Personal tax accountant in Oshawa

Two dates, and the one that costs money

Most Oshawa residents file by April 30. If you or your spouse or common-law partner carried on a business in the year, the filing deadline moves to June 15. The payment deadline does not: any balance owing is still due April 30, and interest runs from that date. The later filing date is a convenience for the paperwork, not a deferral of the tax. Filing on time also matters if you receive benefits and credits, because they are recalculated from the return and pause when it is missing. Personal tax deadlines sets out the dates in one place.

What Ontario adds to your return

Ontario income tax is calculated on the federal T1, so you file one return and the CRA collects both. The Ontario part has features of its own. There is a provincial surtax calculated on the basic Ontario tax, which means the provincial tax on higher incomes climbs faster than the bracket rates alone suggest. There is the Ontario Health Premium, a separate line based on taxable income. And there are Ontario credits and benefits that depend on filing the return, including the Ontario Trillium Benefit application for energy and property tax credits. None of these requires a separate filing, but each needs the right information on the return.

Household returns in Durham also carry the federal credits and benefits that depend on both spouses filing: the Canada child benefit, the GST/HST credit and, for retirees, the choice to split eligible pension income between spouses. Medical expenses can be pooled and claimed on whichever return produces the larger credit, and donations can be combined the same way. These are small decisions individually, and they are made each year from the whole household’s numbers rather than one return at a time. Pension income splitting and the medical expense credit explain two of them.

Commuting, and the expenses employees can claim

Plenty of Oshawa residents drive the 401 to work elsewhere in the GTA every day. The commute itself is not deductible, however long it is. Employees can claim employment expenses only where the employer requires them to pay those costs and signs a form T2200 confirming it. That covers a salesperson using their own car for client visits, for example, or someone required to keep a home office. The claim then needs a logbook and receipts. The mileage and vehicle log shows what the CRA expects to see.

Shift workers and tradespeople have a few claims of their own. Apprentice mechanics can deduct part of the cost of new tools, and tradespeople can claim some tool costs as an employee where the employer requires them to supply their own. Union and professional dues shown on the T4 are deductible, and moving expenses can be claimed when a new job brings you at least a meaningful distance closer to work. Each needs the paperwork kept, which is most of the job.

Self-employed in Durham

A self-employed return adds form T2125, and with it the questions that decide the tax: which expenses are business, how much of the vehicle and home are business use, and what capital cost allowance applies to equipment. In Durham that covers a wide range of people, from trades working for builders on new subdivisions to owner-operator drivers and realtors not yet incorporated. Self-employed returns with schedules commonly cost $250 to $450 depending on what the file holds. Once sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, HST registration is mandatory, and the HST return becomes part of the annual routine. See self-employed tax returns.

Owners paid by their own corporation

If you own a Durham company, your personal return is where the pay decision lands. Salary arrives on a T4, dividends on a T5, and each is taxed differently: dividends carry a gross-up and a dividend tax credit, which interacts with Ontario’s surtax in ways that are worth modelling before the company declares anything. We prepare the owner’s T1 alongside the corporate return, so the salary and dividend mix is chosen with both returns in view. The shareholder loan account is part of the same picture: a balance owed to the company that is not repaid within one year after its year-end is generally taxed on your T1.

Instalments once tax builds up

Tax deducted at source covers most employees. Self-employed people, landlords and owners taking dividends often have little or none withheld. Once net tax owing exceeds $3,000 in the current year and in either of the two previous years, the CRA expects instalments on March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. The CRA sends reminders with suggested amounts; paying them is usually the simplest way to avoid instalment interest. The instalment calculator gives an estimate. Rental income from a basement unit or a second property is a common reason Durham residents first cross that line; see rental income returns.

Durham has seen a steady stream of new homes, and with them second units, basement apartments and owners renting out a former home after moving. Each creates a rental schedule, and a move out of a former home can raise a change-in-use question for the principal residence exemption. It is worth raising the year it happens, not the year the property is sold. See change-in-use rules.

Remote, from Abbotsford

EverStone prepares Oshawa personal returns from Abbotsford, British Columbia. Slips and receipts come in through a secure upload link, often photographed on a phone. We use the CRA’s auto-fill service where you authorise it, so slips the CRA already holds are not missed. The return is signed electronically and filed electronically. Records should be kept for six years, and if the CRA reassesses you, a notice of objection is due within 90 days of the notice; see filing an objection.

Remote personal tax for Oshawa from Abbotsford

Personal tax for Oshawa and Durham Region residents is delivered remotely from Abbotsford, British Columbia. There is no Oshawa office and no local team. Slips arrive through a secure upload link, signatures are electronic, and the CPA who prepares the return answers the questions about it.