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:Tax Efficiency: Sometimes, It Takes a Village
Tax filing season is over for close to 20 million Canadians whose tax returns have already been assessed this year. Of those, 14%, or just under 3 million taxpayers, had a balance due. On average, they owed $3700 upon filing; the rest got refunds (65%) or filed a nil return (21%) to receive refundable tax credits.
