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Personal tax
Personal returns for employees, business owners, landlords, retirees and families across Ontario. If you are behind, that is normal and it is fixable, and it is better dealt with now than next April.
More people have to file than realize it, and more people should file than have to. The Income Tax Act sets out when a return is required. In broad terms you have to file if any of the following apply for the year:
Plenty of people who are not required to file should do it anyway, because a return is how you get money that is sitting there waiting:
The one people miss most. A principal residence sale is reportable even when no tax is owed. Missing it can cost the exemption and attract a penalty, and it comes up every time someone downsizes without mentioning it to their accountant. If you sold a home last year, say so on the first call.
This is one of the most common reasons people ring, and almost nobody who does it feels good about it. It is worth saying plainly: late filing is always better than not filing, and the situation stops getting worse the moment you start.
Interest and penalties keep accruing while returns are outstanding, and benefit payments that depend on a filed return, like the Canada Child Benefit and the Trillium Benefit, simply stop. People are often owed money across the years they did not file.
Filing several years at once is routine work. There is a process for it, there is a way to approach the CRA where penalty relief may be available depending on the circumstances, and it is a much shorter conversation than you are expecting. Nobody here is going to make you feel bad about it.
More on catching up and the Voluntary Disclosures Program →
| Situation | What is involved |
|---|---|
| Employment income | T4s, deductions and credits, and the ones people forget, such as medical expenses, donations, childcare and student loan interest |
| Self employed and contractors | Business income on the T2125, what is genuinely deductible, home office and vehicle expenses, and capital cost allowance schedules for equipment and vehicles |
| Rental property | The T776, one property or a dozen, and the current versus capital question on every repair. See rental and real estate |
| Investment income | T3s and T5s, capital gains and losses, and adjusted cost base tracking that nobody enjoys but somebody has to do |
| Business owners | The personal return prepared alongside the corporate one, so the salary and dividend decisions line up |
| Retirees | Pension splitting, OAS clawback thresholds, and the credits that matter more on a fixed income, such as the age amount and medical expenses |
You do not need any of this before you call. Tick your way through it when you are gathering, or print the page and work off it. Not everything applies to everybody.
Especially if this is our first year together, or if anything changed.
Not sure what you have? Most slips are already sitting in your CRA My Account, and I can pull them directly once you have authorized me. Bring whatever you have in whatever state it is in, and we will work out the rest between us.
A short call first, so I understand what your year looked like. Then a fixed price in writing before anything starts, and a list of what I need in one go rather than a stream of emails. Documents come through a secure portal. In most cases the CRA assessment result comes back straight away, so you know your refund or balance rather than waiting to find out.
If you have a business as well, the personal and corporate returns get prepared together, by the same person, which is how they end up agreeing with each other.
Somewhere near the start I will ask you to authorize me with the CRA. It takes a couple of minutes, you choose how much access to give, and you can withdraw it yourself at any time. It is what lets the slips the CRA already holds be pulled straight into the return, so a T5 that went to an old address does not turn into a reassessment next spring.
There is no limit on filing late returns, and people regularly catch up five or more years at once. Refunds and most credits can generally be claimed for up to ten prior years, so if you have not filed in a while there may well be money owed to you rather than by you.
No. Slips are recoverable from your CRA account. Bank and credit card statements reconstruct a surprising amount. We work with what exists and take a reasonable position on the rest, which is what the rules contemplate.
Filing is not what draws attention. Not filing is. The CRA can assess you on its own information without any of your deductions applied, which almost always produces a worse number than the return you would have filed.
Yes, as a CRA registered electronic filer. In most cases that means an instant assessment result and a faster refund. Some prior year and amended returns still have to go on paper.
It depends on what is in it, so I will not invent a number here. You get a fixed price in writing once I know whether we are dealing with a T4 and a couple of receipts or four rental properties and a business. That happens before you commit to anything.
No. Documents go through a secure portal and most returns are handled entirely remotely, anywhere in Ontario. If you are local and would rather sit down with someone, that is easy to arrange.
Whether it is this year's return or the last four, the first call is twenty minutes and costs nothing.
Call (905) 207-9639