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:

Knowledge Bureau is pleased to announce that Intuit will join the January Personal Tax Update Workshop tour as a national sponsor. The topic of Scott Zandbergen’s keynote is End-to-End Online Practice Management: Your Firm of the Future. Scott will explain the remarkable changes happening in the tax accounting industry and what’s coming to integrate bookkeeping and taxation details.

Wealth Quotes from Family Tax Essentials.

Knowledge Bureau is pleased to announce that The Association of Professional Accounting & Tax Consultants Inc. (APATC) will join the January Personal Tax Update Workshop tour as a national sponsor.

Last year, Canadians both prepaid and overpaid their tax and the amount was significant: $148 a month or $1780 for the year, according to taxation statistics to January 4, 2016. That’s money given to the government on an interest-free basis all year long, and bad financial planning. Over a 40-year worklife, your tax overpayment would be worth $71,200 in capital that would not have been invested in the marketplace.

CRA has been prolific recently, releasing its 2015 T1 General Income Tax and Benefits return, its schedules and auxiliary tax forms, together with accompanying guides and pamphlets. To get through them all is a challenge; so is understanding the volume of changes for the 2016 tax year.

CRA is saying “Happy New Year” by launching two new mobile apps: one for individuals and one for businesses. Taxpayers and their advisors may want to check them out. Individual taxpayers can now securely view certain information from their MyAccount data on a mobile app called MyCRA; for example, their notice of assessment, and RRSP and TFSA contribution room are all accessible to them on the go. They can also find out the status of their tax return – just how long that refund is going to take, and information about their social benefits and tax credits.