Tax Season Resources

• The Genius Checklist – An Online Tax Checklist
  • This smart form will send you a tailored list of supporting information required to complete your personal tax return. Highly recommended!
• Downloadable, fillable PDF version

Our Self Employment Checklist is available for download. It’s a fillable, printable PDF form.

Our Rental Income Checklist is available for download. It’s a fillable, printable PDF form.

TIP: Do you have multiple expenses from ONE service provider?

SAVE TIME by asking them for a “Statement of Account” for 2024 (the calendar year). For example, if you frequently purchase medicine at Shoppers Drug Mart you might have upwards of 30 receipts in a year.  A “Statement of Account” from Shoppers (or from any of your frequent service providers) will save your and our time documenting your expenses. With a Statement of Account, you can provide the annual/total amount (instead of listing each charge). Remember: Keep your receipts as backup – you may need them!

BONUS: If the CRA questions any of your personal medical expenses, the Statement of Account is a solid supporting document. The CRA tends to decline receipts only showing the owing amount, causing time consuming back and forth communications.

If you don’t have a statement of account, please provide the information below (in Excel if possible):

• General description (e.g. Dental, Eye Doctor, Prescription).
• Name of service provider (for example the Doctor’s name and/or the Clinic name).
• The cost or amount in dollars and cents.
• Date of transaction/purchase.
• Note: Off counter drugs, like Vitamin C, are not eligible medical expenses. If in doubt, upload your receipt or send it to us. We can determine if the expense is eligible or not.

Got ?’s

To find out if you can claim a medical expense, click here to use the CRA’s handy medical expense lookup.

To find out if you can claim a medical expense, click here to use the CRA’s handy medical expense lookup.

Please provide the TOTAL value of ALL charitable and political donations. Keep your receipts.

Note: Charitable lottery tickets are not eligible.

Tips:

• Charitable and political donations are treated differently so please indicate them separately.
• For political contributions, indicate if it’s federal or provincial.
• Indicate the charity or political party name.
• Indicate the amount.
• Provide the donation date.
• Here’s a handy lookup from the CRA to determine if it’s a registered charitable organization.

Yes, it’s all here on one handy page on the CRA website! Search by category to discover which deductions, credits and expenses you can claim to reduce the amount of tax you need to pay.

Did you know? Tax deductions reduce your taxable income, while tax credits reduce how much tax you pay on your taxable income.

1. Interac e-transfer: Send to [email protected]
2. To pay by VISA, MasterCard or AMEX, use Stripe via this link: sterncohen.com/pay.

This page outlines how to make a payment to the CRA for personal income taxes, business taxes, or some government programs.

This page outlines all of the tax and payment deadlines for 2025 (the 2024 tax year).

Provide your accountant with the name of the subscription(s), amount paid in 2024, and the publication’s QCJO designation number.

To find out more about this tax credit and for a full list of news subscriptions that are eligible, please visit this page on the CRA website.

Common QCJO Designation Numbers:

The Toronto Star: Q3984721

The Globe and Mail: Q2300382

The National Post: Q9469016

Home Delivery?

The CRA has indicated that home-delivery subscribers can base their tax credit claim on the full price stand-alone digital subscription rate.

This means you are eligible for a tax credit totaling 15% of the eligible subscription costs paid in the year to a $500 maximum resulting in a maximum tax savings of $75 ($500 x 15%).

Our secure portal is our preferred method for sharing your tax (and other) documents with us.

It’s extremely easy to use (no stored login/password required) and our administrators will share the documents internally.

The portal is here: https://e-courier.ca/aQ?is=pzblnnoCmY60

The next section explains how to zip multiple files into one folder for easy upload.

Creating a zip folder saves time (you won’t have to attach many separate files).

1. First gather all the files/scans  you want to send us into ONE regular folder. Note: We accept PDF format only, not picture file formats (e.g., JPEG or PNG).
2. Then right-click on the folder, and point to “Send to” and select “Compressed (zipped) folder”.
3. Remember to name the zip folder with your full name in the title.
4. Upload the zip file to our secure Portal

More help on how to zip a folder:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZ4E7LpKT4
• https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Zip-File