CRA says 2M Canadians invited for automatic tax filing pilot this year
Automatic tax filing services have opened up to thousands of more Canadians as part of a national pilot project.
The Canada Revenue Agency said in a news release on Tuesday that more than 500,000 eligible Canadians were invited in July to file their 2023 tax returns by phone, online or by mail using the agency’s SimpleFile services.
The national pilot program, which was included in the 2024 federal budget, is to help low-income Canadians who have never filed a tax return or who have a gap in their filing history.
Using this service, tax returns can be filed in as little as 10 minutes, the CRA claims.
In March, the CRA said it had expanded its SimpleFile by Phone system, a program that involves agents asking simple questions over the phone to end up with a refund estimate by the end of the call.
With the new summer invites that also pilot the digital and paper options, the automatic tax filing service has been offered to at least two million Canadians so far this year.
There are three different options of automatic tax filing available to Canadians eligible for the national pilot project: phone, digital and paper.
For individuals using the phone or digital service, they’ll be asked a series of simple questions and will need to confirm their personal information.
Tax filers phoning in can create a personal identification number and any refund that they are eligible to will be available at the end of the call.
If no PIN is created, a notice of assessment will be sent either via mail or to the person’s CRA account after their return has been processed.
Experts and advocates have called for automatic filing, noting many vulnerable Canadians miss out on benefits to which they are entitled.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer
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