?How do I know if I need to file a Canadian tax return?
As per the Canadian Tax legislation, you must file a tax return if any of the following situations apply:
- You have to pay tax.
- Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sent you a request to file a return
- You and your spouse or common-law partner elected to split pension income
- You received Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) advance payments
- You have to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
- You are paying Employment Insurance premiums on self-employment and other eligible earnings
Even if none of these requirements apply, you may still want to file a return if any of the following situations apply:
- You want to claim a refund
- You want to claim the WITB.
- You want to apply for the GST/HST credit (including any related provincial credit).
- You or your spouse or common-law partner want to begin or continue receiving Canada Child Tax Benefit payments
- You want to carry forward or transfer the unused part of your tuition, education, and textbook amounts
?When do I have to file my Canadian tax return?
There are a number of dates during the year when Canadian tax returns are due to be filed or payments are due to be paid:
Income tax return
Generally, your return for the current tax year has to be filed on or before April 30, next year
Self-employed persons
If you or your spouse or common-law partner ran a business in the current tax year (other than a business whose expenditures are primarily in connection with a tax shelter), your current year return has to be filed on or before June 15 the next year. However, if you have a balance owing, you still have to pay it on or before April 30, next year.
?Will I get a tax refund?
You may. We find that one in three Canadian citizens or residents have overpaid tax and is eligible to claim a tax refund.Taxback.com will get you back as much overpaid Canadian tax as is legally possible.
You can get a refund if you:
- had too much tax withheld;
- paid more installments than necessary; or
- claimed more refundable credits than the total taxes you owed.
The average refund we get for our Canadian tax clients is $998 .
?When can I expect my tax refund?
Once we get your documents it takes us a couple of days to prepare your Canadian tax return. This involves:
- Receiving and checking the documents
- Estimating your refund
- Completing your forms
- Sending them to the tax office / Preparing your return
The Canadian Revenue Agency can process returns filed electronically in as little as eight business days. For other returns it can take 4-6 weeks.
?How does taxback.com work?
Here's how our easy three-step service works:
1. Register online or use our FREE tax refund calculator and then download the TaxPack for Canadian tax returns.
2. Send us your documents and signed forms. We'll estimate your refund. If you're missing any of your payment documents we can get replacements for you.
3. Pay our fee.
4. Relax while we file your tax return or prepare your tax return to get you the maximum possible legal refund.
?How do I know what's happening with my tax return?
You can always contact your account manager for updates or visit our Live Chat for instant answers.We have our own taxback.com staff available to talk to you in 27 taxback.com offices in 20 different countries. Click here to find your local office number
?What are the advantages of using taxback.com?
Thousands of people choose our service because:
- We get you the maximum legal refund
- FREE online refund estimations
- All our Canadian tax returns are compliant with Canada's tax laws.
- Document retrieval service available
- 24/7 customer support
- Free phones, free fax, free online tax help with our live chat!
- No language barriers - our services are available in: Bulgarian, Chinese, Chinese-Taiwanese, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
?How much will it cost?
?I'm missing some of the documents I need to apply for my tax refund. What can I do?
We know it's easy to lose documents or to not even receive them in the first place. That's why we have a dedicated document retrieval team who deal with employers all over the world and can organise replacement documents for you.
You'll find a declaration form authorising us to do this in your Canada TaxPack.
Download, sign and send it back to us.
?What slips or documentation am I likely to have for filing a tax return?
Slips or documentation are prepared by your employer, payer, or administrator. You should have received most of your slips and receipts by the end of February the year after the employment. If you have not received, or have lost or misplaced a slip for the current year, you have to ask your employer, or the issuer of the slip, for a copy.
The following is a list of some of the slips you may receive:
- T4, Statement of Remuneration Paid
- T4A, Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income
- T4A(OAS), Statement of Old Age Security
- T4A(P), Statement of Canada Pension Plan Benefits
- T4E, Statement of Employment Insurance and Other Benefits
- T4RSP, Statement of RRSP Income
- T5007, Statement of Benefits
- RC62, Universal Child Care Benefit statement
- RC210, Working Income Tax Benefit Advance Payments Statement
?What is a final payslip?
We can use either your final payslip or your T4 to claim back Canadian tax for you. Your final payslip is the payslip attached to your last pay cheque. It shows your earnings and how much tax you've paid.
If you don't have your final payslip or your T4, our document retrieval team can help get copies for you.
?I can't find my Social Insurance Number - what can I do?
To claim your Canadian tax rebate we'll need your Social Insurance Number so called your Canadian tax number. If you don't have it, ask your employer or slip preparer as they should have a record of your number.
Alternatively, you can contact Service Canada to confirm your SIN.
?Can I do it myself?
Every tax office in the world is set up to accept applications directly from taxpayers so yes, you can file your return yourself. The reality is though once you submit it, there's no updating process and no feedback until you get a yes or a no, which is frustrating and very worrying.
Preparing your Canadian tax return will involve getting all the tax forms and trying to put all the information together properly and it's not as easy as it looks.
The tax system in Canada is very complex and filing their own tax return is a challenge that many Canadian citizens don't even attempt themselves. With our service, you can rest assured that your tax return is correct and above all, compliant. You can also check if you’re due a tax refund by using the FREE online refund calculator
?What's the difference between filing my tax return and getting my tax refund?
We file your Canadian tax return in order to organise your tax refund.
A tax return is the annual submission of tax forms documenting your earnings, taxes paid, deductable expenses and allowances that you send to the tax office for review. They review it according to the information submitted by your employer and the current laws that apply to your case.
If you get a tax refund, this means the tax office review found you had overpaid tax and were due some back.
Our estimate of your refund is based on our prediction of what the tax office will decide when they review your tax return - providing they have the same information as us.
?Can you guarantee that I'll receive the refund amount you estimated for me?
No, but we do guarantee to get you the most money back that we legally can.
Our estimate is based on your documents and our experience in filing thousands of tax returns every week since 1996. Naturally, the Canadian tax authority has the final decision in your tax refund based on their systems and tax codes.