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 2013 Federal Budget announced that, beginning in 2014, the gross-up of small business dividends will be reduced from 25% to 18% and that the federal dividend tax credit will be adjusted as well. The net result is a slight increase in the taxation of other than eligible dividends at the federal level.

Great news! Students who win awards to go to school now qualify for full tax exemptions, if they qualify for the full-time education amount.

Stand up with professionalism to potential legal challenges from CRA or other family stakeholders. Register by May 15 for early bird rates.

Starting July 1, 2014, Canada and U.S. border authorities will now scan your passport when you enter and exit their country to determine how long a person has actually been out of their country of residence in a given year.

The February 11, 2014 federal budget has proposed to eliminate tax benefits of many estates and trusts; one of which is the immigration trust.

Morton v. The Queen (2014) TCC 72. The Tax Court of Canada recently released reasons for judgment in a case regarding the imposition of penalties following the expiration of the normal reassessment periods.