Taxology – Episode 12: Tax tips for filing time!

CC: Welcome to Taxology, the official podcast of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). I'm your host, CC, and this episode is an important one, because it's about everyone's favorite time of year, tax season!

Yeah. Okay. I know it's probably not. For me. It's my fourth behind Thanksgiving, because of the food. Valentine's, because of the chocolate and the season premiere date of my favorite show…anything reality.

But it is exciting to find out if you're eligible for a refund or any benefit or credit amounts to help you throughout the year. We want to help you file your taxes to get the correct payment amounts and avoid any delays.

On this episode, we meet with our expert Antonio to go over filing your tax return for the 2025 tax year. We'll get a bit of a list going on. What you need to file your return correctly, the ways to file or make changes to a return, tracking its status, and other big changes you need to know for this tax season.

So let's get to these filing tips for tax time.

Welcome to the show, Antonio.

Antonio: Thanks for having me CC.

CC: Can you tell us a little bit about your role at the CRA and what you'd like to communicate with taxpayers for this tax season?

Antonio: Sure. I'm the director of the Individual Tax Return Processing Division. I've been in this role for a few years now, but I've been with the Agency for 27 years, and have a pretty strong understanding of the taxpayer experience based on the various roles I've had with the Agency, and the factors that impact that experience.

So really today, if I could impart anything, it would be to make sure taxpayers file in a manner that ensures the fastest service possible, and that they have a smooth and accurate filing season.

CC: What's new for this year? Like, are there any changes coming for this tax season that taxpayers need to know about?

Antonio: Yeah, there's changes every year and this year we have a few changes that we're making for tax filing season, so I'll focus on a few that might be relevant to the listeners.

Firstly, as part of our shift towards online, we're no longer going to be proactively mailing the paper tax package to certain individuals. Certain schedules within that paper guide with low usage have also been removed. So if you still wish to file on paper, you can order, download and print the package online at Canada.ca/cra-forms.

You can also download individual schedules that may be required if it's missing from the package.

So we have our SimpleFile service that some of the listeners might be aware of. To be eligible for the service you have to be of lower income and have a simple tax situation.

In early March, if you're eligible, you may receive an invitation to use the service in your CRA Account or receive a form in the mail to complete. It's free, fast and secure, and you only need to answer a series of quick questions, and the CRA completes your return on your behalf.

So new this year, if you didn't get an invitation but think you might be eligible, you can go to Canada.ca/simplefile and use an online questionnaire to determine if you qualify for the service. And lastly, I just wanted to touch on online adjustments. Though 93% of people choose to file their initial returns online, we still have a high proportion of taxpayers that file their adjustment requests on paper.

In 2024, over 2.5 million requests were submitted by paper. That's 72% of our overall inventory that was submitted on paper.

What I wanted to share today is really that online processes are all faster and have shorter processing times. So really, why not use the online process?

It only takes about two weeks to process an online change request, while our published service standards for processing routine paper requests are eight weeks. But due to higher than normal volume, we're looking at closer to 16 weeks, and it could even take longer if it's a complex request. So I really encourage our listeners to go digital.

CC: Today, we want to ensure that taxpayers have what they need to file their return correctly the first time. Can you tell us what we need to do before we file?

Antonio: Sure, there's two main things really in my mind.

It's making sure you're registered and have access to your CRA account, and making sure you have all your tax slips and information required to file your return.

Many of the features we'll discuss to help speed up your filing, send changes to your return, and view the status to your return can all be found in your CRA account. It's also important to ensure you have all your tax slips ready when you're ready to file.

You should receive most of your slips by the end of February from your employer or your financial institution. If you have a CRA account, you can also get copies of your tax slips once the CRA processes them, which is why having your account set up early is important.

If you don't receive your slips by the end of March, I would recommend reaching out to your slip issuer directly to get a copy. If you go to Canada.ca/taxes-get-ready, there's a list of common tax slips for individuals that you'll find there. So as I mentioned before, I'd really encourage our listeners to make sure they're registered early for their CRA account and log in early, to make sure that they have all their information that they require, and they don't run into any last minute hiccups towards the end of tax filing season when the CRA is extremely busy.

