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:

BECOME CERTIFIED – Take "Final Returns on Death of a Taxpayer". Help your clients tackle the angst of estate planning and implement an effective estate plan. Learn the technical expertise in filing the final return of a deceased in order to ensure proper tax planning is arranged at time of death and for the ongoing planning activities of the survivors.

Secure, Electronic Audit Defence with DT File Cabinet: Don’t miss this interesting and informative session with David Caron & Sean Nazarian from Thomson Reuters at the Distinguished Advisor Workshops May 22-27 in a city near you.

Canadians are becoming more philanthropic – giving more every year to causes that are important to them. This calculator helps in determining the tax savings (and therefore the after-tax cost) of charitable donations.

Knowledge Bureau has released its marginal tax rate calculations for 2013 now that all federal and provincial budgets have been released.

CRA’s push to get Canadians to file their tax returns electronically has been extremely successful this year, driving a million more tax filers to use EFILING services with a professional and a million more to use NETFILING. 

On May 1, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that two corporations and the director of one plead guilty to tax evasion charges in the Provincial Court of Manitoba. The fines totaled a hefty $731,986.