Taxpayers make the most of e-filing

As of early April, taxpayers have filed slightly more than eight million tax returns, with more than 80% of filerschoosing one of three electronic filing methods ó netfile, efile or telefile. This is a remarkable uptake of the electronic filing options that were pioneered in the early 1990s.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) also reports that the average refund on returns filed as of that date is $1,533. Of the 10% of filers who owed a balance, the average paid was slightly more than $3,187, which, unfortunately, may require some of those taxpayers to pay quarterly tax installments.

Twenty per cent of those filing returns had no income, which means they filed in order to receive social benefits.