The best tax position to be in when it comes to Canada tax is one where you are up to date with both your business and personal taxes, and you don’t owe the tax man a single dime. Unfortunately there are a great many taxpayers that are not in this position, and some are contemplating tax disclosure but are pretty nervous about taking this step.
To begin with it would be a good idea to get your Toronto accountant to compile all of your outstanding taxes for you. The one thing you don’t want to do is make a disclosure with the wrong information. The most common reason for debating about doing a tax disclosure is simply because you are behind in your filings. This could have happened for several reasons. You may have thought that because you assumed you owed taxes and didn’t have the money that it was better not to file. Or you may have just been too overwhelmed with the tax system and decided to put it off which then became a habit. In either case this was a bad move, however the CRA is offering you a way to get this cleared up.
The problem is so many people have a fear of the CRA that they are terrified that this department is going to come after them and seize everything they own or garnishee their wages no matter how small or big the amount of taxes owed.
Another reason a tax payer may be considering a tax disclosure is because they did indeed file their returns but they knowingly were not truthful with the information they submitted. Now with the CRA cracking down on taxpayers many people are becoming nervous that the tax department will soon be tracking them down.
The bottom line is everyone is responsible for paying taxes and doing it right and on time is your responsibility. Not having done this is only going to make your tax problems worse. Now may be the right time for you to become involved in the Voluntary Disclosure Program(VDP).
A good starting point is to first review and learn what this program is all about. By doing so you will learn whether you can even qualify for this or not. The next step is to gather all of your documents and take them to a Toronto accountant that is knowledgeable in the necessary submissions to this program.
Once you go through these first steps you are going to find that the Voluntary disclosure is not as scary as what you originally thought.
Something else you need to consider is that even if you do not qualify for the voluntary tax program you still should go ahead and get a quality accountant to complete your past due taxes for you. The longer you ignore doing this the more the penalties and interest are going to add up, and you can be almost sure the Canada tax department is going to catch up with you sooner and later.
Give me a call here at Toronto Accountant (416)398-1700 and let’s get you off to a fresh start by cleaning up those old taxes.
