CRA's tax deadline is just days away — and more Canadians are going to miss it

financialpost.com:

Millions of Canadians will soon be scrambling to get their returns filed by the April 30 deadline to avoid a potential late-filing penalty and arrears interest.

The Canada Revenue Agency said that as of April 22, it has received 20.7 million 2023 tax returns of the estimated 30.3 million (based on last year’s stats) expected to be filed this season. That means nearly 10 million of us have yet to file.

Around 71 per cent of those who have not yet filed do plan to do so before the April 30 deadline, according to a new survey commissioned by H&R Block Canada, but a whopping 25 per cent say they’ll miss the deadline entirely.

“We’re seeing an increase in delayed filing this year, and many who anticipate they will miss the filing deadline altogether,” Yannick Lemay, a tax expert at H&R Block Canada, said. “We know that for some people, the fear of owing money is a big contributing factor.”

But missing the deadline can be a costly mistake if you owe money. If you’re late filing your return, you could be hit with a late-filing penalty of five per cent of your balance owing, plus one per cent of the balance owing for each month your return is late, to a maximum of 12 months.

If it’s not the first time you have filed late and you’ve been assessed a late-filing penalty in any of the prior three years, the penalties can double to 10 per cent of the unpaid amount, plus a two per cent penalty for each late month, to a maximum of 20 months.

Add to this the non-deductible arrears interest, compounded daily, charged at the current rate of 10 per cent (decreasing to nine per cent, as of July 1, 2024), and it’s really worth finding some time to file (and, ideally, pay any tax owing) by the deadline.

Of those who have already filed, 94.5