It’s Personal Tax Time – How to Get on Your Accountant’s Good Side

Many readers of this blog use accountants to prepare their personal income tax returns. You can take three approaches in working with your accountant. You can provide them with:

1. all the detailed information they request
   
   
2. most of the information, without overly exerting yourself
   
   
3. the minimum information, since you pay good fees

From a client perspective, all these approaches are reasonable to some degree. However, as a retired public accountant of 35 or so tax seasons, I suggest you lean towards approach number one, to the greatest extent you can.

I say this for two reasons. The first reason is simply the better organized you are, the more time your accountant can spend dealing with minimizing your taxes. The second reason is that many Canadians invest in mutual funds (T3 slip) and limited partnerships (T5013 slip). Both these investments have March 31st deadlines for issuing the T3’s and T5013’s, so clients often have to wait until late March and early April to receive their slips.

Consequently, your accountant’s workload has likely changed substantially over the last five to seven years, such that 45-60% of the client information comes in after say April 7th. In the good old days, that number was likely only 25-35%.

I am not expecting you to shed too many tears about your accountant’s working conditions given the fees you pay them. I am telling you this because the easier you make it for them to work on your return (rather than chase information), the better it is for you.

So, with the theme of be nice to your accountant, I list below some do's and don'ts for providing your tax season information to your accountant. 

I will start with the things you want to avoid doing.

Tax Season Don'ts

1. Do not hand your accountant all your tax slips in the original envelopes 
   
   
2. Do not send your accountant PDF’s of each tax slip as they arrive. If you prefer to use email or your accountant has a portal (in lieu of paper copies), try to send a first batch of as many initial slips as possible. Then make a list of what you think is missing (such as T3’s, T5013’s, straggler donation slips) and send a second batch all these slips. Once that is done, it is fine to send amended or straggler slips one by one 
   
   
3. Do not provide your prior years tax returns and tax slips to your accountant. All tax programs have prior year information carried forward if required and most accountants have paperless systems of prior years slips if a past tax slip is required for any reason 

Tax Season Do's

1. Provide your accountant any investment, capital gains and foreign reporting information provided by your investment advisor
   
   
2. Have your children download their tuition receipts from their University portal
   
   
3. Ensure your have official donation slips for all your donations. If you only have a confirmation of your payment from the internet, that is not an official receipt and you will need to request an official receipt from the organization. If you want to earn a gold star, summarize the donations for your accountant so they have a total to compare against their total. This is definitely more than expected, but it acts as an excellent check and balance, as I have had many variances over the years and a summary provides a quick way to see if the client’s total was off or the accountants total was off.
     
4. If you made a donation of marketable securities (see this blog for more detail), make a note for your accountant. This is something they will likely pick-up, but it can be missed sometimes as the notation on the donation slip is sometimes small or in a corner somewhere and easy to miss.
   
   
5. For any medical expenses, where possible get one summary receipt, such as for a chiropractor or physio etc. Some pharmacies also provide a yearly summary, so you don’t have to provide 34 individual receipts.  
   
   
6. Still with medical receipts, if you are audited by the CRA, they will want to see a medical receipt that reflects payment. I often received the invoice for medical purchases, but not an invoice reflecting payment. You may need to follow-up with the medical practitioner to request a paid receipt (again, if you have several expenses with the same practitioner, get them to do one summary receipt reflecting the services and reflecting payment for those services)
   
   
7. If you have a line of credit with the bank for investment purposes (especially for professionals to fund their capital entitlement), see if your banker can provide a simple summary letter on the financial institution’s letterhead of the total interest expense for 2022
   
   
8.  If you have rental income, summarize your rental income and expenses for the year. Also provide any invoices for any large repair bills so your accountant can determine whether the expense is currently deductible or must be capitalized.
   
   
9. If you sold your home in 2022, provide your accountant the sale information. Also provide the date you purchased your home and the original cost information (although it may not be needed depending upon the circumstances). The above information must be reported to claim the principal residence exemption, or the exemption may be denied, or a substantial penalty levied.
   
