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:

The federal government announced changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) regime on October 27, a pre-cursor to their upcoming November 4 budget. Knowledge Bureau will cover the details in a Special Report available to subscribers and in the comprehensive professional CE/CPD training for professional tax accountants and financial advisors on November 5 (earn up to 20 CE/CPD Credits before year end).  Registration for the live virtual event is now open. Here’s what you need to know about the EI proposals:

Halloween is a night for spooky things. Some adults would say, it’s a bit like the tax filing deadline. There are few things that can terrify even the bravest of us as much. When a new client comes to your door, keep this in mind. You have the potential to turn terror into, well fun. It’s true! Think about it. . .

Small business month is coming to an end, but there is one issue rarely discussed in the news for this important sector of our economy: tax audit risk. If you’re in business, it’s a reality that you are in an audit target zone and you need to be ready because it can be very expensive. That’s why it’s a year end planning issue we’ll be discussing in depth at the November 5 CE Summit featuring tax lawyer Anna Malazhavaya. Registration is still open online until November 4. Here’s what’s important:

Spend your valuable time with immediately implementable, professional development in year-end planning topics. Did you know that all Knowledge Bureau certificate courses (live, live virtual and online) are accepted for valuable CE/CPD Credits? Details follow. Plus, we have a DMA Designation Program offer, it’s so good – it’s scary!. Check it out:

The Consumer Price Index numbers for September have been released and that number is used to calculate the indexation rate for personal amounts and tax brackets.  Although the federal government has yet to announce the new tax figures, we’ve done the math to estimate the numbers.  It’s important information for year end tax planning purposes, a subject we will also cover in depth on November 5 at the live virtual CE Summit.  Read on to learn more.

CRA call centres received more than 10 million calls in the 2024-2025 fiscal year and deflected some 8.6 million of them! Further, responses to general individual-tax questions were accurate only 17% of the time, and wait times for speaking with an agent averaged about 31 minutes - twice as long as a year earlier. These are amongst the findings of the significant shortcomings articulated in the AG's report today. That's all pretty bad. But here's why it's also unacceptable.