CC: So we want taxpayers to file once, file correctly…

Antonio: Yeah.

CC: …File online so that they can have the smoothest filing process, with faster processing times and fewer delays. Can you tell us more about filing online?

Antonio: So yeah, sure. And like I mentioned, a vast majority of the population files online, it's quite a mature service channel.

On our site we have a list of certified tax software that individuals can go and consult with, and there's also free options there.

CC: Nice.

Antonio: So I really encourage people to go to our website. If you have a CRA account, you can also use a service called Auto-fill My Return in the certified software which allows you to automatically fill in parts of your return with this information CRA has on file.

When you're ready, you will launch the Auto-fill My Return service in the software, the CRA sign in page will open for you to sign into your CRA account. And once you're signed in, your tax slips and information will be automatically delivered to the software. After that, you will review your return to ensure that all the information has been downloaded correctly. If some tax slips are not available, you can still go in and enter them manually in the software.

CC: That's great. I've used Auto-fill My Return and it's easy!

Antonio: Yeah, it is. It's a pretty slick service and it makes the process of entering the data and the return that much easier.

CC: Yeah!

Antonio: You know, we still recommend that once you use the service, you still go through the fields to make sure things have been transcribed correctly. But yeah, it makes that data entry piece a lot more straightforward, eliminates possible data capturing errors when you're manually entering things from the tax slip.

CC: Yeah.

Antonio: So it is a very slick service. But you know, one thing that I'd like to just caution people with is it doesn't include all the information that you need to enter into your return. So like, things like medical expenses, rental income, things like that…

CC: Right.

Antonio:…Are not going to be captured on a tax slip, and not going to be captured with that service. So therefore we really recommend you have all your records available on hand when you're preparing your return.

And what's missing, the balance that's not included in the Auto-fill My Return service download, you simply add it in manually into your return.

So I'd recommend really for listeners to go to our website at Canada.ca/netfile just to view a list of all the certified tax software that's available to them.

CC: Yeah, that's perfect, I can do that. So what are some other filing options that are available, like if taxpayers aren't confident enough to file themselves online or by paper?

Antonio: Yes. So we have several options that are available. Like I had mentioned earlier, we do have our SimpleFile option. So again, if you receive an invitation, really recommend you take a look at that service. If you haven't received an invitation, but you think you're eligible, please visit our site as well too, because you might be eligible. You just have to fill out a quick questionnaire to determine whether you're eligible.

Outside of SimpleFile, we do have a program called the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP). So if you have a modest income and a simple tax situation, there are free tax clinics where volunteers will help you prepare your return.

If you’d like more information on our Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, please go to canada.ca/free-tax-help to find a clinic near you. And of course, if you have a more complex situation, we do encourage you to reach out to your accountant or a tax professional who can assist you with filing your return. This helps ensure that your return is completed accurately and avoids delays, and the need to make changes after the fact.

CC: What is the right time to file? Should I do it right in February? Should I wait until April 29th?

Antonio: So the due date for most individuals is April 30th, 2026 this year. So we encourage people to file and pay any balance owing before that deadline to avoid any delays and benefit or credit payments If you're eligible. And to avoid any penalties and interest if you owe.

But here's some kind of additional tips with respect to timing. This year, we officially opened our filing season February 23rd. So you could file digitally with us as of February 23rd. Processing time is only two weeks if you file digitally versus 12 weeks, if you send your return in via paper.

However, I really encourage people to wait till they have all the right information on hand before they file their return, because last thing we want is people to file early with an incomplete return and have to return to us with an adjustment to adjust certain fields on the return. This could also impact timely issuance of benefit and credit payments as well too. So, while we opened February 23rd, we really encourage you to have all the information that you need on hand to file an accurate and complete return the first time.

CC:You said earlier that most taxpayers file their original return online, but then when they need to send in a change, they do it by paper. What options do they have to do it online? Like what happens if I make a mistake?

Antonio: So if you have to file an adjustment request, you have two options to file online. There's no need to switch to paper. Like I said, paper, there's a much longer processing time, and right now with current inventories, it's taking actually longer than our published service times.

