In your client portal, there are folders for each tax year. What you see is exactly what we see on our end. Keeping this folder structure will help you stay organized when you need to find a receipt or other information at a moment’s notice. It also helps us to prepare and organize your income tax return.
Use your client portal as you wish to store all receipts at any time. It is your own portal to upload, download and use at your convenience. Instead of trying to hold onto that donation receipt for 11 months until you can claim it, just open the portal app on your phone, take a photo of the receipt right away and put it in the folder of the year that it applies to. Canada Revenue Agency does not need the actual paper copy of any receipt. They only need to see a clear .pdf copy. *Please Note* If a receipt copy is not clear enough, CRA immediately denies it.
For information on Canada Revenue Agency’s record keeping requirements and retention policies, see my blog HERE
For instruction on how to use your client portal from your phone, computer or tablet, click HERE
PERSONAL TAX RETURN
What goes where in my client portal?
When you are inside your portal, you will see Tax Return folders. To upload tax information, follow the steps below to get to where you need to be:
- Click on the “Tax Return” folder that applies to the year of information you want to upload. (Ie: If you have a receipt for 2018, then click on the 2018 Tax Return folder),
- Once inside the proper year folder, click on the taxpayer’s name that the information applies to. (Ie: If the receipt you want to upload is for your spouse, then click on thier name. If it is for you or your child, then click on the appropriate name),
- Once inside the proper name folder, click on Tax Information & Slips,
To see what goes in each folder under Tax Information & Slips, click on each of the folder descriptions listed separately below.
Inside each one of the six folder links below is more detailed information on items that belong in each folder, as well as examples and spreadsheets you can fill out to prepare your income taxes.
Employment & Other Earned Income
The following is a list of some of the slips you may receive that are to be uploaded to this folder. Not all may apply to you. Click on the slip links for information on each type of slip. Within the link is a toggle image of what each slip looks like for reference.
- T4 SLIP – Statement of Remuneration Paid
- T4A SLIP – Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income
- T4A(OAS) – Statement of Old Age Security
- T4A(P) – Statement of Canada Pension Plan Benefits
- T4E – Statement of Employment Insurance and Other Benefits
- T4RIF – Statement of income from a Registered Retirement Income Fund
- T4RSP – Statement of RRSP Income
- T5007 – Statement of Benefits
Are you running an un-incorporated business (self-employed) or do you have property that you collect rent from? All that information goes in this folder as well.
- BUSINESS INCOME – Click on the link for topics on self-employed individuals
- CLICK HERE for the Statement of Business or Professional Activities spreadsheet to pop up at the bottom on your computer screen. If you so choose, complete the spreadsheet and submit it to us for preparation of your income tax return(s). We do not need to see all business receipts unless specifically requested by us.
- RENTAL INCOME – Click on the link for topics on rental income
- CLICK HERE for the Statement of Real Estate Rentals spreadsheet to pop up at the bottom on your computer screen. If you so choose, complete the spreadsheet and submit it to us for preparation of your income tax return(s). We do not need to see all rental receipts unless specifically requested by us.
Investment Income (losses)
The following is a list of some of the slips you may receive that are to be uploaded to this folder. Not all may apply to you. Click on the slip links for information on each type of slip. Within the link is a toggle image of what each slip looks like for reference.
- T5 SLIP – Statement of Investment Income
- T5008 SLIP – Statement of Securities Transactions
- T3 SLIP – Statement of Trust Income Allocations and Designations
- T5013 SLIP – Statement of Partnership Income
Capital gains and losses transaction report – your financial advisor can supply this to you. It is a list of the total gains or losses that your investments have made throughout the year. If you are managing your own investments, you should have access to this yearly report.
Foreign income report – your financial advisor would have prepared this for you. It is a report detailing the total income made on investments outside of Canada. If you are managing your own investments, you should have access to this yearly report.
If there are any other reports or slips you have received that you think pertain to investments, please drop them in this folder.
Registered Retirement Savings Plan
Please drop all Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contribution receipts in this folder. We have supplied some information on RRSP contributions and other topics pertaining to RRSPs HERE.
*PLEASE NOTE*
- All T4RSP and T4RIF slips go in folder 1-Employment & Other Earned Income,
- Ensure that your RRSP receipts pertain to the proper taxation year folder. On each RRSP receipt, there will be information on which tax year the receipt is for. If the receipt is for next year, please drop it in the following year’s folder. If the receipt is for a prior year, please let us know to ensure that we have either claimed it, or if we need to prepare a tax return adjustment to report it.
