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:

R&D Pro-Innovation Inc. v The Queen (2015 TCC 186)

Knowledge Bureau and Manulife Investments, title sponsor of the Distinguished Advisor Conference and co-sponsor of the DAC Young Advisors Award, were delighted to announce last week the inaugural winners of this prestigious award. 

Technology has made the obvious possible: In most cases, the CRA already knows what your income is, because they have a copy of your information slips from employers and financial institutions. Now, starting in 2016, for the 2015 tax filing year, CRA is introducing the “Auto-fill my return” function.

Death is never timely, yet it comes to at least one per cent of the population each year. Advisors need to be able to help their clients minimize the income tax consequences before the event occurs. 

What does it take to be a Top Gun in the financial services? To be amongst the most highly regarded in your industry, you must exhibit the characteristics and skills reserved for the elite: exceptional academic achievements, outstanding personal leadership and teamwork abilities and most of all, a stronger drive than others to be at the top of your field.

“No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy.” - Ayn Rand