Before you actually make an adjustment, whether it's online or paper, you should wait to receive a copy of your Notice of assessment. Another reason to file online is you'll receive your Notice of assessment much quicker than you would if you filed your initial return on paper.

CC: I think like one year I filed, I got my Notice of assessment like that night and I was like “There's been a mistake! It came too quickly,” but it came.

Antonio: Yeah, and it can be that quick. It can be almost real time for many individuals so again, I can't plug our digital channels enough.

CC: Yeah.

Antonio: So the first option is our option called ReFILE. This is available in certified tax software. So you can use the same certified tax software you used to file your initial return, go into the software, load up that return and make the required changes, and just simply resend the return using that software package.

CC: That's easy enough.

Antonio: Yeah, it's, it's super simple. Same user experience that you would have encountered when you filed your initial return. So again very recommended.

Another option is through our CRA My Account service. If you know the specific lines or slips that need to be changed, you can adjust individual portions of your return using the “Change my return” service in your CRA Account. So those are the 2 digital options that you can use to self-serve.

We've also made important progress in recent months in reducing inventories with our adjustments to help Canadians receive more timely responses. And these efforts continue today. We've also developed automations to streamline, expedite certain routine adjustment requests. For example, while adjustment requests sent by paper can take upwards of 16 weeks, ongoing efforts are bringing us significantly closer to processing those same adjustment requests within our eight week processing timeline.

As another example, we've made progress on reducing backlogs for Disability tax credit related adjustments, that will now see approximately 100,000 more cases automatically processed on an annual basis once eligibility is determined.

I really encourage everyone to go to Canada.ca/change-tax-return for more info on everything we're doing, and all the services that are available when it comes to filing an adjustment request.

CC: That’s great!

When there are delays in processing or when people are waiting for their adjustments or their tax returns to be processed, we have a lot of taxpayers calling in, sending us social media messages, checking on the status of their requests and of their files.

Is there better way to check the status of your return, adjustment request, and any other files with the CRA?

Antonio: Yeah, there's a few ways of self-serving with the Agency that avoids you from having to call our phone lines.

If you want a general idea of current processing times for various files with the CRA, there is our Check CRA processing times tool on Canada.ca. Just go to the service, click the drop-down menu to choose the type of file with the CRA, and the page will provide you with the processing target times for that particular workload.

If you want personalized status updates on files you submitted to the CRA, there is a Progress tracker service on your CRA Account.

The Progress tracker lets you track progress of files such as your tax return, adjustment requests, applications to benefits such as the Canada child benefit and the Disability tax credit. The tracker also provides a target completion date based on our service standards and the date which we expect to complete the processing your file.

We highly recommend using both of these tools to check the status to your files before calling the agency, as it's the same information a CRA representative will be able to provide you over the phone.

CC: Got it. So sometimes people write in on social media and say that their progress tracker is blank. What does that mean? What can we do?

Antonio: So the Progress Tracker tracks the process of your file in real time. So it's possible that the status of your file changes on a day-to-day basis, and it may not have a value depending on where it is in the process. My recommendation would be to check back with the Progress tracker later. I definitely wouldn't call the Agency just yet.

I would refer back to the Progress tracker in a day or two just to see if that status update changes, because it usually does and you'll get the answer you’ll need online.

CC: That was great and so much information. Do you have any last tips and tricks to share with us for this tax season?

Antonio: I guess in terms of final words for our listeners, I'd really encourage people to ensure they file on time and ensure that prior to filing, they have all the information on hand to file a complete and accurate return the first time to avoid the need to file an adjustment or call the CRA, and to also avoid delays in processing your return.

So, if that's something I could leave with the listeners, it would be filing on time and filing accurately.

CC: Great. Thank you so much for coming!

Antonio: Thanks for having me.

CC: Thanks again to our guest Antonio, for joining us on today's episode of Taxology. We hope this has given you tips to file correctly and get the refund benefit or credit amounts that you're eligible for. Maybe tax season will become one of your favorite times of the year.

For more information, go to Canada.ca/taxes-get-ready. You can also follow us on Facebook, X or Instagram @CanRevAgency. And please listen to our previous episodes to stay informed on all things taxes. Thanks for listening. Until next time I'm your host CC. Stay safe and do your taxes.