Canadian taxation is based on the self-assessment principle. This means that all people are obliged to submit reports to the CRA tax authority themselves. If a person accidentally violates the requirements of tax legislation without knowing all the details of taxation, he will still have to bear responsibility. Unlike many other countries, Canada does not have tax returns for families, so each spouse must independently fill out and submit an individual tax return in Canada. Although, in this case, it makes sense to fill out tax returns together to divide the sources of income to reduce the total amount of tax that the family will have to pay.
Please note that according to statistics, about 15-20% of people make mistakes when filling out tax returns. This leads to tax debts, and, accordingly, to fines. To avoid this, many people contact tax companies in Canada, where experienced specialists help them do everything correctly and on time.
It is worth noting that about 20-30% of the submitted tax returns make Canadians pay more than they need. But this is not a big deal, since they can request a refund the next time they submit reports.
Notes on filing tax returns
When submitting a tax return, you can count on:
- partial refund of the HST tax, which is about 800 CAD for a family of 4 people;
- assistance provided by the provinces to low-income families, amounting to 75 CAD for each spouse;
- transfer to the next year the cost of tuition fees or moving;
- fixing losses incurred as a result of doing business or playing on the stock exchange, with the ability to postpone them for a year.
If you do not want to delve into all the details of taxation and spend your time and energy on this, then it is better to entrust the submission of reports to professionals. Tax return preparation in Toronto costs about 25 CAD. The exact cost depends on each specific case.
The tax return includes 4 main parts:
- personal data;
- sources of income;
- tax write-offs;
- calculation of tax arrears.
The latter can be either positive or negative, for example, if there was an overpayment earlier and the taxpayer requested a refund. It will be easy to fill out the documents correctly using professional taxation services. As for overpayments, the CRA returns them without delay.