You may be thinking that because you are delinquent with your taxes and at this time of year the CRA are so busy with the annual tax returns that they are going to forget about you for awhile. Don’t count on this as there are many different departments within the tax segment of the Canadian Government. No doubt there are specific groups that are assigned to collecting back taxes from both that have filed and those that have not.
You do have a solution though, and that is the voluntary tax disclosure program. This will only be beneficial to you if you make the first step and come forward to notify the tax department that you are behind in your taxes and you want to make every effort to come to some type of agreement to get these filed and paid if necessary. If they have to come after you first then you can forget about this opportunity of disclosure.
Remember also that this program is also available for those who did not file a true, honest accurate income tax and is aware of this. This program is not only available to the personal tax payer but also businesses or trusts for example.
You may be weighing out what the whole benefits of becoming tax clean offers. First and foremost you are not going to shudder every time the phone rings thinking that a CRA tax collector is on the other end. You are not going to dread having to pick up the mail contemplating that there may be an order to file by the CRA.
Additional benefits are that through the program you may be able to make arrangements for payments if money owed is the issue. You may be able to avoid the stiff penalties that get added on, plus potentially avoid legal action by the CRA. These are all serious matters and the program helps to reduce the fear of these which is often the reason why people do not come forward to straighten out their tax mess.
You can use a representative like a quality Toronto accountant to help you with your voluntary disclosure so you won’t feel so intimidated or nervous about taking this right step to getting back on the tax track. Tax problems don’t go away, instead they just keep accumulating in both costs and hassles.
