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 gave character conversion transactions a mid-summer reprieve on July 11, making the transition process somewhat easier for companies that use derivative forward agreements to change the character of income transactions to capital transactions.

CRA answered close to 3 million calls this past tax filing season, and 20 million—or over 76% of tax filers—filed electronically this year, an increase of 17% over last year.

One of the most difficult asset transitions can involve the family cottage. In this second of a two-part article in family cottage planning, Knowledge Bureau author David Christianson discusses potential solutions to this sticky issue.

This year’s average tax refund of $1641 takes a big bite out of retirement savings for Canadian families.

The Canada Disability Savings Grant can add significantly to the pensions set up for disabled individuals through the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP).

This excerpt from Evelyn Jacks’ Jacks on Tax outlines the different categories of residency and provides an answer.