# CRA's new Auto-fill



## james4beach

This is the first time I heard of this new capability from CRA
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taxes/tax-time-2016-auto-fill-cra-1.3429234

It sounds like you have to use certain tax preparation software that has the feature, and it might auto-fill certain forms including T3, T5, RRSP, T5008. (I'm not exactly sure what software would do with the T5008, since it's not straightforward how that turns into capital gain/loss)

Has anyone encountered this Auto-fill? If so, can you share what tax software you're using?


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## Eclectic12

Still waiting for the last bits of the investment info to arrive ... so thanks for pointing out the option.

Using uFile where there seems to be a help web page that walks one through the process. I would expect the cloud based uFile to also have it.
Though CRA's grid seems to say it, like StudioTax only have it in the pro version.

http://www.efile.cra.gc.ca/l-sftwrq-eng.html


Cheers


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## pwm

FutureTax does not support the new feature.


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## scorpion_ca

I have used auto-fill feature by using Studiotax Software. I really liked it as I don't have to type some of the info anymore though it did not fill T5008 automatically.


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## Spudd

I used it in SimpleTax. It's pretty good. Only used it for T5's and T4's so far, though.


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## agent99

scorpion_ca said:


> I have used auto-fill feature by using Studiotax Software. I really liked it as I don't have to type some of the info anymore though it did not fill T5008 automatically.


I just tried this on Studio Tax. But could not get past square one. 

I first chose to start a new return using 2014 return file. File was for a couple. It chose to start with my wife's return. It first found our 2014 file and the basic front page information (address, SIN etc). It then wanted us to connect to CRA. We did that - entered our CRA log on info. That seemed to get us to CRA. Then we got a rotating icon and screen said Please Wait. 15 minutes later, same thing. I then clicked back on Studio Tax tab. There was a message there saying we had taken more than 3 minutes (for what?) and session had aborted. We are away from home and internet is a bit slow, but not bad. It takes a few minutes to find CRA log on info, especially when we did not expect to need it. 

I have used Studio Tax for some time - But this is not user friendly. 

Other than the front page info, what else was downloaded from CRA?


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## Nerd Investor

agent99 said:


> I just tried this on Studio Tax. But could not get past square one.
> 
> I first chose to start a new return using 2014 return file. File was for a couple. It chose to start with my wife's return. It first found our 2014 file and the basic front page information (address, SIN etc). It then wanted us to connect to CRA. We did that - entered our CRA log on info. That seemed to get us to CRA. Then we got a rotating icon and screen said Please Wait. 15 minutes later, same thing. I then clicked back on Studio Tax tab. There was a message there saying we had taken more than 3 minutes (for what?) and session had aborted. We are away from home and internet is a bit slow, but not bad. It takes a few minutes to find CRA log on info, especially when we did not expect to need it.
> 
> I have used Studio Tax for some time - But this is not user friendly.
> 
> Other than the front page info, what else was downloaded from CRA?


I think the idea is it would download a bunch of your tax slips. I just downloaded studio tax 2015 today so will likely give this a go in the next couple days when I get around to doing my return.


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## Spudd

Update, I just tried it with T5008's. It wasn't very successful. It filled out a bunch of T5008's, but they didn't reflect properly in the tax return. I think capital gain/loss stuff is still best done by hand. (At least if you're using SimpleTax).


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## james4beach

pwm said:


> FutureTax does not support the new feature.


I noticed that too.



> I used it in SimpleTax. It's pretty good. Only used it for T5's and T4's so far, though.


Did you find that all the T5's are available now or were any missing?


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## Eclectic12

agent99 said:


> ... Other than the front page info, what else was downloaded from CRA?


From CRA's Autofill web page, the possibilities are ...


