Section 237 — Income Tax Act: Social Insurance Number

Every individual (other than a trust) who was resident or employed in Canada at any time in a taxation year and who files a return of income under Part I for the year, or in respect of whom an information return is to be made by a person pursuant to a regulation made under paragraph 221(1)(d), shall, on or before the first day of February of the year immediately following the year for which the return of income is filed, or within 15 days after the individual is requested by the person to provide the individual’s Social Insurance Number, apply to the Canada Employment Insurance Commission in prescribed form and manner for the assignment to the individual of a Social Insurance Number unless the individual has previously been assigned, or made application to be assigned, a Social Insurance Number. Every person and partnership shall provide their designated number in any return filed under this Act;

and to another person or partnership at the request of the other person or partnership, if the other person or partnership is required to make an information return pursuant to this Act or the Regulations requiring the designated number. For the purpose of subsection (1.1), designated number , of a person or partnership, means in the case of an individual (other than a trust), their Social Insurance Number; in the case of a trust, its trust account number;

and in any other case, the person’s or partnership’s business number. For the purposes of this Act and the Regulations, a person or partnership required to make an information return requiring a business number, Social Insurance Number or trust account number of another person or partnership shall make a reasonable effort to obtain the number from the other person or partnership; and shall not knowingly use, communicate or allow to be communicated, otherwise than as required or authorized under this Act or a regulation, the number without the written consent of the other person or partnership. A particular person may communicate, or allow to be communicated, a business number, Social Insurance Number or trust account number to another person related to the particular person where the other person is required, by this Act or the Regulations, to make an information return that requires the number. An insurance corporation may communicate, or allow to be communicated, to another person the business number, Social Insurance Number or trust account number of a particular person or partnership if the other person became the holder of a share of the capital stock of the insurance corporation, or of a holding corporation (in this subsection having the meaning assigned by subsection 139.1(1)) in respect of the insurance corporation, on the share’s issuance in connection with the demutualization (as defined by subsection 139.1(1)) of the insurance corporation; the other person became the holder of the share in the other person’s capacity as nominee or agent for the particular person or partnership pursuant to an arrangement established by the insurance corporation or a holding corporation in respect of the insurance corporation; and the other person is required, by this Act or the Regulations, to make an information return, in respect of the disposition of the share or income from the share, that requires the number.