What You Need To Know About Filing Your 2019 Tax Return

NOTE: Canada Revenue Agency has deferred the deadline for filing 2019 individual taxes to June 1, 2020. Click here for more details.Some people do their own tax returns using consumer software (like TurboTax), while others opt to hire a professional to do it for them. Either way, the starting point for any tax return is pulling together all the necessary documentation.Last year’s tax return is a good starting point, as it gives a clue as to what slips, deductions, and credits may be repeated this year. You should also review last year’s Notice of Assessment and any reassessments, as these will include information about carryforwards—amounts from a previous year that you can claim this year, or in future. These include Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)* room, unused RRSP contributions (which you made in a previous year, but have not yet claimed), tuition and capital loss carryforwards, and other potentially useful information.

If you are doing research online about tax changes since last year, be sure to use reliable sources like the Canada Revenue Agency, Department of Finance Canada, Canadian accounting firms and Canadian news outlets. Online searches can be a risky source of information about tax planning, as people often come across U.S. sources, advice that does not apply directly to them, or just outright incorrect advice.

Some of the changes that apply for average taxpayers for their 2019 tax returns do not require you, the tax filer, to take any action. For example, tax brackets and certain tax credits were adjusted for inflation, and tax software will automatically take this into account. Likewise, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) contribution increases would have been accounted for by employers for their employees, and will be calculated automatically by tax software for those who are self-employed.

Medical cannabis is now an eligible medical expense tax credit, including amounts paid for cannabis, cannabis oil, cannabis plant seeds or cannabis products. Medical expenses are commonly overlooked by taxpayers, especially insurance premiums paid for a health plan, which are eligible to claim on your tax return, as well as your out-of-pocket expenses not reimbursed by an insurance plan. Here is a good list of eligible medical expenses.

One thing that taxpayers will notice when preparing their 2019 tax returns is that the Canada Revenue Agency has redesigned the format to increase the T1 section from four pages to eight, mainly due to adding the calculation of federal tax previously done on Schedule 1 to the tax return itself. Furthermore, line numbers have changed from previous years, so they may be tougher to match up to past tax returns.

If you are preparing your tax return yourself using consumer tax software, most of them will provide a decent questionnaire to ensure you are claiming your income and eligible deductions and credits correctly. Software is imperfect, so there can still be little nuances that get missed. That said, the same can apply to using a professional.