Best Practices

When and how to dispute your Notice of Assessment Between February and May of 2026, just over 30 million individual income tax returns for the 2025 tax year were filed with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).  And, while each one of those returns was different with respect to income reported and deduction and credit claims made, […]

Upcoming changes to federal tax benefit and credit programs While the view of many Canadians, especially at tax return filing time, is that our tax system exists solely to take money out of their pockets, the reality is far more nuanced. It is certainly true that Canadian tax laws cast a very wide net, in

Targeted tax relief measures announced in 2026 Spring Economic Update The 2026 Spring Economic Update delivered by the Minister of Finance on April 28 included a number of targeted tax relief measures for Canadian individual taxpayers. Some of those measures are summarized below. Changes to Disability Tax Credit certification program Canadians who are affected by

When you make a mistake on your tax return When the filing of the required annual tax return goes entirely as planned and hoped, the taxpayer will have prepared a return that is complete and correct and filed that return by the required filing deadline. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will issue a Notice of

Avoiding (or minimizing) the Old Age Security clawback For most taxpayers, the worst-case outcome when completing their tax return for the previous year is finding out that they owe an additional tax amount to the federal government. However, for Canadians who are receiving Old Age Security (OAS) benefits, there can be additional bad news. For

When help is available under the CRA’s Taxpayer Relief Provisions The Canadian tax system is what is termed a self-assessing system, in which taxpayers take the initiative to complete and file a tax return each year. In that tax return they provide information on income earned during the previous year, claim any tax deductions and

Some last-minute tax filing strategies – what (and what not) to claim Most taxpayers don’t sit down to prepare their tax return for the 2025 tax year – or meet with a tax preparer to get that return done – before early in the month of March, after T4 slips have been received from their

How to know you’re really hearing from the CRA For most Canadians, interactions with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are few and far between. In the vast majority of cases, taxpayers file a tax return each spring and either pay any tax amount owed or (in most cases) receive a refund and do not hear

How, when and where to file your 2025 tax return. Canada’s tax system is a self-reporting one which depends almost entirely on the voluntary compliance of Canadian taxpayers. Almost every Canadian is required to complete and file a tax return annually and, while it’s likely that few of them look forward to doing so, the

Aging in place – claiming the Home Accessibility Tax Credit The strong preference of many older Canadians is to remain in their own homes for as long as possible – usually described as “aging in place”. There’s a lot to recommend that choice – moving, at any age, is a stressful experience. As well, remaining