Medical, Dental, Vision
There is a long list of medical, dental, vision, and other expenses that you are eligible to claim if they apply to you. Not all provinces have the same eligible expenses, so take note of your province’s eligibility. To see a list of all these expenses, click HERE.
Donations
As you may know, you can claim donations towards reducing your income tax owing. For some information on donations, click HERE.
Other Items Folder
There’s a long list of personal tax deductions and credits that may be eligible for you to claim. For a complete list, please click HERE.
If any of the items listed in the link pertain to you, please drop any documentation you have for those items into this folder.
If you were given a T2200-Declarations Of Conditions Of Employment signed by your employer, that looks like THIS, then you can submit to us a completed Statement of Employment Expenses HERE along with the Office in Home spreadsheet that will be linked from within. Once both the Statement of Employment Expenses and Office In Home spreadsheet are complete, upload both into this folder along with the T2200-Declarations Of Conditions Of Employment. We cannot deduct employment expenses without a signed T2200 form attached.
GST/HST INFORMATION RETURNS
If you are self-employed (you have business income on your personal tax return) and you have a GST/HST number and need a GST/HST Return prepared, please drop any GST information into this folder. We will prepare the return, NET-FILE it to Canada Revenue Agency and upload a copy of the filed return for you. For more information on GST/HST, please click HERE.
*PLEASE NOTE*
We have separate folders for:
- Income,
- Investments,
- RRSPs, and,
- Medical, dental & vision,
- Donations
We have organized your portal in a way that we would enter your income tax information. In doing this, it will be easier to understand and more organized should there be a government review on your income tax return.
If you are really not sure what folder to drop a document in, put it here and we can re-allocate it for you.
To follow the steps in submitting your personal income tax information to us, click HERE
CORPORATE TAX RETURN
What goes where in my client portal?
When you are inside your portal, you will see Tax Return folders. To upload tax information, follow the steps below to get to where you need to be:
- Click on the “Year End” folder that applies to the year of information you want to upload. (Ie: If you have year-end information for 2018, then click on the 2018 Tax Year End folder),
- Once inside Click on “Tax Information & Slips”,
To see what goes in each folder under Tax Information & Slips, click on each of the folder descriptions listed separately below.
Inside each one of the folder links below is more detailed information on items that belong in each folder, as well as examples and spreadsheets you can fill out to prepare your corporate year end.
GST (Goods And Services Tax/Harmonized Tax)
If your corporation has a GST/HST number (your business number ending in RT 0001) and you would like us to prepare a GST/HST Return for you, please drop any GST information and government correspondence into this folder. Once we have completed the return, we will NET-FILE the information to Canada Revenue Agency and upload a copy of the filed return into your client portal for your future access.
For information on GST/HST, please click HERE.
*PLEASE NOTE*
For late or non-filed GST returns, and for late or non-payment of a GST balance, penalties and interest may apply. To see the rates, click HERE.
T-Slip Information
If your corporation is required to remit any type of t-slip to the government to report what has been paid to individuals or other corporations, we would be happy to prepare any slips necessary. Please drop any information and government correspondence pertaining to slip preparation into this folder. If your corporation has received a T-slip from a third party, please drop it in the “Year End Information” folder.
Once we have completed your t-slips and accompanying returns, we will e-file the information to Canada Revenue Agency on your behalf and upload a copy of the filed return(s) into your client portal for your future access.
Regardless of what month your fiscal year end date falls, slip reporting is based on the calendar year. If your year-end overlaps the calendar year, please make sure that you are only reporting to us the calendar year amounts (January – December) and not your fiscal year amounts. If there are any discrepancies after filing the T-slips, we will make amendments accordingly.
The two most common types of T-slip reporting are the T4 (payroll – business number ending in RP 0001), and T5 (dividends – your business number ending in RZ 0001). This information needs to be submitted to the government NO LATER THAN THE LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY EVERY YEAR. If the information is not received in time, your corporation could be subject to penalties and interest. For non-filing or late-filing penalties, click HERE. For interest on over-due amounts, click HERE.
*PLEASE NOTE*
We cannot assume, guess or come up with what amounts are to be personally reported as withdrawals by the owners of corporations on t-slips based on incomplete, missing or lack of information, as we could be subject to civil penalties HERE
Year End Information
In this folder you can drop all information pertaining to your corporate year end. For a list of the information we will require from you, click HERE.
To follow the steps in submitting your corporate income tax information to us, click HERE