   
10. Let your accountant know if anyone in your family has become a non-resident in the current year.
    
    
11. Review your return before it is filed. You know your affairs better than anyone. Do a quick overview of your return to ensure what you expect to be reported and deducted has been reflected accurately. In most cases everything will check-out, but sometimes things are missed or when reviewing your return, you realize you forgot to inform your accountant about some income or deduction for the year.

The above information will cover off much of your return. Many accountants make this easier by providing a checklist for you to organize your tax information. 

While all this organizing may seem like a lot of work when you are paying someone to prepare your return, you want those dollars spent having your accountant working on minimizing your taxes, not chasing down information.

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation. Please note the blog post is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

Getting Organized to File Your 2013 Personal Tax Return

Following my six-part Retirement series, I have no energy left to put together any original thoughts. So, I am going to provide you a summary of the Twitter Tax Tips I posted last year to help you get organized for tax season. I will provide a similar summary for tax preparation tips in the next week or so.

Organizing Tips

1. Make a checklist of all the tax slips you expect to receive this year and follow-up any missing slips, no matter how small. This will help you avoid a 20% penalty when the CRA matches your tax slips next fall.

2. Medical expenses must evidence payment. Have the pharmacy, dentist, orthodontist, chiropractor, etc. provide you with a yearly summary receipt so you don't have to find the twenty different chiropractor receipts you had during 2013.

3. For each donation you made online, ensure you receive or request an official tax receipt. The online confirmations are not official receipts. To clarify; when you donate online, you receive a payment confirmation receipt (this confirmation receipt is not an official receipt) and often, a notice that the official receipt will be sent separately or must be downloaded. Many clients provide me the payment confirmation receipts and do not download the official receipt or request such.

4. If you incur expenses to earn employment income, request a signed Form T2200 from your employer.

5. University/College students must print their T2202a tuition forms issued by their school to claim or transfer tuition credits. Note: University students are notorious for not printing out their T2202a tuition forms and holding up the filing of their parent’s tax returns. These forms are sent by the Universities and Colleges to their student’s portals. Please remind, or in my case, harass your kids to print out the form and email it to you.

6. Ensure your children’s activity receipts are marked paid in full to claim fitness/arts credits.

7. Obtain capital loss, HBP, RRSP & TFSA limit info from your online CRA acct. or your 2012 tax assessment. Note: It is very important to ensure you have updated carry forward information for your capital losses. You want to ensure you claim the maximum amount of capital losses carryforward against any current year gains (it was a good year for the stock market, hopefully you had large gains, whether realized or not).

8. If you have self-employment or rental income, summarize the income & expenses now, so you’re not rushed and miss claiming expenses.

9. If you moved to a new work location in 2013 >40km away, gather & summarize your receipts to support the claim. Note: If you moved to a new job this year, it is very important to gather all your receipts for any expenses you incurred and summarize as required by the CRA. See form T1-M to understand what expenses are eligible and how the CRA wants these expenses aggregated.

10. If you use an accountant, send your information to them as early as possible, they will be very appreciative and have more time to review your return.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Suggestions and Strategies to Facilitate the Tax Preparation Process for You and Your Accountant

The Blunt Bean Counter

Last year I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post “The Top Ten Accountant Pet Peeves about Personal Income Tax Season”. One of my long-time readers, who uses the pseudonym Pursuit 99, made the following comment on that blog post: “Thanks for the heads up on what not to do. It really is helpful. Now, how about a list of ten specific solutions or strategies that really benefit the process of personal tax completion for both you and the client.”

Pursuit 99, your wish is my command. Today, I will provide an accountants dream list of actions, forms and summaries that will benefit the tax preparation process for both the client and his/her accountant. Please excuse the overlap between todays post and the Pet Peeves post.

The list below requires the client to do extensive summarizing and organizing. I have a feeling some people after reading the list are going to be saying to themselves, “Pursuit 99 said what can be done to benefit the client and their accountant, not just their accountant.” However, there is an art to preparing a tax return as certain items require subjective decisions. You want your accountant to be spending his/her time making these decisions, not adding up your telephone bills. 

