What is a Notice of Assessment?

A Notice of Assessment or simply a NOA is a statement given by the tax authority to the taxpayers to notify them of the amount of taxes they owe, the amount of tax already paid or tax credits which the tax payers received, and the contributions made to a Registered Retirement Saving Plan. If the tax payer has any refunds pending, the tax authority will usually include a cheque for the refund with Notice of Assessment.

Notice of Assessment is not just released randomly. Most of the time, the taxpayer will be required to file their tax returns after which the returns will be reviewed by the tax authority. After the review of the filed returns, the authority will provide a summary of the deductions, incomes, taxes previously paid, taxes owed, credit etc in the NOA. The Notice of Assessment is usually a two paged document and it also bears the name of the tax payer, the tax year, the tax center and the taxpayer insurance number.

When referring to mortgages, the Notice of Assessment is a document needed by lenders and their underwriters for the purposes of verifying the tax status of the borrower, especially in instances where the individual is self employed. For this purpose, the Notice of Assessment is not only useful in verifying the borrower’s income levels, but also in checking if the borrower might be having any outstanding tax liabilities.

Most of the lending institutions will demand that borrowers submit the Notice of Assessment document together with others for verifying the incomes within two weeks of the closing. If the NOA is not provided in good time, there could be delays or even rejection of the borrower’s mortgage application.

Notice of Assessment is always a routine correspondence from the tax authority to the taxpayer. There are cases when some people misplace the NOA or they realize that they don’t have it when they want to use it. When the NOA is misplaced or discarded, there is no need to panic since you can always obtain a duplicate copy from the tax authorities. Alternatively, you can simply log in into your account and view and print the NOA not just for this year, but for a couple of the past few years.

If you still need an NOA or you have difficulties in obtaining a copy, you can always talk to your assessors or call your nearest tax office for immediate assistance.