Who has to register
For purposes of the fuel charge, you may be required or permitted to register with the CRA under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.
The fuel charge began to apply April 1, 2019 in certain provinces and territories. The Government of Canada made regulations and published them in Part II of the Canada Gazette on August 21, 2019. The Regulations implemented the fuel charge in Alberta effective January 1, 2020.
Persons that have business activities in a listed province (Alberta, Manitoba, Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan, or Yukon), such as producers, distributors, importers, emitters, certain users of fuel, or combustible waste, as well as persons that are air, marine, rail, or road carriers, may have to register for one or more of the following types of registration:
- distributor
- importer
- emitter
- user of fuel
- user of combustible waste
- air carrier
- specified air carrier
- marine carrier
- specified marine carrier
- rail carrier
- specified rail carrier
- road carrier
To find out if you are required or permitted to register, see Fuel Charge Notice FCN1, Registration Under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Should you have technical enquiries with respect to the application of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, contact one of the regional excise offices at Contact Information – Excise Duties, Excise Taxes, Fuel Charge and Air Travellers Security Charge.
When to register
You can submit your fuel charge registration forms electronically or by mail.
If your registration is mandatory:
- you were required to register before April 1, 2019 if your business activities are in Manitoba, New BrunswickFootnote1 , Ontario, or Saskatchewan
- you were required to register before July 1, 2019 if your business activities are in Nunavut, or Yukon
- you were required to register before January 1, 2020 if your business activities are in Alberta
If you are a new business with activities in one of the listed provinces and registration is mandatory, you must register immediately.
For more information, see New registrants.
If your registration is voluntary, you may register at any time.
The processing of your application may take up to 30 calendar days from the date we receive it.
New registrants
If you are a new registrant with the fuel charge program and do not have a fuel charge account number, follow the instructions on How to register to complete your registration.
Registered emitter
If you are registered as an emitter under Part 1 of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act for certain covered facilities, and you wish to register additional facilities covered under either a provincial program, or under the opt-in program with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and you wish to register those facilities under the CRA’s fuel charge program, you will need to fill out Form L400, Fuel Charge Registration and file it with the related schedule for emitters. A separate registration letter with a new registration account will be provided, which can be used to complete your exemption certificate for those newly registered facilities.
You will be required to provide a new exemption certificate for this new registration to cover newly added facilities. The Fuel Charge Registry tool found in My Business Account can be used to confirm the status and registration type of a fuel charge account. For more information on exemption certificates, see Fuel charge relief.
Filing separate returns
If you are already registered for the fuel charge program and want to report your fuel charge activities by branch or division, you may do so by submitting a separate Form L400, Fuel Charge Registration, to identify each branch or division along with Form L400-1, Fuel Charge Registration Schedule, or Form L400-2, Fuel Charge Registration Schedule – Road Carrier, or both, depending on the type of registration for which you are applying.
See Fuel Charge Notice FCN1, Registration Under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, for more information.
Consequence of not registering on time
If you fail to register, when required, by the due date, you are liable to pay a penalty of $2,000.
How to register
To register for the fuel charge program, use Form L400, Fuel Charge Registration.
If you have activities in more than one listed province, only one registration application is needed.
To indicate your registration type(s) and the type(s) of fuel that you use, transfer, deliver, divert, bring into, import in, or produce, and any combustible waste burned in each listed province, attach Form L400-1, Fuel Charge Registration Schedule to your L400, Fuel Charge Registration.
If you are required to register as a road carrier, attach Form L400-2, Fuel Charge Registration Schedule – Road Carrier to your L400, Fuel Charge Registration.
If you are a non-resident that keeps records outside Canada, attach Form L400-3 Non-Resident – Records kept outside Canada to your L400, Fuel Charge Registration.
If you are a non-resident and are required to register for the fuel charge, see Fuel charge information for non-resident applicants.
The processing of the fuel charge registration may be delayed in the case of missing or incomplete information.
Registration forms can be submitted electronically using the “Submit documents” function in My Business Account. If you submit your registration electronically, you will be provided with the confirmation number of your submission. This confirmation number should be retained for follow up on the status of your application if required.
You can also send your completed forms by mail to the following address:
Sudbury Tax Centre
Fuel Charge Program
Post Office Box 20000, Station A
Sudbury ON P3A 5C1
After you submit your application
When your registration is processed, the CRA will advise you of your registration number and effective date of registration. You may also login to My Business Account to view the registration information and this will allow you to view your registration confirmation letter.