Protect yourself from CRA

Sometimes you will see that CRA did not process your return as you filed your return or you did not receive a letter from CRA asking for more information about your return or you can not get information relating to your foreign tax credit and CRA stops granting time extensions to get this information.  As such, CRA will issue an assessment or reassessment asking for more money.

CRA discourages taxpayers from filing formal disputes, known as Notice of Objections.   For example, if you want to amend a return, CRA states “Before filing an objection, check the estimated processing times of Individual (T1) adjustments.”  CRA has built an “Income tax objections decision tree” that is designed to make filing a Notice of Objection the choice of last resort.

However, once CRA has issued that Notice of Assessment, you only have 90 days to file this Notice of Objection, or you are at CRA’s mercy.   While CRA will generally process requests that are beyond this 90 period, and by law, CRA can adjust up to 10 years of returns, it is completely up to CRA.  

By filing a Notice of Objection, you protect your legal rights to have an “independent” CRA appeals officer review your file and allows the potential for you to take your case to the Tax Court of Canada if the Appeals officer does not accept your arguments.

Another advantage of filing a Notice of Objection is that the CRA collections cannot take action on getting payment from you unless the amount owing relates to payroll or HST.  Interest does still accrue on the outstanding balance and is payable if you lose their appeal.

As such, protect yourself from CRA by filing a Notice of Objection within the 90 day period.   You can file a Notice of Objection within 1 year after the expiry of the one year period but CRA has to approve which is generally done.

If you need help in disputing a Notice of Assessment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

William Khalilieh is a Chartered Professional Accountant, based in Burlington, Ontario, who provides practical tax and accounting solutions to individuals and their businesses in the Greater Toronto Area.

This blog is for general information purposes only and deals with dynamic, time-sensitive and complex matters that may not apply to your particular facts and circumstances. This information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for specialized professional advice in connection with any particular matter.