Confusing though it may be to say aloud, April seems like a good time to shout out a word or two about the continuing evolution of the “My Account” service available for communicating with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
In fact, it’s timely to get a better understanding of the service, as the Federal Budget 2010 proposes some legislative amendments that will bring us and CRA further into the digital age, hopefully making our dealings with our tax authority easier and more effective.
The service
If you’re not familiar with it, My Account (and My Business Account on the commercial side) is the secure online platform where taxpayers can manage their tax affairs with CRA. Among the current functions on the personal side, you can:
Apply for tax benefits such as the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST/HST credit, the Universal Child Care Benefit and the Working Income Tax Benefit
File income tax returns in coordination with the NetFile program and review past years’ returns (even for years before you opened your My Account)
Track important balances such as RRSP and TFSA contribution room, and outstanding amounts under the Home Buyers’ Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan
Access certain tax slips, including CPP, OAS and EI statements
Establish wire connections, both to pay amounts due to CRA more securely and receive amounts due to you more expeditiously
You can even use it to register a formal dispute if you differ with CRA on tax matters.
New developments
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act became law in 2000, prescribing requirements and limits of communications between the government and ourselves. While it allowed for a number of technological advances, it could not reasonably anticipate all the digital developments of the past decade.
In the tax realm, assessments have had to be communicated in writing and by regular mail, until now. The Federal Budget 2010 proposes to allow taxpayers to direct CRA to provide such assessments digitally, likely as a posting to My Account. Apart from speeding and simplifying communications for many of us, presumably this will cut down on paper, processing activities and other hard resources.
In the end
Though the recurring calculation and payment of tax ranks below certain dental procedures for most of us, it’s not going away. As such, the easier it is to complete, the better.
In my case, I filed online, was assessed within 48 hours and had cash directly deposited to my account – that is, my own account – by the end of the following week. Not bad