Search tips

• How to use Basic search
• How to use Advanced search
  • Sorting Advanced search results
• About the search results
• How to improve your search results
  • Choosing search terms
  • Search in the results displayed below
  • Search in our forms and publications only
  • Capitalization
  • Wildcards/asterisks (*)

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How to use Basic search

In the search box, type one or more terms or a phrase that best describes the information that you are looking for.

If you are only looking for a CRA form or publication, also check the box entitled “Search in our forms and publications only.” When you check this box, the search results will only include links to CRA forms and publications.

When you are finished entering your information on the Search page, press “Enter” or select the Search button.

How to use Advanced search

“Advanced search” offers several options for refining your search and sorting the search results in order to give you more useful results.

By typing one or more terms or a phrase into one of the four search boxes, you can search for pages containing:

• all of these words:
  • Search results will contain at least one occurrence of each of the words you entered.
• the exact phrase:
  • The words you entered will be considered a phrase, and the search results will contain at least one occurrence of that phrase.
• at least one of the words:
  • Search results will contain one or more of the words you entered.
• these words in the title:
  • Search results will contain, in their title, at least one occurrence of each of the words you entered.

If you are only looking for a CRA form or publication, also check the box entitled “Search in our forms and publications only.” When you check this box, the search results will only include links to CRA forms and publications.

Sorting Advanced search results

In Advanced search, you can choose how the search results are sorted by using the " Sort by:" feature. The default is set at "Relevance", but you can change it to sort by “Date” or “Title.” It is possible to further sort results by selecting either “Ascending” or “Descending” from the “Order:” feature. The default is set at “Descending.”

Examples:

If you sort by:

• “Relevance” in “Descending” order; the search results will be displayed in the order of the best match to your search term to the poorest match.
• “Date” in “Descending” order; the search results will be displayed in the order of most recent document to oldest document based on the date displayed in “Last modified.”
• “Title” in “Ascending” order; any search results with a number at the beginning of the title will be displayed first from lowest to highest number, and the remaining search results will then be displayed in alphabetical order from “A” to “Z.”

When you are finished entering all of the information on the Advanced search page, press “Enter” or select the Search button.

About the search results

The search results page lists the most relevant results, to a maximum of 200. If you checked the box entitled “Search in our forms and publications only” on the Search page, the results will only include links to CRA forms and publications. Otherwise, the results may include links to informational Web pages as well as forms and publications.

The following information is displayed for each search result:

• Title: The title of the document is a hyperlink that you can select to access the document.
• Description: Brief description of the information you will find in the document.
• Last modified: The most recent date that the document was changed.
• Page size: The size of the document in kilobytes.

When searching for a popular term or phrase, the CRA search engine may also display a short list of “Suggested links” (a list of hyperlinked titles only) above the other search results. They are considered to be the top choices related to your search term or phrase.

How to improve your search results

Choosing search terms

Choosing the right search term or phrase is the key to finding the information you need. Ask yourself if your term or phrase is specific enough.

Example:

You want information on how to claim automobile expenses. You will get search results that are more relevant when you use the search words automobile expenses, rather than just automobile.

Search in the results displayed below

This feature allows you to refine your search by only searching in the search results.

Simply replace your original search term or phrase with a new term or phrase, or insert additional search terms in the search box. Then check the box entitled "Search in the results displayed below" and press "Enter" or select the Search button.

Search in our forms and publications only

If you check the box entitled “Search in our forms and publications only”, the search engine will search only in the Forms and publications section of our Web site. However, if you do not find the form or publication that you are looking for, you can also visit the Forms and publications section of our Web site and search by different listings.

Capitalization

Searches are not case sensitive. Therefore, doing a search for canada revenue agency will yield the same results as a search for Canada Revenue Agency, CANADA REVENUE AGENCY.

Wildcards/asterisks (*)

You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to find variants of words and form or publication numbers.

Examples:

• A search for instal* will find pages containing installment, installments, instalment, instalments, installation, etc.
• A search for IT513* will find IT513R.