Search

MARCH 2023 TAX NEWSLETTER – 3 Steps to Filing your 2022 Taxes

POSTED March 14, 2023 BY Elina Blog, Tax

3 Steps to a Streamlined Personal Tax Return:

  1. Step 1 – Complete the Tax Organizer
  2. Step 2 – Send to Fruitman Kates with supporting documents
  3. Step 3 – Review, approve, and sign

Tax Season News and Changes

  • Changes to 2022 Personal Tax Filings
    1. Changes for Employees and Self-employed individuals
    2. Reminders for 2022 Personal Tax Filings
    3. Looking ahead to 2023 Personal Tax Filings
  • CRA’s “My Trust Account” new features

FRUITMAN KATES 2022 TAX ORGANIZER

Our 2022 Personal Tax Organizer is ready! 
Click Here to download our Personal Tax Organizer in editable PDF format and get started!

  1. Filling out the Personal Tax Organizer
    The Personal Tax Organizer is intended to assist you in collecting the information required for us to prepare your personal income tax return. The guide is in no way exhaustive and if you are uncertain  about any item, please include a note with your queries so that we may advise you.
    Once you have 90% plus of your information collected, please send it in one single email. Please send your information to us electronically in pdf format.
  2. Gather, Scan, and Send your receipts
    Be sure to can your receipts into a PDF document.
    Do not send pictures (jpg/jpeg) of the documents as they cannot be processed efficiently by our staff. When scanning your files, be sure they are saved as a PDF on your computer.
    If you don’t have a computer scanner handy, you can use your smartphone to scan documents into a PDF using the following free applications:
    Genius Scan for iPhone  |  Genius Scan for Android
    CamScanner for iPhone  |  CamScanner for Android
    Microsoft Lens for iPhone  |  Microsoft Lens for Android
  3. Review, Approve and Sign your return
    Once we’ve prepared your return, we will email it for review and approval.
    The file is password protected with the SIN number of the named individual.
    Once you’ve reviewed and approved it, sign the document to confirm it’s correct and can be filed with the CRA.
    Email the signed document to taxdocs@fkllp.ca and you’re done!

CHANGES TO 2022 PERSONAL TAX FILINGS

Changes for individuals

The following changes apply to 2022 T1 personal tax returns for individuals, which are generally due on May 1 this year (because April 30 is on a Sunday).

  1. Request to deduct federal COVID-19 benefits repayment in a prior year: The CRA has created a new form — T1B Request to Deduct Federal COVID-19 Benefits Repayment in a Prior Year — for those who want to:
  2. Deduct a repayment made in 2022 on their 2020 or 2021 return (depending on when they received the benefit) instead of their 2022 return, or
  3. Split the deduction between their 2022 return and the return for the year that they received the benefit.

Once the form is filed, the CRA will automatically reassess the prior year return(s) and apply the deduction so the taxpayer does not need to request changes separately. Note that benefits repaid after December 31, 2022 can only be deducted in the year in which the repayment is made.

  1. First-time home buyers’ tax credit: The amount used to calculate the first-time home buyers’ tax credit has increased to $10,000 (from $5,000) for a qualifying home purchased after December 31, 2021.
  2. Home accessibility tax credit: This non-refundable tax credit is available for eligible home renovation or alteration expenses that allow a qualifying individual to:
  3. Gain access to, or be mobile or functional within, an eligible dwelling, or
  4. Reduce the risk of harm to a qualifying individual when inside a dwelling or accessing it.

For 2022, the annual expense limit increased to $20,000.

  1. Labour mobility deduction for tradespeople: Under this new deduction, eligible tradespeople and apprentices working in the construction industry may deduct up to $4,000 in eligible temporary relocation expenses per year (see Form T777 for more information).
  2. Medical expense tax credit for surrogacy and other expenses: The list of eligible medical expenses was expanded as of 2022 to include amounts paid to fertility clinics and donor banks in Canada to obtain donor sperm or ova to enable a child’s conception by the individual, their spouse or common-law partner, or a surrogate mother on their behalf. In a related change, certain expenses incurred in Canada for a surrogate or donor are now considered medical expenses of the individual.

Changes for self-employed individuals

People who are self-employed may benefit from two newly introduced tax concessions:

  1. Air quality improvement tax credit: Self-employed individuals and partnership members can claim a refundable tax credit of 25% of their total expenses to improve ventilation or air quality at their place of business. The expenses must be incurred from September 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, and are limited to $10,000 per location and $50,000 in total.
  2. Immediate expensing for self-employed individuals: The federal government introduced a temporary immediate expensing incentive for certain eligible property that an eligible person or partnership acquires. For self-employed individuals, this deduction applies to property acquired after December 31, 2021, to a maximum of $1.5 million. The property must become available for use before 2025.

Reminders for your 2022 Personal Tax Return

Although the following measures are not new for 2022, they should kept in mind when preparing 2022 returns:

  1. COVID-19 benefit payments: T4A slips will be issued to taxpayers who received federal, provincial or territorial government COVID-19 benefit payments, such as the Canada Recovery Benefit, Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit, Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit and Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit. These amounts must be reported as income. If the individual received and repaid federal COVID-19 benefits in 2022, their T4A slip for 2022 will show the net amount of federal COVID-19 benefits received.
  2. Climate action incentive payment: Residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario must file a tax return to be eligible for this payment, even if they did not earn income in the year. These payments will be received quarterly but no longer as part of the personal tax return. To apply for the rural supplement, taxpayers residing outside a census metropolitan area should tick the box under “Climate action incentive payment” on page 2 of their T1 return (and not Schedule 14, which was the case in prior years).
  3. Home office expenses: Employees who worked from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 can continue claiming home office expenses using the same rules that applied in 2021. In particular, if the conditions are met, you can still use the flat-rate method to deduct $2 for each day that you worked from home during 2022 due to COVID-19, to a maximum of $500.
  4. COVID-19 business benefits: All amounts received by self-employed individuals in 2022 under the Canada Recovery Hiring Program, Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program, Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program and Local Lockdown Program are taxable and should be included in income for the year.
  5. Electronic notices of assessment (NOA): The government had proposed legislation that would allow the CRA to provide a notice of assessment electronically to individuals who have electronically filed their T1 returns, which would have meant that NOAs would not be mailed to these individuals. As a reminder, this proposal has been deferred, and we understand that the current process for issuing personal NOAs will not change until at least 2024

Changes for next year’s (2023) tax returns

The following tax changes for individuals should be considered for 2023, as well as larger-than-usual indexation adjustments for inflation and increased Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums.

  1. Indexation and other increases:
    1. The final increases to the basic personal amount, spouse or common-law partner amount and the amount for an eligible dependant will be phased in for individuals who are not in the top tax bracket. In 2019, the federal government announced that it would increase these credits in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
    2. Other credits and personal amounts, federal tax brackets and other tax amounts, (including the Old Age Security clawback threshold) are indexed by 6.3%.
  2. CPP contributions and maximum pensionable earnings: The maximum annual pensionable earnings amount was increased to $66,600. The employee/employer contribution rate was increased to 5.95%, and the maximum contribution for 2023 is $3,754.45.
  3. EI contributions and maximum insurable earnings: The maximum annual insurable earnings limit was increased to $61,500 and the contribution rate was increased to 1.63%. For 2023, the maximum employee contribution is $1,002.45, and the maximum employer contribution is $1,403.43.
  4. Contributions to registered and other plans: Limits and amounts are increased for 2023 for registered plans such as registered pension plans, registered retirement savings plans, deferred profit-sharing plans plus advanced life deferred annuities. The tax-free savings account (TFSA) limit has been increased to $6,500 for 2023, bringing the cumulative contribution limit to $88,000 for individuals that were eligible to make a TFSA contribution in 2009.
  5. Tax-free first home savings accounts: Rules to enable this new type of account will take effect on April 1, 2023.
  6. Residential property flips: Budget 2022 proposed a new deeming rule to ensure profits from flipping residential real estate are always subject to full taxation. Starting on January 1, 2023, profits from dispositions of residential property (including rental property) that was owned for less than 12 months would be deemed to be business income, subject to exemptions for death, breakdown of a marriage or common-law partnership, eligible relocations and other life events.
  7. Multigenerational home renovation tax credit: Budget 2022 introduced a refundable 15% tax credit for up to $50,000 of eligible expenses for a qualifying renovation, which is a renovation that creates a secondary dwelling unit to enable an eligible person (senior or person with disability) to live with a qualifying relation. This credit applies to 2023 and later taxation years for work performed and paid for and/or goods acquired on or after January 1, 2023.

NEW FEATURES TO CRA’S “MY TRUST ACCOUNT”

My Trust Account is accessible through Represent a Client, a secure portal that lets trustees and authorized representatives access the My Trust Account services.

My Trust Account is accessible through Represent a Client and is 

  1. Convenient – It is available 21 hours a day, 7 days a week
  2. Easy to use – After registering, simply sign in with your CRA user ID and password.
  3. Fast – Information is up-to-the-minute and transactions are processed immediately.
  4. Secure – The CRA user ID and password are just part of the security.

You can also sign in with a Sign-in Partner. This option lets you sign in with a user ID and password that you may already have, such as for online banking. For more information, see Sign-in Partners Help and FAQs.

My Trust Account allows you to view and update (depending on your level of authorization) some account information including address, direct deposit, and authorizing a representative.
For more information on “My Trust Account” visit the CRA’s website:
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/represent-a-client/help-trust-account/about-trust-account.html

Benefits of authorizing Fruitman Kates as your representative:
When you authorize a representative, you are letting them represent you for your personal tax, business tax, non-resident tax, or trust tax matters.
With authorization, your representative could do one or more of the following:
  • access your personal tax information, tax assessment or reassessment
  • get information about your business tax accounts
  • update some of your business number and program account information
  • access your non-resident tax account information
  • update some of your non-resident tax account information
  • access trust account information
  • update trust account information
  • verify that they are authorized on your account by referring to their Client List in Represent a Client to verify your name and their authorizations levels (this does not apply to non-resident accounts or trust accounts)

How to Give Authorization:
Follow the step-by-step guide on CRA’s site to make Fruitman Kates an Authorized Representative
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/representative-authorization/how.html