Stewart said that the CRA should create a dedicated line for tax professionals who have more complicated and in-depth questions than the average citizen, but that delaying the deadline should be a priority. There needs to be flexibility when it comes to CRA and deadlines,” said Julian. “They simply haven’t put the resources into CRA, people are not able to get through at all,” said Julian.Ĭanadians are struggling through the third wave of the pandemic as record COVID-19 infection numbers grip many provinces across the country. “We have a more complex income tax form and we are simply not having the resources available so that people can get their questions answered,” NDP finance critic Peter Julian told CTV News in a video interview.Īgencies and non-profit organizations are also struggling to get through to someone at the CRA.
Not to mention that this year’s income tax form is more complicated than previous forms, with additional boxes for specific periods throughout the pandemic. “Clients are absolutely panicking,” she said. “It’s absolutely unbelievable,” said Stewart.Īnd her clients are worried they won’t be able to receive pandemic-related benefits if they don’t get their taxes filed on time. “They’re not able to get the documents to us in a technical manner.So then we’re asking them to go against stay-at-home orders,” she said.Īnd wait times to speak with someone at the CRA can be up to four hours. Some clients don’t have access to a reliable internet connection or a computer, making things even more difficult and requiring them to deliver documents to accountants in person. “We can get access much easier than they can get,” she said. Some weren’t notified that they had been locked out and only found out when they tried to log in to file their taxes, leading to more calls to accountants and tax professionals, said Stewart. This tax season has an added challenge for nearly one million Canadians who were locked out of their CRA accounts due to concerns about cybersecurity breaches. “Some of them are struggling not just financially but emotionally," she added.įor those who earned $75,000 or less and accessed COVID-19 benefits, the CRA won’t charge interest on tax amounts owing until 2022.īut, if they miss the April 30 deadline, taxpayers will be hit with a 5 per cent penalty on the balance owing and an additional 1 per cent each month after. She said that some Canadians didn’t know they would have to pay taxes on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and that some people can’t afford to pay them, let alone a penalty on filing late. Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox.
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