Podcast: Automatic Tax Filing - Will It Work?

Last week Taxpayers' Ombudsperson François Boileau  tabled his annual report:  In Pursuit of Better Service: Taxpayers Deserve More.  once again, it was nothing short of scathing, as CRA received its highest number of complaints in the last three years.  Calling our “completely nuts” Income Tax Act a potential barrier, he is nonetheless pushing for automatic tax filing as a potential solution.  A new episode of Real Tax News with Evelyn Jacks & Friends available next week, will feature guest Gillian Petit, Ph.D. - author of a great report, Welcome News for Lower-Income Canadians, but There’s More to Do - which takes a deeper dive.  Consider the following:

Residents of Canada must file tax returns to report world income in Canadian funds. That means taxpayers will need to gather documentation to report offshore earnings — and new for 2013, more specific information about income earned by offshore assets with a cost of $100,000 or more.

Retirement planning may begin for you–quite unexpectedly–with the receipt of a retiring allowance or severance package from your employer.  

Year-end is charitable giving time, but remembering to verify the tax status of any organization that you intend to donate a considerable sum to is very important as not all benevolent oriented organizations will allow a tax credit under the Income Tax Act. Last month, a hopeless appeal was lost in the Tax Court of Canada, for example.  

If a surviving spouse or common-law partner is designated as a successor holder of the TFSA either in the TFSA contract or in the deceased taxpayer’s will, the successor becomes the owner of the TFSA.

With the Senate scandal dominating the news, the issue of what is a principal residence for tax purposes seems an appropriate question.

Where a taxpayer has disposed of a capital property and a portion of the proceeds is receivable after the end of the taxation year, the taxpayer may claim a reasonable capital gain reserve for the funds not yet received.