For most of the year, taxpayers live quite happily without any contact with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). During and just following tax filing season, however, such contact is routine – tax returns must be filed, Notices of Assessment are received from the CRA and, on occasion, the CRA will contact a taxpayer seeking clarification of income amounts reported or requesting documentation for deductions/credits claimed on their annual return.
Allen Koroll
Recent Posts
By the end of June, all individual taxpayers should have filed their 2015 income tax returns and most will have received a Notice of Assessment (NOA). This assessment will outline the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA’s) conclusions with respect to that taxpayer’s income and tax position for the year. In most cases, the Notice of Assessment won’t vary a great deal from the information provided by the taxpayer in their return. When it does vary, and the change is to the taxpayer’s detriment, taxable income assessed is greater than the amount reported by the taxpayer, or a deduction or credit is denied, then the taxpayer has to decide whether they want to dispute the CRA’s assessment.
There has been much discussion, in recent years, about whether Canadians are adequately prepared for retirement and, more specifically, whether Canadians are saving enough to ensure a retirement free of undue financial stress. While the financial health of current and soon-to-be-retirees is a concern, the more pressing question is whether, under our current system, younger Canadians can expect to have some degree of financial security in retirement.
The forest fires affecting Northern Alberta and the Canada’s Revenue Agency’s (CRA’s) offer of administrative tax relief to those affected by the fires and evacuations has highlighted a federal government program, which few taxpayers are aware – the CRA’s Taxpayer Relief Program. In a nutshell, that program offers relief from interest charges, penalties, and collection actions for those who are unable, due to circumstances outside their control, from fulfilling their tax filing and/or payment obligations.
By the beginning of June, most taxpayers have filed their annual return for the previous year and have most likely received a Notice of Assessment (NOA) for that return, containing the good or bad news about their tax situation for the year. At this point, most Canadians are probably happy to put taxes out of sight and out of mind until next year’s filing season rolls around. For a number of reasons, however, that’s not the best strategy.
The mid-point of the year is, in fact, a very good time to take a look at one’s current year tax situation, to determine whether things are on track for the year or, if not, how to make things right while there’s still time to do so. There are a few basic steps which require no more than a few hours’ time to make sure of just that.
As the end of the school year draws closer, and two months of summer holidays begin, families must start thinking about how to keep their kids supervised and busy throughout the summer months. Luckily, there is no shortage of options — at this time of year, advertisements for summer activities and summer camps abound — but nearly all the available options have one thing in common, and that is a price tag.
Some choices, like day camps provided by the local recreation authority, can be relatively inexpensive, while the cost of others, like summer-long residential camps or elite level sports or arts camps, can cost thousands of dollars.
By May 23, 2016, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had processed just under 26 million individual income tax returns filed for the 2015 tax year. Of those returns, 56% resulted in a refund to the taxpayer, 18% required payment of a tax balance by the taxpayer and just over 20% were “nil” returns – returns where no tax is owing and no refund claimed, but the taxpayer is filing in order to provide income information which will be used to determine his or her eligibility for tax credit payments (such as the Canada Child Tax Benefit or the HST credit ).
The new Liberal government has proposed a few minor changes to personal income taxes for 2016 and beyond.
The election of a new government in Ottawa is often accompanied by changes to the way income is taxed. The last federal election was no exception. The changes announced in the March 2016 budget that will impact many taxpayers are as follows:
