The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) invited over half a million low-income individuals to use automatic tax filing in July, bringing the total number of Canadians invited to participate in 2024 to over 2 million.
Per a news release from the CRA, over 500,000 more people can use its SimpleFile service via phone, digital or paper to quickly and easily file their 2023 tax return. That builds on the 1.5 million individuals invited to participate earlier this year. Those individuals had a lower or fixed income and were in simple tax situations that didn’t change from year to year. To date, the CRA says 90 percent of invitees have filed a return.
SimpleFile is a national pilot program included in the 2024 federal budget that aims to help low-income Canadians who haven’t filed a return or who have a gap in their filing history. SimpleFile offers multiple options for completing returns, which can be done in as little as 10 minutes, according to the CRA.
Automatic filing programs like this can go a long way to help Canadians access benefits that they might otherwise miss out on if they don’t file their returns. Global News cited a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office that automatic filing would help Canadians receive over a billion dollars in currently unclaimed benefits each year.
The automatic filing system could also help people avoid spending unnecessary money on tax filing services or protect them from using potentially shady tax filing services.
Header image credit: Shutterstock
Source: CRA Via: Global News
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