Tax Tip: Enjoy the Benefits of Filing on Time and Online

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 23, 2016) - Did you know?

Filing your income tax and benefit return and paying what you owe on time helps prevent delays in receiving your benefits, and helps you avoid possible interest and penalty charges. To save you time and possibly money, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publishes on its website a list of CRA-certified commercial tax preparation software packages and web applications to help you file your return online, including options that are free.

Important facts

• Most Canadian income tax and benefit returns for 2015 are due on April 30, 2016. However, as this date is a Saturday, the CRA will consider your return as filed on time and your payment to be made on time if the CRA receives your submission or it is postmarked by midnight on May 2, 2016.

• Self-employed individuals and their spouses or common-law partners have until June 15, 2016, to file their income tax and benefit returns, but any balance owing is still due no later than May 2, 2016.

• To file your income tax and benefit return online, you have to prepare and submit it using a NETFILE-certified tax preparation software. For a list of products, including free ones, go to www.cra.gc.ca/netfilesoftware.

Filing on time and online

If you don't file on time, your benefit and credit payments such as the Canada child tax benefit and the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax credit may be interrupted. Also, if you have a balance owing and you don't file your return on time, we will charge you a late-filing penalty. The penalty is 5% of your 2015 balance owing on the due date of the return, plus 1% of your balance owing for each full month that your return is late, to a maximum of 12 months. If we charged a late-filing penalty on your return for 2012, 2013, or 2014, your late-filing penalty may be 10% of your 2015 balance owing, plus 2% of your 2015 balance owing for each full month that your return is late, to a maximum of 20 months.

When you file online, NETFILE-certified tax preparation software guide you through the process, do all the calculations for you, and make sure you don't miss out on credits and benefits you may be eligible for! If you are fully registered for My Account, you can use the new Auto-fill my return service to automatically fill in parts of your income tax and benefit return, making the online filing process even simpler.

Last year, 82% of Canadians filed their return electronically. Join the majority who are already enjoying the benefits of online filing! For more information about filing online, go to www.cra.gc.ca/getready.

Stay connected

To receive updates when new information is added to our website, you can:

• Follow the CRA on Twitter - @CanRevAgency.

• Subscribe to a CRA electronic mailing list.

• Add our RSS feeds to your feed reader.

• You can also watch our tax-related videos on YouTube.