Tax Changes for 2015

The new tax forms were available as of January 7 and CRA has recently posted a partial list of new tax and benefit changes and online services for the 2015 tax filing season, encouraging people to file online and use their online services.

Some noteworthy details: 

• GST/HST credit - Taxpayers no longer apply for GST/HST credit on the tax return.  Rather, CRA will advise those who are eligible what they will receive. Tax professionals will be wise to continue to inform clients of the calculators for planning purposes, something that can be printed and discussed from software applications.  In the case of couples, the credit will be paid to the person whose return is assessed first. There may be some interesting races to the tax pro office this year, as a result!

• Online mail – Taxpayers will be invited to provide the CRA with an email address on the T1 return or register directly online starting February 2015 at www.cra.gc.ca/myaccount to get online mail from the CRA.  The Government of Canada is also switching to direct deposit for all payments that it issues.

• Mobile application – In February 2015, the CRA will be launching a mobile app for individual taxpayers.

Other significant changes include

• Adoption expenses - The maximum amount of eligible expenses for each child increased to $15,255.

• Medical expenses -  New eligible amounts:  salary paid for designing personalized therapy plans for persons eligible to claim the disability tax credit and costs for service animals used to help manage severe diabetes.

Tax provisions for advisors and clients to discuss include several recent federal government proposals. See Evelyn Jack's new blog post, entitled "Happy New Year:  2015 is Brimming with Generous Tax Preferences" for a comprehensive review of what families can expect in terms of new tax cuts and incentives.