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:

Canada’s tax system is based on self-assessment, but CRA has substantial powers and latitude to assess and reassess those returns as it sees fit, leaving the onus to prove otherwise with the taxpayer.

The government’s financial results will be released for the first quarter of the year no later than May 29, 2015, just in time for Canada’s most comprehensive 2015 tax and wealth planning workshop, featuring five top experts in the area of transition planning.

June 15 is the date of the next quarterly instalment payment for 2015.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has always been serious about penalizing tax evasion, and they are sharpening their focus on investigating anyone who facilitates or encourages non-compliance.

We generally believe, living in Canada, that we have the safest banking system in the world. Certainly we’re in the top 10, right?

When starting a small business, whether as a proprietorship or a corporation, entrepreneurs can fall into a number of tax traps.