FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Is your income tax return, where you declare all your income, deductions, credits, and taxes paid.

Tax Refund is the difference between the tax you paid and the tax you owed, i.e. you get a refund of the amount you paid more than you owed.

Everyone who has a valid SIN (Social Insurance Number): permanent resident / Canadian / temporary resident living in the country as a student / worker.

If you do not have a SIN, you can file your tax return using an ITN (Individual Tax Number) or TTN (Temporary Tax Number).

You will only be eligible for the Tax Refund and benefits such as the Canada Child Benefit if you file your tax return!

Tax residents need to declare overseas assets that total CAD$100,000 or more. 

This is done using Form T1135 (Foreign Income Verification Statement).

There are late filing penalties of $25 per day, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500.

Even if you are not working, you can still declare income (form T2202 – Tuition and Enrolment Certificate).

As an international student, you are entitled to have a SIN – Social Insurance Number, so you can file your tax return. 

If you don’t have any income in Canada or another country, you don’t necessarily have to file a tax return, but you have the option to declare the amount you pay at the College, if you wish, using the T2202 form provided by the institution itself. 

Anyone who declares will get a credit that can be used in the following years.

We send the client an initial email with a checklist and the information they need to declare;

The client fills out the checklist and sends it to us along with the slips, if they have them. Slips are specific forms, e.g. T4, T4A, T4E, T4RSP, T2202, etc;

We receive the checklist with the slips and now it’s up to us! We prepare your file, send it to you for approval, and once approved, we file your Tax Return.

Yes, we have an office in Brazil and we are the only accounting company in the region where we operate in Canada that does Income Tax from Brazil. Every year we assist several Brazilians who live here and still need to declare their income tax.

No, all documents can be scanned with your cell phone or scanner and emailed to us.

Yes, a few days after your return you will receive a document called a “Notice of Assessment” showing the preliminary assessment (which can be final) of your tax from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). This document is mailed to you but is also accessible to you in your online CRA account if you have one.

Yes, as a Canadian tax resident, you need to declare your global income, that is, everything that you earned inside and outside of Canada. Also, if you owned more than CAD100,000 at any point during the year, you need to file an asset declaration.

Under Canadian rules, the worldwide income of every taxpayer in Canada needs to be declared for income tax purposes. This means that everything that is earned abroad must be included in the return. But this does not necessarily mean that the taxpayer will pay more tax, as Canada has tax treaties with several countries, including Brazil.

For some types of investments made in Canada, the institutions responsible for managing the investment issue statements about how much was gained (or lost) on the investment. These reports can be T3, T5, or T5008. In some cases, tax slips will not be issued, but the gains and losses must still be reported.

T4 is the equivalent of the earnings statement we receive for salaried work. The T4A is for payments related to retirement, commissions, profits, scholarships, etc.

According to the CRA website, for payments by check, the estimated time for electronically submitted tax returns is 2 weeks and for paper tax returns 8 weeks.

Charitable Donations are donations that Canadian taxpayers make to charities that entitle them to a tax credit, reducing their income tax liability.

Medical Expenses are eligible medical expenses that give rise to a tax credit, reducing the income tax payable. The most common eligible expenses are medicine, dentist, and almost any treatment prescribed by a physician.

Union & Professional Dues are professional association or union expenses that reduce your income tax base.

RRSP (Registered retirement savings plan): The Canadian government allows taxpayers to set aside part of their salary for retirement and this reduces their income tax base.

This is the interest paid by students on their university tuition fees, which gives rise to a tax credit that reduces their income tax liability.

Tuition fees paid to almost all Canadian universities give rise to a tax credit, which reduces the income tax payable. For international students, this is a credit that can considerably reduce their tax liability, as tuition for international students is very high. The University at the end of the year will provide a form called T2202 to all students who have paid tuition.

These are expenses that taxpayers have with companies or people who take care of children while they are working. These expenses give rise to a tax credit, which reduces the income tax due.

These are expenses that taxpayers have with alimony for an ex-spouse, which generally reduces the income tax base, or alimony for children, which does not.

A taxpayer can transfer some of his or her income from a pension to his or her spouse and reduce the tax payable or give rise to a tax credit.

This is a tax credit available to taxpayers who do not have a spouse, but support a dependent.

Some expenses related to your employment can reduce the basis of your tax liability. Generally speaking, these are expenses that the employer requires the employee to pay.

These are pension amounts that are received from other countries by Canadian resident taxpayers.

Some expenses incurred when moving to another location for work or study may reduce the basis of your tax liability. One of the criteria to be eligible is that you need, when moving, to be at least 40km closer to your new place of work or study.

By selling some types of property, usually capital goods, you can give rise to another type of income called “capital gain”, which has a reduced taxation compared to income from salary for example. The profit from the sale of the home you live in may also be exempt from income tax.

According to Canadian rules, the worldwide income of every Canadian taxpayer needs to be reported for income tax purposes. This means that everything that is earned abroad must be included in the return. This does not necessarily mean that the taxpayer will pay more tax, as Canada has tax treaties with several countries, including Brazil.

For some types of investments made in Canada, the institutions responsible for managing the investment issue statements about how much was gained (or lost) on the investment. These reports can be T3, T5, or T5008. In some cases, tax slips will not be issued, but gains and losses must be reported anyway.