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:Anything But Simple: Morneau’s Income Sprinkling Rules Start January 1
It’s official, family income sprinkling rules will take effect January 1, 2018, and, unless a family member can show active participation under still-complicated reasonableness tests, distributions of income from private family businesses will be taxed at top tax rates, with none of the progressivity in tax rates available to individuals. This will require an immediate rethinking of resources available to the economic unit known as the family business.
