1w ago

Electronic Canadian Tax Return Software Options (NETFILE)

www.canada.ca

File your taxes online: Certified tax software - Canada.ca

Filing taxes in Canada is relatively simple compared to the USA. See the site for various options, but try to find ones not operated by American firms such as H&R Block and TurboTax.

From a cursory search, TaxTron, GenuTax, Better Tax appear Canadian. Many are Pay-What-You-Want model.

If you have a complex tax situation and/or can't file online, and/or don't want to do the paper return yourself, consider seeing an independent Canadian accountant.

ETA: TurboTax blames filers for incorrect claims in Ontario getting audited, causing Canadians to owe thousands.

12 comments

Wealthsimple has tax filing services, and StudioTax is also Canadian.
To make my life simple might use one of these services this year as I figure out how the hell to do my taxes by paper. Absurd we don't have a system from the government directly to do this.
- The software I imagine the Government of Canada coming up with, would be like filling out the PDFs manually, but somehow worse.
  
  I could not find their API documentation, so I imagine the current NETFILE might not be too far from that.
  
  As someone who has filed via NETFILE a number of years, you fill it out by hand as much as you write Word docs by hand, or less. Tax software collects the information, you push a button, it asks for your CRA credentials, and sends the properly formatted file it prepares. I imagine that, even if you were writing a program to use this, there are two parts. The first is the file format and the second is the communications requirements.
  The hardest part was connecting to CRA directly. If you have that worked out, great. If you want to avoid that pain, link it to your bank account and your bank authenticates you, and then it's as complicated as logging into your online bank app/site.
- I’ve been using Wealthsimple for taxes for 4 people for the last 3 years and it’s absolutely fantastic. Would recommend to anybody.
  The fine print: up to 2 people can file for free, but they’ll ask for a “donation” when you get ready to netfile. If you have more than 2 people you need to purchase a plan ($40 for up to 8 returns).
  Easy workaround: don’t have more than 2 people on a single Wealthsimple account and you can file for free again.
  I do my parents’ taxes and it’s worth having everything organized under one account so I gladly pay for the plan.
- Absurd we don’t have a system from the government directly to do this.
  yeah, It seems the lobby is too strong here. A bunch of countries provide their own software with autofill included.
  
  There has been some movement on this. There is a government file by phone option, restricted based on income and return complexity. It is being expanded onto computers, and a somewhat larger user pool. I'd like to see it be universal provided you match the complexity criteria.

12 comments