Your taxes might look a little different this year because of the pandemic. With special government assistance like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and new deductions for people who work from home, this tax season promises to be unique.
The Canada Revenue Agency says it is expecting a flood of queries related to COVID-19 benefits.
To help those with questions, personal finance expert Shannon Lee Simmons sat down virtually with CBC’s Jacqueline Hansen to discuss how taxes are different this year.
Here are those answers, edited for clarity and length.
Q: Tax season usually kicks off when you get that T4 form from employers. This year, there are different forms. Can you walk us through what other forms Canadians could be expecting?
A: If you got government support last year (whether through CERB, CRB, or CSB), that’s going to show up on a T4A. And the most important thing you can do for yourself is have a my CRA account. You can go to previous tax years; you can make sure you have all your tax slips and find all your T4 documents.
For home office workers — there’s also the T2200 form. The T4A for government support and the T2200 for home office expenses are the two new forms you should be watching out for.
We’re also used to seeing T4Es. Those are the Employment Insurance forms and used for parental leave as well. If you were an employee and you were laid off this year, Service Canada changed it so that across the board — everyone got $500 per week.
Q: A YouTube user asked: Are there any indications that the CRA will delay the return filing due dates (like they did last year) beyond April 30 for personal tax returns, and June 15 for corporations?
A: I didn’t see any indication of that. It’s really important to know: There’s a big difference between filing your taxes and paying any balances owing. The big deadline that everyone usually talks about is this April 30 filing deadline for personal taxes.
And it’s June 15 for people who are self-employed, which would be if you’re a sole proprietor. But I worry about people thinking that they have until June 15 to file their self-employment taxes because the money is still due April 30.
How can you know necessarily what you might owe by April 30 if you haven’t filed yet? Try to figure out what you owe and get it done by April 30. Because then you don’t get charged any interest — that’s my blanket advice.
Q: Who doesn’t have to pay right away? Who has a year to pay the taxes that they owe?
A: Very specifically: if you made $75,000 or less in 2020 and you were on one of the government programs (such as CRB, CSB, the caregiver allowance, or CERB), you have an amount outstanding. You have until April 30, 2022 to pay those taxes without the government charging you any interest.
If you made over $75,000, you don’t qualify for that extension.
Financial expert Shannon Lee Simmons recommends all Canadians get a my CRA account to make doing your taxes easier. The Canada Revenue Agency website is shown here. (Doug Ives/The Canadian Press)
A: The CRA shut down 800,000 Canadian accounts recently. So the best thing to do if that’s happening to you is just reset it. It’s going to be annoying. You’re going to have to get on the phone.
I’ve had some clients say that they waited three hours to get through, so put your phone on speaker and maybe watch a show or do some work. Eventually when they pick up, they’re going to need last year’s tax information. Hopefully you’ve got your Notice of Assessment handy but they do have a way of asking other security questions in case you don’t.
Note: The CRA also says users can log in using their banking information or have a new CRA registration mailed to them.
Q: Stephanie on YouTube asked: My T4 for CERB is on my CRA account but I haven’t got the physical copy in the mail yet. Can I use that electronic file in order to file my taxes?
A: 100 per cent. That’s what it’s there for.
Q: Margaret via Facebook asked: My boss laid me off last March and still has not supplied me with my T4. What do I do?
A: Legally, your employer has to file that T4 by Feb. 28 of this year. You may not have gotten a physical copy, but it may still be posted to your My CRA account. Check there first. It should be there, even if you haven’t gotten the physical copy, because sometimes employers will forget or they’ll be lazy or something will happen administratively for small businesses. That’s the easiest solution.
Number 2 would be to call your old employer, speak to the manager, speak to somebody and see if they have that information. Ask them: “What did they file to the CRA?” They should have filed it legally with the CRA already, so that is a bigger issue if they haven’t.
WATCH | Detailed or flat rate: Which filing method for working from home is for me?
Are you a renter or a homeowner? Tax expert Shannon Lee Simmons breaks down which method of filing for home-office expenses might make sense for you. 7:03
Q: Saba from Facebook asked: Can you write off a portion of property tax (when working from home) if you’re a homeowner?
A: No, not unless you’re an employee who earns commissions. The homeowner here really is not set up for the best bang for their buck as far as the “detailed method” (for calculating home-office expenses) goes.
For a lot of the clients I’ve seen, the flat rate tends to be easier, faster and worth more for a lot of people who are homeowners.
For the flat rate method, you just tally up how many days of your year that you were mandated to work from home (vacation days don’t count) and then make sure you do run that by your employer.
WATCH | Can you expense newly purchased home-office equipment?
Tax expert Shannon Lee Simmons answers a question about the single most disappointing piece of news she has for people setting up a home office. 1:31
You can write off up to 200 days for all of 2020. Make sure you’re agreeing on the days you worked from home with your employer and then you multiply that by $2 and that’s your deduction. So if you had the full 200 days, you multiply that by $2 to get a $400 deduction, done. No work, no effort, no receipts.
A lot of people are opting to do that, especially homeowners who work out their electricity, and their heat, and then once they take their time and square footage into account, it’s like well that’s only a $200 deduction.
Q: Danny on Facebook asked: Is there anything different about this tax season that students need to know in particular?
A: Number one, if you’re a student and if you were on the Canada Student Benefit, it is considered taxable income. Just like CERB, it’s going to be treated the same way and you’re going to get a T-slip. So that’s something to watch out for.
However, as a student, you probably have tuition credits that are going to completely offset that.
So make sure that you’re applying those tuition credits and putting them in properly. And don’t forget to add any carry-forward tuition from previous years. The more tuition credits you have, the less tax you’re paying.
Q: This is a different year for parents. Are there any potential tax surprises for parents as typically child care would have been a big cost?
A: It’s a big change this year for parents. If you have child care, the typical amount if you have a child under seven — you can deduct up to $8,000 per kid. So keep in mind that most people are going to spend between $15,000-$20,000 per kid. And then to be able to write off $8,000 as a deduction is huge for families. If you’ve got two kids that would be a $16,000 deduction to your household.
It works the same as an RRSP deduction. Imagine you made a $16,000 RRSP contribution, it would have the same positive impact on your taxes.
This year, what I’m noticing is people may not have spent the full $8,000 because maybe for six months they weren’t paying child care or day camps weren’t running. So all the things that used to qualify for that now don’t; they may no longer have the full deduction amount. So that might be a surprise. But you also spent less, so remember, you were saving some money.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
