Latest news with #CharlesDrouin
National Post
2 days ago
- Business
- National Post
CRA resolves contribution room issue for 90% of TFSA holders
The CRA says it has resolved 'most issues' that made Tax-Free Savings Account information, in particular contribution limits, unavailable in My Account. Article content That's the agency's secure online portal where individual taxpayers can access their personal tax information. Article content In an email to National Post on Friday, the CRA wrote: 'As a result, most individuals can now view their TFSA information in My Account.' Article content Article content However, not all TFSA holders will be satisfied yet. The information is only available for about 90 per cent of TFSA holders. Article content Article content 'For the remaining 10%,' writes Charles Drouin with CRA media relations, 'the information remains temporarily unavailable while we work to ensure their contribution room is updated. This precaution is in place to help prevent errors, and efforts continue toward a prompt resolution.' Article content As the agency did previously, it expressed regret over 'any inconvenience this situation may have caused and appreciate the patience and understanding of Canadians as we continue working to fully restore this service.' Article content Individual contribution room is usually readily available by signing into your CRA account. Alternatively, you can usually call the Tax Information Phone Service. However, that hadn't been the case since mid-April, the CRA confirmed with the CBC. Article content Unlike RRSP contribution room, 'TFSA room is not shown on your notice of assessment,' Jason Heath, managing director of Objective Financial Planners in Toronto, tells National Post. Article content Article content 'Even when you try to view your TFSA details like the contribution history, it too is unavailable.' Article content Article content Instead, a warning was posted on the CRA site, Robert Kepes, a tax lawyer with Toronto firm Morris Kepes Winter LLP, told National Post. It's still there.
CBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Information about TFSA contribution limits now available, says the CRA
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says it has resolved an issue that prevented people from seeing how much contribution room they had left in their tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs). That information first became unavailable on April 17. CRA spokesperson Charles Drouin told CBC News in an email that the federal agency introduced a new data validation process this year to ensure that tax information submitted to them is accurate. "Upfront validations now advise these filers of errors with their information return submission in real-time and prevent the submission of invalid returns," Drouin wrote. He said the new system would ultimately improve the quality of the data the Canada Revenue Agency receives and allow for any errors to be corrected faster. But he added that "stricter validations and new processes caused delays in receiving and processing the information returns. As a result, there have been delays in processing TFSA annual information returns this year." Each year, Canadians 18 or older get more contribution room in their tax-free savings accounts, which shield investments from taxes. In 2025, for example, the new contribution limit was $7,000. If someone was 18 in 2009 – the year the the savings accounts were introduced – has lived in Canada since then and never contributed to their TFSA, their total contribution limit would be $102,000 as of Jan. 1, 2025. If someone didn't properly track their contributions over the years, though, they could risk going over their limit, which comes with a one per cent interest penalty per month for those funds over the limit. The CRA website notes that posted contribution limits do not take into account any contributions to the TFSA made since Jan. 1, 2025.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taxes 2025: Got a Canada Revenue Agency review letter? Here's what to do
As we hit the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) April 30 tax return deadline, it's worth remembering that the agency will, as usual, review many Canadians' returns and benefits in 2025, checking for errors and omissions. But there's no need to panic if you get a review letter, says CRA spokesperson Charles Drouin — it's part of a broader effort to help taxpayers avoid a 'much more serious' audit. 'We do everything in our power to avoid audits,' Drouin told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview. 'You know, we go out of our way just to educate people and say, 'OK, we just need more information to confirm this is right.'' The CRA doesn't divulge how many reviews it does, Drouin says, because 'we don't want to give away what our strategies are.' (An archived 2019 CRA webpage says around 350,000 letters are sent every year.) The agency reviews taxpayers' benefits and tax returns. The benefit reviews relate to 'most of the benefits we administer,' Drouin says. There are over 100 benefits, credits and deductions that a taxpayer may be eligible for, he says, but eligibility may change from one year to the next as a person's situation evolves. Tax return reviews fall under seven different programs. Reviews before the CRA issues a notice of assessment Reviews after the CRA issues a notice of assessment Reviews of requests for an adjustment of a tax return Examinations of refunds More detailed reviews of a person's income, deductions and losses A program that cross-checks the taxpayer's filing with records received from employers or financial institutions Special assessments, which the CRA says are 'in-depth analysis of areas of potential non-compliance to detect trends.' CRA's deadline for filing your tax return is April 30, and a lot of reviews take place during tax season, but the timing of reviews is not calendar-dependent, Drouin says. 'We've got an entire division responsible for non-compliance, and they'll be analyzing information over time,' Drouin said. 'So, for example, they may say, OK, we'll look at 2023 tax returns now … and just evaluate on specific criteria – how was compliance? And then if they discover, for example, well, one taxpayer out of two did not really comply … and it just went through the system, that may trigger reviews at that time.' The agency looks for various errors in tax returns. After discovering a mistake made by many in a past year's return, it may review a number of taxpayers' returns to correct that issue. Some returns and benefits are reviewed at random, Drouin says, but most are triggered by what the agency calls 'impartial and non-discriminatory criteria.' The CRA may, for example, find errors introduced when a taxpayer's situation changes, modifying their eligibility for some benefits. 'So that can be, for example, you've changed your marriage status, or you were single and now you're common law,' he said. 'Or you've moved from Ontario to Quebec. So we'll see that, and we'll say, 'OK, maybe we need to check what's going on here.' Or maybe, for example, we see that you've claimed a new credit that you've never claimed before." A discrepancy between someone's tax return and the slips the government has received from an employer or a bank might also prompt a review. 'So if you forgot to submit maybe a T3 or T5, which are some of your capital gains that you've earned, or some of your interest, and we see that we got that information from your bank, but you haven't given that information in your tax return, then that will be something that we'll be checking for,' Drouin said. Mistakes are also common with address changes, tuition fees and medical expenses, Drouin says. Another one is cryptocurrency, he says, which as a relatively new concept has reporting requirements that might not be well understood. 'So, if we're sending you a letter, it's just because it might be something that doesn't match with our system, and we just want to verify that with the taxpayer,' Drouin said. The best way to proceed, Drouin says, is to remain calm and remember that the process is not an audit but rather a simple verification. The letter will be seeking specific information, and the task is as easy as getting that information back to the CRA. Drouin notes that the requests typically have a time limit attached, so responding promptly will help avoid an escalation. In general, Drouin says, CRA offers the benefit of the doubt, with the understanding that Canadian tax law 'is fairly large and sometimes complicated, so people might not know all the intricacies.' If you made a mistake, you may need to pay some money back, but that's it. "It's just education, and we reassess and adjust with taxpayers," Drouin said. However, if you've been subject to a review before and try the same thing on a future return, an audit may then be possible, Drouin warns. John MacFarlane is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jmacf. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
