With the CRA pushing for more online activity on behalf of the taxpayers, it stands to reason that they will need to make some changes as to how this will be done. Making it easier to perform tasks and navigating around the maze of information on their site regarding Canada tax would be a good step to take.
Amongst the plans it seems that the tax website is going to be spruced up with more options and a more user friendly experience. For you this may be beneficial when you have a specific tax question or a task that you need to complete a task.
In the past the online services have been quite limited as to what it offers a business. For the basic business filing it was okay, but when it came to partnerships or having to amend Corporate returns this was not feasible. With this new action plan this is going to be addressed.
Another big issue was not being able to update your business information when it came to your banking details or direct online deposits. There will also be changes in the way the RC59 can be handled online.
Now while a lot of these action plans are still on the drawing board and have not been implemented as of yet, there are some parts of the individual steps that the CRA has completed. You may not have started to take advantage of them yet, either because you were not aware of them, or just figured they were going to be just as complex as everything else when it came to taxes, so why bother. Some of these completions are the expansion of receiving and responding to online inquiries via the My Business Account. Easier navigation on the CRA site under the E-services for businesses apparently has been completed. Easier reading and utilization of the My Business account with a section that covers What Can I do on my Business Account.
The next section of part 3 deals once again with the online services and a better way for online registration so you can obtain a Business number easier, and some of the restrictions will be removed.
Section 3C of this part covers online services and information accessibility and clarity. It is full of a bunch of little changes that supposedly when you put all these together they are overall going to make dealing with some of your tax matters online a whole lot easier.
There are also going to be improvements in the identity authentication procedures, which right now requires multiple steps. It is perceived that by improving in this area and reducing the steps it will save time, and be less perplexing for the business tax payer.
If all of these actions are implemented it will in many ways make it much easier for the Business person in helping them keep on track with the proper online procedures which will make the job that your Toronto accountant has to do for you at year end much easier in respect to not having to deal with accounting mistakes concerning your taxes that were no fault of yours. When tax matters are complex especially with online involvement it can make it difficult at year end filing.
