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\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tDeadlines and risks for being late\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The deadline to file tax returns in Canada is April 30, or June 15 for Canadian taxpayers and their spouses\/common-law partners with self-employment income.<\/p>\n
In almost all cases, the deadline to pay taxes owed to the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA, is April 30. Taxes owed and a tax return are different, which Minor says can be confusing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tax due date, which is the date you have to have your money into the CRA, that\u2019s April 30 for both categories of taxpayer,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that part confuses a lot of people but the payment is due April 30. Otherwise, those taxpayers will start paying interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The penalty for filing a return after the deadline is five per cent on the balance of taxes owed, plus one per cent for each month the return is late up to 12 months. If the filer submitted their return late within the past three tax filing years, those numbers are doubled.<\/p>\n
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Whether or not filers submit their tax return to the CRA on time, they can still be charged additional interest if the amount of taxes owed is not paid on time.<\/p>\n
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Being prepared early on is a good first step to ensure no late payments or filings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs good practice, it\u2019s a good idea to list the income you\u2019ve earned and what slips you should be expecting to look out for those slips,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
For most employed Canadians, that will mean ensuring they have a copy of their T4 income statement, which employers will usually mail to employees by the end of February.<\/p>\n
In some cases, a T4 slip may also be available through the CRA\u2019s online portal.<\/p>\n
For those with investments, including for a retirement portfolio, there are also T3 and T5 slips, which must be gathered ahead of the deadline.<\/p>\n
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Canadians should also ensure they have their online profile with the CRA up to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CRA has a portal with quite a bit of good information. The CRA has your slips so you can go and look at what slips the CRA has on file. You can look at details of prior returns, carry forward balances, RSP limits, things like that,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go to the mail section and see if they sent you any mail about anything, or retrieve prior years\u2019 notices of assessment. So the CRA portal is a good tool when preparing your returns as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<\/button>More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMinor also says there are situation-specific deductions and credits that Canadians will need to stay on top of.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had a lot of medical slips, you might go to the pharmacy and get them to print out your statement for the year of everything you\u2019ve paid them over and above and after your insurance,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve donated to registered charities, there\u2019s a donation tax credit. So collect all those donation slips. And if you\u2019re missing any, perhaps contact the registered charity that you donated to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minor also encourages Canadians to study the CRA\u2019s annual guide for federal income tax and benefits, as it includes more information on other situation-specific scenarios.<\/p>\n
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Canadians who want to physically mail their taxes can still do so, but they must request those paper tax packages by contacting the CRA.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat means the CRA stopped sending paper notifications, paper assessments. So there could be situations where business taxpayers, for example, aren\u2019t getting correspondence from the CRA because they were transitioned [to digital],\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good practice, one, to have an email address on file, and if you\u2019re really concerned, opt back into paper mail just to make sure you\u2019re going to get that correspondence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minor adds: \u201cYou\u2019re going to miss something important.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tHelp for lower-income taxpayers\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n For some lower-income tax filers, the federal government currently has a program aimed at making it easier to file a tax return and receive benefit payments.<\/p>\n
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GST, the Canada Child Benefit and others are only paid out to qualifying individuals if they filed their taxes. In order to ensure Canadians who need these payments for their day-to-day expenses, it\u2019s critical that they file their returns.<\/p>\n
Starting March 9, 2026, qualifying Canadians can register for SimpleFile with or without an invitation. The CRA says the service is a free, fast and secure method offered to eligible individuals to make the process easier.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2018s Budget 2025 also proposed changes to the Income Tax Act, and, if passed into law, it would allow the CRA to file a tax return on behalf of qualified individuals automatically. When announced, Carney\u2019s office estimated it could help about one million Canadians filing in 2027 (for the 2026 tax year), and could reach 5.5 million by 2028.<\/p>\n
Free tax clinics are also offered in some communities, where volunteers complete tax returns for people who may have lower incomes, according to the CRA.<\/p>\n
Minor says if possible, it\u2019s always a good idea to consult a tax professional to help with filing a tax return \u2014 especially for complex tax situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a fairly complicated tax system and depending on your situation, if you have a simple situation, then it shouldn\u2019t be too much difficulty, but if you had a more complex situation with a business or rental properties or investment income and things like that, I would consider using a professional,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA professional has done many returns, they\u2019re more accurate because of the experience, they\u2019ll be able to tell you what\u2019s available, and they\u2019ll be able to file it on their behalf. So, it\u2019ll take far less time, obviously, if you use a CPA, than doing it yourself because you\u2019ll have to do all that background research yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
#Tax #filing #season #money #National<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tax season is officially underway in Canada. As of Monday, tax filers are now able to submit their returns both electronically and by mail, where possible, with the deadline to file and pay taxes owed just a few months away. To help maximize savings and potential refunds, experts say it\u2019s important to prepare early and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60,1150,16,3568,17,50,388,89,1356],"class_list":{"0":"post-3720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canada-revenue-agency","10":"tag-consumer","11":"tag-filing","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-national","14":"tag-season","15":"tag-tax","16":"tag-tax-season"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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