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 Jan. 14, Gary William Mechar of Kamloops, B.C., was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $276,655 in restitution to two financial institutions.

The unstable global economy tops the list of “urgent” issues to address in 2013, says the World Economic Forum (WEF).

It’s no secret that governments are awash in debt. But, where is the money to pay down federal and provincial deficits and accumulated debt going to come from?

A recently released judgment from the Tax Court of Canada testifies to the importance of good record-keeping and exemplifies a clever method that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) invokes when investigating taxpayers who hide behind inadequate records.

If you turn 65 before July 1, 2013, can you still opt to delay receipt of Old-Age Security (OAS)?

Everyone in Canada qualifies for the Basic Personal Amount (BPA).