Most employers comply with the rules and make sure all your Tslips are sent out to you by the end of February; you still can file earlier by using your My Account with the CRA to auto-fill your return. As the CRA most likely already has all of them in your account. So before starting, go check your account and if you see everything you need then proceed to file early. NETFLE usually opens by mid-February yearly.
Filing Early:
- You can purchase your RRSP’s before March 1st. It allows your contribution for the first 2 months of the year to be included in your tax return, which brings down your amount owing.
- If you have a large amount owing you will have more time to come up with the money needed to cover the bill before interests starts accumulating on May 1st.
- With a refund received within 10 days of NETFILING your return, you can take that money and pay down your debts.
- Canada Child Benefit & GST credit will be processed quickly to ensure there are no interruptions in your monthly or quarterly payments.
Filing Later:
- So March comes along and you are waiting for donation receipts or trust paperwork before you can file. If you do not wait for those papers, you may have to refile your tax return, after receiving the initial Notice of Assessment.
- Filing a little later means that you are stressed out as the clock ticks to April 30th. So you decide to hire a tax professional, they may super busy and not take the required amount of time needed to sit with you to explain and ask the required questions to ensure you get all the credits and deductions you may be entitled to.
- Alternately, you might decide to do them yourself, and next thing you know, it’s mid – April. Spring has arrived and the last thing you want to be thinking about is your taxes. You’d rather be outside cleaning up the yard and enjoying the nice weather.
Did you know?
TurboTax software allows you to file your own tax return, which generally takes approximately a haft hour to do, depending on the number of slips you may need to enter. It guides you through each section with precision and personalized direct questions to allow you to claim over 400 credits and deductions available through the federal and provincial governments. Some are income based, others are tax free, so be sure to answer all the questions and the software will open up all the forms and calculations needed.
If you are like most Canadians, you will end up filing towards the end of April, which means there are better chances that the system can get overwhelmed and cause more issues than you would like to have to deal with. So why not get one of our Full Service Tax Experts* to assist, and let them do it for you. They will take all the time needed to make sure you claim everything based on your personal circumstances.
*TurboTax Live™ Full Service is not available in Quebec
TurboTax! We’ve always got you covered!