Changes to Paper Filing Disempowering

Last tax season, only 7% of all Canadian tax filers filed on paper. The CRA is pushing for zero. It continues to steer the holdouts to digitized filing by adding lots of obstacles. Most recently, it is removing almost all the schedules from the tax return package it mails. This seems unfair to people who paper file because they can’t afford a computer and internet, distrust the security of online filing and those who are neither tax or computer literate. Here’s what they are up against:

According to Statistics Canada*in 2016, 4.9% or 289,000 of 4.9 million seniors in Canada were living in poverty. Yet, more than one in ten seniors who are eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) didn't receive it in 2016-17. This is a big concern because, in fact, the number of seniors living in poverty is on the rise. So what’s the problem?

The CRA has been facing extensive scrutiny against their own service standards. Now, in a new initiative they are exploring ways for taxpayers to access their own accounts, protect their privacy, and verify their identity in government offices without the hassle of requiring them to bring multiple forms of identification. In addition, the initiative will make it easier for government agencies, banks and provincial licensing offices to share information with the CRA.

Despite the Bank of Canada’s recent interest rate hold and decreasing mortgage rates, many families are on the brink of being unable to pay all of their bills. This, as new carbon taxes are about to emerge in some of the hardest hit provinces. Early tax filing may help. 

One important change has been introduced that affects payroll processing in 2019: the rate applied to calculate the maximum Employment Insurance (EI) contribution amounts have been reduced, though benefit amounts remain the same.

It’s been a complex year of significant tax change, and our six-city CE Summit Workshop tour gave many tax and financial advisors a comprehensive refresher to prepare for the upcoming tax season.  If you missed it, the 355-page Knowledge Journal can still be purchased. Here’s what our delegates liked best about this sold out event:

Who will inherit the family business?  What will it be worth when time for transition comes? Why is this issue so difficult to discuss? There are many reasons, but demographic change is bringing it to the forefront and for these reasons, planning needs to happen sooner rather than later, according to a new book by Jenifer Bartman and Evelyn Jacks, entitled Defusing the Family Business Time Bomb.