above to get answers to just about any Canada Revenue customer service question, including step by step guides for the most complex issues. You can also detail a new issue and get answers instantly.
Below is a sample of recent calls to Canada Revenue, and their purpose. Are any of these similar to the reason you are trying to call?
Change contact information: "I want to change my phone number."
- From a call lasting 52m 42s , Jul 3, 2025 7:46 PM
Tax refund inquiry: "I'm calling because I have some questions about my tax refund."
- From a call lasting 6m 57s , Jun 23, 2025 4:32 PM
Information about why customers call Canada Revenue is extracted from issues that customers have reported to GetHuman.
As a last, sometimes only, resort- Canada Revenue customer service can be accessed through their website. This can entail digging through help articles before finding a form and "being allowed" to submit a problem to their team, and rarely leads to a real-time conversation, which is why GetHuman does not recommend this unless it's the only way.
Conclusion and closing notes
This is Canada Revenue's best phone number, the real-time current wait on hold and tools for skipping right through those phone lines to get right to a Canada Revenue agent. This phone number is Canada Revenue's best phone number because 1,128 customers like you used this contact information over the last 18 months and gave us feedback. Common problems addressed by the customer care unit that answers calls to 800-959-8281 include Track a Refund, Request a Statement, Setup Payment Arrangement, Account Access, Ask For Tax Help and other customer service issues. Rather than trying to call Canada Revenue first, consider describing your issue first; from that we may be able to recommend an optimal way to contact them via phone or web. In total, Canada Revenue has 6 phone numbers. It's not always clear what is the best way to talk to Canada Revenue representatives, so we started compiling this information built from suggestions from the customer community. Please keep sharing your experiences so we can continue to improve this free resource.
GetHuman does not provide call center services or customer support operations for Canada Revenue. The two organizations are not related. GetHuman builds free tools and shares information to help customers of companies like Canada Revenue. For large companies that includes tools such as our GetHuman Phone, which allows you to call a company but skip the part where you wait on the line to get a live human rep. We continue to work on these tools to help customers like you (and ourselves!) navigate the messy phone menus, hold times, and confusion with customer service. As long as you keep sharing it with your friends and loved ones, we'll keep doing it.
