Expert Tax Accountants in Moncton

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027. Most people file between late February and the 30 April 2026 deadline, and that stretch is what tax season refers to. You can gather documents and prepare a return earlier, but it cannot be sent electronically before the system opens. Employment and investment slips such as T4 and T5 are issued by payers early in the year, and the CRA's Auto-fill service can pull the ones it already holds once you have set up My Account.

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened on 23 February 2026 and stays open until 29 January 2027. You can prepare a return before the service opens, but it cannot be transmitted, and slips such as T4s and T5s often arrive only in late February. Filing early makes sense if you expect a refund. If you expect a balance owing, you can still file early and pay by 30 April 2026.

As the rules stand for the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months, so 17% at worst. It rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months, a 50% maximum, but only where the CRA formally demanded the return and had already charged a late-filing penalty for any of the three preceding tax years. Interest compounds daily.

Sign in to CRA My Account and open the tax returns section, which lists your assessed returns, notices of assessment and reassessment, and carry-forward amounts for earlier years. You can also download a proof of income statement, request a copy by phone, or ask whoever prepared the return for you. Keep your own copy and the supporting records for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Sign in to My Account and open the sections for filed returns and notices, where past returns, notices of assessment, slips and carry-forward amounts can be viewed, printed or saved. Without online access, ask the CRA by phone or in writing at the tax centre shown on your notice, or ask whoever prepared the return for their copy. Keep your own records six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

A tax specialist prepares and files returns, works out how the rules apply to your particular facts, and deals with the CRA on reviews, audits and objections. On the planning side that covers timing income, choosing between salary and dividends, structuring a sale of a business, or correcting a filed year through an adjustment request. Fees vary with complexity, so get the price in writing before work starts and confirm whether CRA follow-up is included.

Several receipts fall outside income entirely: lottery and casual gambling winnings, GST/HST credit and Canada child benefit payments, most gifts and inheritances, life insurance death benefits, growth and withdrawals inside a TFSA, and the gain on a home that qualifies as your principal residence. Strike pay and most personal injury damages are also excluded. Nearly everything else is taxable, including tips, side income and crypto gains. The CRA publishes a list of amounts that are not taxed.

Sign in to CRA My Account and check the uncashed cheques list, your balance, and whether any returns are still outstanding, since a refund is only issued once a return is assessed. Missing returns also stop benefit and credit payments. An old CRA cheque never expires; you ask for it to be reissued. Forgotten bank, insurance or pension balances sit with provincial unclaimed-property registries rather than the CRA, so check those separately.

The Canada child benefit follows whoever is primarily responsible for the child's daily care, so the change is made by updating that with the CRA, not by signing the benefit over. The parent who should receive it applies for child benefits and both parents confirm the date care changed; the CRA may ask for supporting letters. Where custody is shared roughly equally, the CRA splits the payments. Provincial and territorial amounts follow the same determination.

Yes. Once eligibility is established the CRA pays the Canada child benefit retroactively, so a late application or a return filed years behind can produce a lump-sum catch-up, though retroactive periods reach back only so far and the oldest months need a written request for relief. Entitlement is recalculated each July from the prior year's returns, and both parents must file for payments to continue. The benefit itself is not taxable, but any overpayment is recovered from future payments.

Yes, in more than one way. Municipalities charge annual property tax on land and any buildings on it, based on assessed value. Selling land can trigger tax on the gain, with one-half of a capital gain included in income for 2025 and 2026, or full business income if you were effectively trading in land. GST/HST often applies when a business sells vacant land, while a sale of personal-use land by an individual is frequently exempt. Provincial land transfer tax normally falls on the buyer.

Start with the notice itself and match each line to your slips, to confirm the error is the CRA's and not a slip you missed. Straightforward corrections can be handled by phone or through change my return in My Account. If you disagree with the assessment itself, file a notice of objection by the deadline printed on the notice. Service problems, such as wrong information or long delays, go to the CRA's service feedback process instead.