Its tax season once again and it’s time for every individual responsible for filing taxes to bring themselves up to date as to what the new changes are for the current tax season.
The one thing that you are going to find that this year is the CRA is changing the look of their notice of assessment. They are indicating that the new format means that you will able to see the most important information concerning your taxes right on the first page of the NOA.
Whether we like it or not we are being pushed into doing our taxes electronically and as part of this the CRA is encouraging individuals to use their CRA “my account” that is set up for each individual tax payer. They have made some changes to this now where the services available are through some of the certified tax software. With the auto fill portion of the service it will automatically fill in some parts of the tax return.
If you are looking for your notice of assessment and haven’t received it or are looking for some changes then you are probably better to get it through your online mail system, again through the “my account” at the CRA instead of traditional mail. You may find that you are able to do provide your email address on your income tax return in order to begin able to get your NOA online.
Many are looking at what’s going to happen with the Universal Child care benefit in regards to the 2015 tax year. Families that have qualified for this will receive for each child under six a $160 per month. For each child between the ages of six and 17 they will receive $60 per month.
Another change that those that have disabilities must be aware of is that they will be able to do online filing of their T-1 even if they have not sent in their T2201 to the CRA for that specific tax year.
Something else that you keep in mind is the change that has taken place in the children’s fitness amount. In previous years this was a non refundable tax credit but as of the January 2015 tax year it is now becoming a refundable tax credit.
For those that take advantage of the child care expense deductions for 2015 the amount qualified to be deducted has been increased by thousand dollars. This means for the children under the age of seven the maximum amount that can be claimed is $8000 and for those from seven and up to the age of 16 $5000 can be claimed. For those children that are eligible for the disability tax credit the amount to be claimed for the child care expense deduction is $11,000.
Then for those that are really tech savvy they may want to take advantage of the new my CRA mobile app. This allows you to get your tax information on your mobile device.
As with any tax year the filing of taxes it can be overwhelming and complicated and the best resource that is available to you to help you with your tax filing services is a quality accountant.
