On March 18, 2020, the federal government announced a number of measures that were aimed at providing relief and support to Canadians due to the COVID-19 crisis. From a tax compliance standpoint, there were extensions of the filing due dates for 2019 personal income tax returns and trust income tax returns with a taxation year ended December 31, 2019.
- Personal income tax returns that were originally due on April 30, 2020, are now due to be filed by June 1, 2020; and
- Trusts with a taxation year ended December 31, 2019, that were originally due on March 30, 2020, are now due to be filed by May 1, 2020.
In addition, all taxpayers can defer the payment of income tax amounts that become owing on or after March 18, 2020, until after August 31, 2020, without incurring interest or penalties during this period. The relief from penalties and interest includes income tax balances and income tax instalments. Revenu Quebec has deferred the deadline of personal income tax filings and payments to match the federal extensions. Alberta has also announced the deferral of corporate income tax balances and instalments payments to August 31, 2020.
While the extension of the personal tax/trust filing deadlines and the deferral of income tax payments provide taxpayers with much-needed relief, the federal government was silent on the filing deadlines for partnership information returns (T5013), corporate income tax returns (T2) and GST/HST returns. Revenu Quebec has extended the filing deadline for the Quebec partnership information return (TP-600-V) to May 1, 2020. There does not appear to be a deferral of GST/HST payments that become due during this period. Until greater clarity is provided for these areas, we advise our clients to continue to meet the corporate and partnership filing deadlines and remit GST/HST in a timely manner to avoid penalties and interest. If further tax relief is implemented in the future, we will endeavour to provide an update to you. For further information on additional financial support announced by the Federal, Quebec and Alberta tax authorities, please read our summary here.
Personal Tax Information Request for our Clients
At GCSE, we will continue to work towards meeting the original personal tax filing deadlines in an effort to avoid further delays due to the uncertain and ever-changing environment that we now face. As we enter the 2019 personal tax season, we have the following pertinent information to share with you:
- In order to maintain the general policy of “social distancing”, we encourage all of our clients to submit their personal tax information to GCSE in electronic format
- We are implementing a process whereby all final deliverables will be issued to our clients via secured email in an effort to limit the need for our staff to be in the office to compile paper documents for delivery. Should you require alternative arrangements, please contact your GCSE advisor.
As noted above, we are working towards completing your personal tax returns by the original tax due date despite the extensions that were announced. Please have your tax information sent to your GCSE advisor as soon as possible to ensure that we can complete your return in the coming weeks.
We would also like to inform you that GCSE’s latest edition of our in-house tax publication, In TOUCH with TAX – AS THE NUMBERS CRUNCH – AN ACCOUNTING SOAP OPERA, has been published. A copy can be accessed on our website using following this link: here
Wishing you and your family good health during these difficult times.
GCSE LLP
