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:

Substantial tax reform has recently changed the rules for post-death planning for high net worth families.

According to the Bank of Canada, since October 1950,  the record low for the Canadian dollar against the US dollar was recorded on the 21st of January 2002 – just over 13 years ago – when the loonie was worth just .6179. 

Tax tip of the week

Last week, we looked at the TFSA helping those who pay taxes on investment income. This week in part 2, we will look at savings opportunities for the middle class.

Taxpayers and their advisors may consider this question more frequently as CRA pushes for more electronic communications, such as the provision of email addresses on this year’s tax return.

This week I had a discussion with a client about what would happen when either he or his wife passed away.