Section 1 – Contact Information.  Whose Notice is this? Be sure contact information is correct, not only to enable payment of the tax refund, if any, but also to make sure the right taxpayer receives access to the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and other social benefits that arise throughout the year.

Section 2 – Notice Details. Check the accuracy of the Social Insurance Number and the tax years to which the Notice refers. Then mark the date of the Notice; this determines your appeal rights should you disagree with anything in the Notice. In general, taxpayers have 90 days in which to respond to the Notice if they disagree with anything in it. The rules are as follows for individuals or testamentary trusts:

• If a formal Notice of Objection is filed, file by the later of 90 days after the date on the Notice of Assessment or one year after the filing due date.
• In all other cases, including appeals to the Tax Court of Canada, the deadline is 90 days after the date on the Notice of Assessment. This includes the assessment of taxes due to over-contributions to a RRSP or TFSA.  In some cases, hardships will be considered in granting extensions, but not beyond the one-year period.
• Payment of amounts in dispute is not required until a settlement is determined; however, interest will continue to accrue.

Section 3 – Notice of Assessment Key Information. In this section you will see the confirmation of your balance due or refund, and whether it has been deposited directly to your bank account.

Section 4 – Account Summary. This important section repeats whether you have a refund or balance due and also explains itemized changes to the tax return. However, note that because a single Notice of Assessment will now be issued for all the years assessed or reassessed together, the information (possibly covering several tax years on the same form) must be deciphered and applied to the taxpayer’s best benefit over the entire period. This is a change over assessment practices in previous years.

You will also find details about your RRSP deduction limit and contribution room, and Home Buyers’ Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan Statements here. Taxpayers who have missed filing a tax return in the past will have understated their RRSP contribution room if they had earned income in those years. These omitted returns should be caught up as soon as possible and you can go back as far as ten years to do so (that is, back to 2006).

Evelyn Jacks is a best-selling Canadian author of 52 books including her latest, Family Tax Essentials. Evelyn is the Founder and President of Knowledge Bureau, a national educational institute. To learn more about professional tax preparation and tax-efficient wealth management, see www.knowledgebureau.com.

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