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:

On September 6, the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, announced that the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2013-2014 ranked Canada’s financial system as the strongest in the world for the sixth consecutive year.

The CRA has new teeth: new Section 237.3, Reportable Transactions, may in fact, give the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) a real advantage if transactions that seek to avoid taxation fall foul of pre-disclosure rules. 

CRA continues to help Canadians use more electronic services.

Filing a tax return is about what you keep. So is the pre-payment of income taxes throughout the year. This month that’s an important concept as the September 15 quarterly tax instalment payment is due on Monday, September 16.

Richard (Rick) Atkinson, founder and president of RA Retirement Advisors, discusses some key factors to consider when deciding the best time to retire in his recent article in the Summer 2013 issue of the CSA Journal.

Just had the $1 million idea? Innovators have some interesting rules to contend with when it comes to their taxes—sometimes the last thing on their mind when the Eureka moment happens!