Postpone the Tax Deadline? The Vote is in!

Beth Graddon

It was close, in fact, a dead heat throughout the month as tax and financial professionals across Canada weighed in on the question “Should the tax filing deadline be extended for all taxpayers to June 15?” And the conclusion is a 50/50 split! Here are some of the reasons from those who participated in one of our most divisive poll questions to date.

Here are some of the comments from those in favour of extending the deadline:

“I would say yes, as that proved more time as many slips arrive late such as the investment slips. Also, there would be less confusion when to file, when to pay. I spend a large amount of time after the regular end of Tax season sending adjustments due to late information slips.” - Alice Manderson

“I would be in favor.  I agree with some comments, however, that getting all the slips in a timely manner would definitely make the whole process more streamlined. I like the US idea of filing extensions.  The tax payment due date can still remain April 30th but the actual return can be filed much later.  There would be a penalty for late payment.  There is too much pressure on trying to get everything done in just 2 months.  Procrastinators will always be a problem no matter what the deadline, so practitioners have to be firmer with them.” – Dr. Dean Smith

“Not everyone has a simple return with one or few T4 Slips. The extra time would probably help with the Tax Payer organizing their paper work and receipts for Tax preparation.” – Sharon Hylton

“The deadline for trusts should be extended. . .same as business. T3’s aren’t all out by April 30.”
 - Lyle

“Penalties of $5 per slip per day on T5s, T3s and T5013s would go a long way to reduce processing backlogs on April 30 (May 2) and raise revenues from those big bad banks. Call it a dividend. Perhaps even moving T4s filing back to January 15 and T3 & T5 to January 31 a la USA.” - Jay Kirk

“I would say yes, as many slips arrive late such as the investment slips. Also, there would be less confusion when to file, when to pay. 1 date for all and that is it. It would also help to establish better financial plans with tax strategies, while people are engagde. Now everything is rushed.” - Veronique Dewilde

The comments from those opposed point to requiring that financial institutions issue slips earlier instead:

“The extension would just make people procrastinate more. Honestly, I wish CRA would be a bit more proactive in getting tardy companies / banks to submit tax slips on time. That would help more than having the self-employment deadline be the deadline for all.” - TGH

“As said for many it would just mean further procrastination however when slips are released so late as in this year and a couple of the past then CRA should be proactive and delay the filing and the payment deadline for all with NO penalty or interest charge. For regular years where for a few clients it is not possible to file on time due to unforeseen matters there should be a method to request an extension (like in the USA) that allows an automatic delay in filing with NO penalty.” - Clifford

“No…Iagree the procrastinating taxpayers will just move to new deadline. Slips coming out early would help. As April 20 is also deadline for quarterly HST. I find this is problem. If tax season was extended to May 10th..that would help my little practice. But I do not want to be doing massive amounts of personal taxes in June.” - RP

“Rather than delaying the report date, set rules on when financial institution should mail out all tax papers.” - Stephen Cheung

“If T slip mailing deadlines were enforced, including slips for OAS and CPP, we could get more completed on time.   In an ideal world, we could start filing earlier in February for those who already have their slips, the government would issue all their slips by the end of February, the investment slips would be out by the end of February and we could avoid the log jams we are experiencing lately” - Pat Gamborg

“No.  Why do banks and financial institutions have so much longer to provide their T-slips?  They have all the information by the end of February. There will always be stragglers - that is to be expected. If a practitioner can’t handle the load, they can hire temporary help (like me) or prioritize their load.” - Rosalind

“I don’t think this would be a good idea. Instead of having a heavy tax filing in April, we now have an even more hectic end of May and the beginning of June. On top would now come all the self-employed businesses, farmers and landlords. It would be way more efficient to make tax slips and other documentation for filing earlier available. I think there are better ways than extending the deadline.” - Frank E Arnold

“I agree with those saying slip deadlines just need to be enforced. So many clients get late slips and that keeps delaying their returns into the busiest times. Also, procrastinators will still procrastinate no matter the deadline. Plus, we have so much corporate work to do in May/June that we don’t need to add to our workload.” - Julie

“No. We had this conversation last year when the season was extended to September 30. It still wasn’t enough for many people. The chronically late were even later and opinions were expressed that the filing deadline should be extended to the end of the year. April 30 is O.K. as long as the institutions and employers get their information in to the CRA, which they are tending not to. An extended deadline for filing the returns would only mean that those same organizations would be even later.” - Mitzi-Lynne Morgan

“The deadline should not be extended as there does not seem to be any real benefit.  Clearly it would help if organizations were required to provide slips in a timelier manner and it was enforced as this is the first year that the CRA did not have all my slips by the April cut-off.  Where the real benefits could come is in simplifying the tax form.” - Nancy

“No - as long as the financial institutions can set their own timelines without consequences, the actual filing deadline isn’t a factor. - Brenda

And, some commenters were still torn:

“I can’t keep up with demand for my tax services.  For March & April 2022 I was not able to do any other work except T1 prep, because 2 months is simply not enough time to get all my clients’ T1s done.  A later deadline would allow me to spread out some of this work, and let me do some corporate work, which has unfortunately taken a back burner.  Alternatively, if we could START filing T1s in January, THAT would help!  The time crunch is not only due to the deadline, but also because EFILE is not available until end of February.  (However, T-slips are generally not available until then either…)” - Nelson Selinger

“Essentially, I would like to say “maybe”.  This year the federal government was at least three weeks to more than one month late in sending out the tax notices for seniors.  Also, the financial institutions were late with the T-slips. If they were on time (even according to their own schedule) there would likely not be too much of an issue.  On the other hand, people will file late even if you extend the deadline.” - Robert A Litschel

Thanks to those who participated in our May poll! This month weigh in on another hot topic: “Are your clients concerned they will lose their principal residence exemption due to the new house flipping tax?”