Tips on Using the E-Filing System

Annual Banking Report

With the appropriate software, Licensed Insolvency Trustees (LITs) are now able to send the Annual Banking Report (Schedule 2) via the E-Filing system.

To upload an Annual Banking Report (ABR), select the link located in the bottom left hand corner on the e-filing welcome page. The process to upload a file is the same as for any other prescribed form. Don’t forget to record the reference number.

Automatic Letter of Comment vs. Bankrupt Discharge Information / Certificate of full performance

For an automatic letter of comment to be produced, the bankrupt's discharge information or the Certificate of full performance should have been submitted to the e-filing system before the SRD submission. LITs or proposal administrators should take into consideration that if the information is sent electronically (i.e. in xml), it should be sent at least the day before. If the information is sent in softcopy format or faxed to the Division Office, it may take a few days before the information is entered in the system.

Consumer Proposal and Report of administrator on consumer proposal (Forms 47 and 48) as softcopy

To provide proposal administrators with more flexibility, the e-filing system allows you to send the Consumer Proposal (Form 47) and the Report of administrator on consumer proposal (Form 48) as softcopy documents at the initial filing stage, even though they are prescribed forms. This allows administrators to create the proposal or report with applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel or Corel WordPerfect.

How does it work? At initial filing, if the insolvency software only send the following prescribed forms: Form 1, EIS, Assessment certificate, and Forms 65 and 79, in XML format, the e-filing system will notice that the Forms 47 and 48 are missing, and will prompt the user to file them in softcopy format. As various insolvency software may work differently, if users encounter any difficulty with this feature they may want to contact the e-filing help desk by email at ic.osbefilinghelpdesk-servicedepannagedepotelectroniquebsf.ic@canada.ca or call them at 1-877-227-3672 between 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday to Friday.

Correcting information about a previous bankruptcy

If you've told the e-filing system that a debtor has never been bankrupt or submitted a proposal before and find out later that this is not true, you need to: 

  1. correct the EIS and Form 79 and re-file them; and
  2. contact the Official Receiver to let them know why you've re-filed these forms. The alert to the OSB could be used to provide the explanation.

Deceased debtors—Name

In the case of a deceased debtor, be sure to add "The Estate of the Late" before the debtor's first name, e.g.

Last name: Smith
First name: The estate of the late John

EIS—Division II Proposals

When filing the EIS, please complete the item D) in section V of the EIS if the following situations occur: (1) the terms of a Division II proposal are undetermined (e.g.: a combination of an undetermined number of months or payments, or a undetermined lump sum, that will result in an undefined amount), or (2) the proposal includes non-monetary terms.

Foreign address

Do not type your address and the mention "in care of" on the EIS when the debtor resides outside of Canada. The address for a non-Canadian debtor should be entered as follows:

Enter \\ or – – in the "Province" field.
Enter the debtor's full address (City, Province, Country) in the "City" Field or "Street".
Enter the LIT's postal code in the "Postal Code" field.

Notice of request for mediation and Monthly income and expenses (Forms 60 and 65)

A Notice of request for mediation (Form 60) must be e-filed with a Monthly income and expenses statement of the bankrupt and the family unit (Form 65). Your software should allow you to submit those forms in one xml file.

Outages

To reduce inconvenience as much as possible, OSB informs LITs and administrators, (by e-mail), of any planned outages occurring during working hours.

Planned outages will continue to be posted in the "What's New" section of the OSB Web site (go to www.osb-bsf.gc.ca and click "What's New" on the menu bar at the top of the screen).

Statement of Affairs (Form 79)—Asset values

Directive 8R3 states in section 7, "a numerical value of $1 is to be used to indicate an unknown asset dollar value, where a 'best estimate' cannot be provided." If a Statement of Affairs which lists assets of $0 value is submitted to the e-filing system, the submission will be returned.

Please note that the system accepts Statements of Affairs listing assets with net realizable value of $0. For example, a Statement of Affairs with a leased vehicle of asset value $18,000 and net realizable value of $0 would be accepted by the e-filing system.

Statement of Affairs (Form 79)—Multiple employers and occupations

If the debtor has more than one job, enter all of the debtor's employers in the same field, separated by commas.

Do the same in the occupation field if the debtor has more than one occupation.

Statement of Affairs (Form 79)—Unknown and exempt

Don't enter "unknown" or "exempt" in any field that asks for a $ value on these forms. The e-filing system won't accept them.

Substituting LITs or proposal administrators

New trustee/administrator—Before you can e-file, you need to inform the Official Receiver that you are now the responsible trustee/administrator so that the e-filing system will recognize you.

Former trustee/administrator—After substitution, you won't have access to the electronic estate file. You can file only paper documents to the estate.

Summary Administrations—Joint filing

The following forms must be submitted as softcopy documents in a joint filing if one of the debtors has been bankrupt on a previous occasion:

  • Notice of Impending Automatic Discharge of Bankrupt (form 68)
  • Notice of Bankruptcy and of Impending Automatic Discharge of Bankrupt, and Request of a First Meeting of Creditors (form 69)
  • Notice of bankruptcy and request of a first meeting of creditors (form 70)
  • Certificate of discharge (form 84)