Late Filing Penalties: Talk About It!

While most T1 returns are in the hands of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) by April 30, we know many are not. In fact, millions of returns were still outstanding as of mid-May. Late-filing clients they need to know about the consequences, especially if they owe. Here’s a rundown to be aware of:

Spend your valuable time with immediately implementable, professional development in year-end planning topics. Did you know that all Knowledge Bureau certificate courses (live, live virtual and online) are accepted for valuable CE/CPD Credits? Details follow. Plus, we have a DMA Designation Program offer, it’s so good – it’s scary!. Check it out:

The Consumer Price Index numbers for September have been released and that number is used to calculate the indexation rate for personal amounts and tax brackets.  Although the federal government has yet to announce the new tax figures, we’ve done the math to estimate the numbers.  It’s important information for year end tax planning purposes, a subject we will also cover in depth on November 5 at the live virtual CE Summit.  Read on to learn more.

CRA call centres received more than 10 million calls in the 2024-2025 fiscal year and deflected some 8.6 million of them! Further, responses to general individual-tax questions were accurate only 17% of the time, and wait times for speaking with an agent averaged about 31 minutes - twice as long as a year earlier. These are amongst the findings of the significant shortcomings articulated in the AG's report today. That's all pretty bad. But here's why it's also unacceptable.

Employers in Canada are required to remit source deductions—such as income tax, Canada Pension Plan (CPP), and Employment Insurance (EI) contributions—by specific due dates based on their remitter type. These due dates vary depending on the employer’s average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) from two years prior. But when is an electronic payment considered to be received? It’s an important question because it can be very expensive to have the remittance you thought you paid on time, lost in cyberspace. Here’s what you need to know:

For many years, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has allowed taxpayers to voluntarily disclose errors and omissions on their tax returns, with the opportunity for reduced penalties and interest. There were some restrictions introduced back in 2018. But as of October 1st, 2025, changes to the process make it simpler for taxpayers to disclose unintentional filing errors and omissions, and there is a newly revised tax form to help.

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