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 August 23, the Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, and the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman, J. Paul Dubé, met with local business owners in Edmonton to discuss, in large part, the addition of a new right announced in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in June.

Did you just drop a bundle on school supplies and performance-enhancing running shoes? Parental peer pressure from the mini-mes can be daunting this time of the year, especially if Mandarin lessons, dance, and hockey all appear on the agenda.

Last week Knowledge Bureau Report told you about Michel Bouchard (the “Appellant”) established a partnership known as the Tennis Mania Limited Partnership (“the Partnership”) in order to generate funding to support his daughter’s tennis development. At just 9 years of age, the Appellant was confident that his daughter was talented enough to make a career out of playing tennis. What did the Tax Court of Canada think of the arrangement?

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve electronic filing processes, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is pleased to announce the extension of the electronic filing season for 2012 T1 tax returns.

What are the tax consequences when you sell your home, a personal use property, for a loss or make a bundle on grandma’s antique silver goblets, a listed personal use property? Here are the rules.

A follow-up on excellence at CRA. MFA, DFA-Tax Services Specialist, Alan Rowell, reporting.