It is five more days left until April 30, the regular deadline for the personal tax return, but this year there are several changes due to the COVID-19 situation.
Income tax filing and payment dates
The 2019 tax return deadline was changed this year due to COVID 19 pandemic, and the new filing date for the individuals is June 1, 2020, and the payment deadline is September 1, 2020. The extension allows all Canadians to make sure they have enough time to file their taxes and take advantage of the late payment date in case they lost their income and have financial difficulties right now.
The self-employed tax return filing date was unchanged, but the payment date moved as well.
If you are self-employed, you need to file your 2019 tax return before June 15, 2020, which is the same date as before but you have more time to pay any amount owed to CRA before September 1, 2020
Electronic signature
You are no longer need to meet with your accountant to prepare and file personal income taxes. The CRA will recognize electronic signature when you are signing T183 and T183CORP forms to authorize tax preparers to file your or your corporation taxes. It is a temporary measure, and you need to check if there are any changes next year when filing the 2020 tax return.
Suspension of Individual (T1) review and validation activities
If you get any requests from CRA to provide supporting information concerning amounts claimed in your tax return, you do not need to take any actions right now. All such activities postponed until further notice, and you still need to keep all your supporting documents in case the review will be re-opened in the future.
Debt management
To prevent financial hardship in this time of crisis, debt collection staff can review your situation and offer a solution. It may be a great option if you can’t pay your taxes or Canada Student Loan right now in full.
If you need to contact a Collections Officer, please call toll free number at 1-800-675-6184 between 8 am and 4 pm your local time.
At the same time, all collections activities on new debts temporarily suspended, and flexible payment arrangements will be available.
Reduced services in free tax clinics
A lot of Canadians take advantage of free tax return services at tax clinics, where services provided by volunteers and free of charge. Unfortunately this year the number of services is reduced or canceled.
If you need to prepare and file your individual tax return, you can contact our company. While we are not meeting our clients face to face right now, you can sign T183 authorization forms electronically, and we can prepare and file your tax return for you. Contact us for more information about our services and what we can do for you.
Individual tax call centers
To better serve Canadians, CRA opens more phone lines for discussing your personal tax return questions and issues. Unfortunately, at this time, the calls are limited to discuss only the following:
- issues while filing your 2019 income tax and benefit return
- issues while getting your benefit payments
- if you are looking to set up your My Account on CRA website
Anna Grigoryan is a public accountant who provides accounting, bookkeeping and tax services to Small Business owners and individuals. She has more than ten years of professional experience in public accounting and a bachelor’s degree in Business Accounting. Anna is the founder and CEO of Taxory, an accounting firm located in Ontario, Canada.