How to Become your Accountants Favourite Client

1. Provide your accountant a summary page of what forms and slips you have included in your tax package. You would be surprised how often there are disagreements as to what was received from a client. This summary keeps both sides accountable for information flow and retention.

2. Do not send a shoe box. Many accountants will not accept shoebox clients. I personally would be concerned about any accountant that does, since they are not spending time on what is important. In my opinion, any accountant who lets their clients bring in a shoe box every year is clearly not concerned with ensuring an efficient tax preparation process.

3. Open any envelope containing an income tax slip at home and do not send your accountant unopened envelopes. Do you really want to be paying your accountant to open envelopes? Also, if you have a cranky accountant like me, you have started off on the wrong foot.

4. Don’t send junk. Separate real tax slips from things like RRSP & TFSA application forms, monthly investment account statements for RRSP and RRIFs, last year's Efile form and last years actual return. If you are unsure, send the form, but don't send everything just because you are too lazy to sort through your tax papers. By the way, your accountant does not need a copy of last year's return, it is on their computer.

5. Advise your accountant upfront about any changes in your personal situation. The birth of children, address change, marital changes, extramarital affairs (just kidding, although this may explain why you have less investment income this year).

6. Summarize and total donation and medical expenses. Your accountant will review all donations slips to ensure they are deductible and all medical expenses to ensure they qualify and are deductible and have not been double counted (when there is an insurance plan in place). However, having a summarized total lets your accountant reconcile their totals with yours quickly.

7. Summarize capital gains/losses (if not provided by your financial advisor). This is a huge issue. Accountants do not have the time to figure out your gains and losses on 50 trades in the middle of tax season, let alone try and figure out the adjusted cost base for stocks you owned 10 years ago when you were not even their client. You either need to do this yourself, or engage your accountant to do this throughout the year so all your capital gains/losses are summarized before March. This is not to say you may not have specific questions regarding a cost base determination to discuss with your accountant. However, if you don't do the majority of the work, you will be charged an arm and a leg by your accountant for undertaking this task during tax season.

8. Make a copy of your 2011 T776 rental schedule and write the comparable 2012 numbers, excluding depreciation, beside the 2011 totals (or summarize your rental expenses on an excel spreadsheet). By undertaking this task, you will note any obvious discrepancies between the two years, which you should review before providing the information to your accountant. This exercise benefits your tax return process as instead of adding up rental expenses, your accountant can now concentrate on contentious issues such as whether a large rental repair is an expense or capital addition.

9. The same holds true for the T2125 or T2032 business and self-employment statements. Provide your accountant a summary of the income and expenses and a list of any questions you had in putting the numbers together. Your accountant can then spend time reviewing the numbers and asking questions rather than adding up a bunch of receipts.

10. If you do not keep an automobile log and are claiming car expenses for employment or business, at minimum, provide your accountant with your odometer reading at January 1st and December 31st. This quantifies your mileage driven during the year and will assist in the discussion as to what percentage of your automobile expenses were deductible in the year.

11. If you are claiming employment expenses, ensure you have obtained the T2200 Form from your employer and summarize your employment expenses for the year. The T2200 allows your accountant to review what expenses your employer says you incurred or were required to incur.

12. If you purchased a rental property during the year, provide your accountant with the purchase and sale agreement, statement of adjustments, legal fees and appraisal fees. This will save significant time on your file and ensure you get full benefit for all the initial costs incurred.

13. If your children are in University or College, ensure they download their T2202A tuition forms, since students can transfer up to $5,000 of tuition credits to their parents, but your accountant cannot make that determination without the T2202A form and your child's tax slips.

14. Don’t just tell your accountant your kids exceed the minimum $500 fitness amount. Obtain invoices and statements from the sports club, dance studio, etc. There is a good chance the CRA will request these forms to substantiate your claim, so ensure you have the correct numbers from the start.

15. If you are claiming child care, provide a copy of your Nanny’s T4. If you use daycare, provide a receipt that reflects payment for the year.

The above is a substantial list that requires significant time and effort on your behalf. However, if you provide most of these items, your fee should be lower and your accountant will have more time to spend minimizing your tax liability.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.