General Comments:
This post is about recent announcements made by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). We’ve drawn our news post from a nice CPA Canada Tax Blog on this subject, which you can read in full here. We’ve just chosen to say things in a different way.
Taxpayer Relief for T1/T3 Filers Who File Tax Returns Late:
On January 31, 2025, CRA announced that, as a result of the uncertainties associated with the proposed capital gains inclusion rate increases, it will grant relief in respect of late-filing penalties (P) and interest (I) – until June 2, 2025 for “impacted T1 Individual filers” and until May 1, 2025 for “impacted T3 Trust filers.” Impacted filers are those individuals and trusts reporting capital gains in their respective tax returns. The capital gains inclusion rate increase has now been deferred to Januray 1, 2026.
Details of Relief for Late Filing of Information Slips:
On February 19, 2025, CRA also announced penalty relief to issuer’s of certain information slips.
The deadline for filing of T4 (employment income & related), T4A (other income) and T5 (investment income) tax slips for 2024 would normally be February 28, 2025. Penalty relief will apply to these slips if filed by March 7, 2025, as well as to T4PS (profit-sharing) and T5008 (securities transactions) slips if filed by March 17, 2025.
For T3 information return slips, penalty relief will apply if filed by May 1, 2025.
Other Comments:
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- It is presently unclear whether penalty relief (as described under B above) applies to the spouse of an impacted T1 filer, if the spouse is not reporting capital gains/losses. It is similarly unclear with respect to the granting of relief when a taxpayer is late filing a late T1/T3 prescribed form (e.g. T1135 Foreign Reporting).
- The taxpayer relief (as described above) does not apply to corporations filing their T2 returns late, as CRA no longer believes there is a reasonable basis for providing such relief.
Key Tax Return Filing Dates for the 2024 Tax Season:
These tax return filing dates haven’t changed:
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- T1 personal tax return: April 30, 2025 filing date; June 16,2025 filing date if the taxpayer (or spouse) carry on a business.
- T2 corporate tax return: Six months after the corporation’s year-end.
- T3 trust tax return: 90 days after the trust’s year-end.