All citizens of Canada, as well as everyone who lives on its territory for more than six months and receives income, are required to report their profits and pay taxes after the beginning of a new calendar year. To do this, people must complete and submit an individual tax return in Canada between February 18 and May 1. Making mistakes when filling out and submitting documents or when paying leads to serious consequences.
Debt to the state
If taxpayers do not pay taxes on time, then from May 1, the CRA begins to charge a penalty on compound interest. It is calculated from all unpaid amounts of money that had to be declared over the past year. Moreover, the CRA counts a percentage of the amount of the unpaid fine. The amount of the interest rate that is used in this case is reviewed once a quarter.
If a person paid taxes but did not file a tax return on time, then the CRA will charge him a fine of 5% of the amount owed and an additional 1% for each month of delay. For example, if a taxpayer submits a tax return in June, by this time he will have to pay an additional 6% of the fine from the amount specified in the document. That is, 5% of the amount owed and 1% for a full month of delay.
If a taxpayer does not have time to pay all taxes by the end of April, then he must at least submit a tax return. This will help to avoid penalties for its late submission.
Please note that Quebec has a special algorithm of penalties for people who have not filed their tax return on time. The penalty there is 25 CAD for each day of delay, but not more than 2,500 CAD. Moreover, a fine for late submission of documentation will be added to this.
Submitting False Information
If the data in the tax return turns out to be incorrect, and the taxpayer pays less than he should, the CRA will impose a penalty of 50% of the lost amount of money. However, the total amount of sanctions cannot be less than 100 CAD.
For companies operating in Canada and doing business in the United States, it is recommended to use professional US tax services in Toronto to avoid potential problems due to violations of American and Canadian law. Sometimes this also applies to ordinary citizens. If you have questions about how to fill out and file a tax return, it is better to contact experienced accountants and lawyers in tax companies in Canada. Usually, such taxation services are useful for people with difficult situations, for example, those who have different types of income, high amounts of profits, and so on.