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:

58% of KBR voters in our July poll indicated that the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will not affect their business or their clients.

More than half of Canadians are now using professional EFILE services to do their taxes and despite the Heartbleed bug, close to 7 million Canadians used NETFILE to transmit their returns. 

More than 20% of Canadians are or have considered adopting a child in Canada, but 75% of these potential parents are concerned about the cost.

A recent decision from the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench held that RRSP funds payable to a named beneficiary do not form part of the testator’s (deceased will maker’s) estate.

The interest-free loans Canadians give to their governments keeps rising – it’s up from $1646 in the 2012 tax filing year to $1655 in 2013 – that’s $138 a month that could be going into TFSAs or RRSPs instead.

In order to make a valid will in any province in Canada, the testator (or will maker) must have a sound dispositive mind or testamentary capacity.