> *What information does Auto-fill my return deliver?*
> 
> The following information is available for the 2015 tax year:
> Tax information slips
> 
> T3, Statement of Trust Income Allocations and Designations
> T4, Statement of Remuneration Paid
> T4A, Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income
> T4A(OAS), Statement of Old Age Security
> T4A(P), Statement of Canada Pension Plan Benefits
> T4E, Statement of Employment Insurance and Other Benefits
> T4RIF, Statement of Income from a Registered Retirement Income Fund
> T4RSP, Statement of Registered Retirement Savings Plan Income
> T5, Statement of Investment Income
> T5007, Statement of Benefits
> T5008, Statement of Securities Transactions
> RC62, Universal Child Care Benefit Statement
> RC210, Working Income Tax Benefit Advance Payments Statement
> registered retirement savings plan contribution receipt



If it isn't working ... hopefully there is a way to ignore it. Worst case, fill in the info yourself and stick to the NetFile bit.


Cheers


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## scorpion_ca

agent99 said:


> I just tried this on Studio Tax. But could not get past square one.
> 
> I first chose to start a new return using 2014 return file. File was for a couple. It chose to start with my wife's return. It first found our 2014 file and the basic front page information (address, SIN etc). It then wanted us to connect to CRA. We did that - entered our CRA log on info. That seemed to get us to CRA. Then we got a rotating icon and screen said Please Wait. 15 minutes later, same thing. I then clicked back on Studio Tax tab. There was a message there saying we had taken more than 3 minutes (for what?) and session had aborted. We are away from home and internet is a bit slow, but not bad. It takes a few minutes to find CRA log on info, especially when we did not expect to need it.
> 
> I have used Studio Tax for some time - But this is not user friendly.
> 
> Other than the front page info, what else was downloaded from CRA?


It has auto-filled my T4, T5 and RRSP info. I have not tried to file for couple yet but will try it for my sister and her husband. I assume you used your wife's cra log in info and you will have to agree with couple of terms and conditions that I just agree without reading it.


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## Spudd

james4beach said:


> Did you find that all the T5's are available now or were any missing?


For me, not yet. In fact, TD issued me a T5 in TDDI that doesn't seem to be there in the CRA system. It's a bit hit or miss.


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## scorpion_ca

In my case, TDDI did not issue T5 for $26 but when I ran auto-fill, I found the amount. I am glad that I used the auto-fill feature; otherwise, CRA would do reassessment at the end of the year.


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## Eclectic12

Spudd said:


> Update, I just tried it with T5008's. It wasn't very successful. It filled out a bunch of T5008's, but they didn't reflect properly in the tax return. I think capital gain/loss stuff is still best done by hand. (At least if you're using SimpleTax).


I suspect this is true regardless of what software is used. A complicating factor would be where one transferred stocks to a new broker (likely at the FMV as cost instead of the ACB) where it was held a long time before the sell.

I have not dug into the details of the T5008 as I do not get one.




scorpion_ca said:


> In my case, TDDI did not issue T5 for $26 but when I ran auto-fill, I found the amount. I am glad that I used the auto-fill feature; otherwise, CRA would do reassessment at the end of the year.


There would be a re-assessment for missing the T5 but why at the end of the year?

CRA has it, it is likely for last calendar year (this tax year) as the T5's are coming out around now. Unless one skips filing the return ... wouldn't the NOA simply show the adjusted numbers (i.e. more income, more taxes which may mean a bill or less of a refund) when the return is filed (likely June or so)?


Cheers


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## james4beach

I use the T5008s as a guide, but carefully calculate my own profit/losses. I remember that the ones coming out of Interactive Brokers looked particularly horrendous.

Also, those T5008s can't possibly account for my gambit trades (or ShoGam) where the same security is shown in different accounts. You have to identify that they're the same security, and apply the avg forex rate to report it all as one capital gain/loss.


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## scorpion_ca

This will be the first time I will have to submit T5008 and I will be using Studio Tax. I am glad to know that I will have to fill in based on securities in T5008. How does this affect ACB? If I just fill in based on T5008, Why I need to calculate ACB? I have used http://adjustedcostbase.ca/ to calculate ACB and where do I fill in those ACB info?


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## agent99

scorpion_ca said:


> It has auto-filled my T4, T5 and RRSP info. I have not tried to file for couple yet but will try it for my sister and her husband. I assume you used your wife's cra log in info and you will have to agree with couple of terms and conditions that I just agree without reading it.


I presume they just go by the names on the T-slips. In our case, most slips have both our names. We have two joint accounts, one with me as primary and other with my wife. Not sure if some slips are in just one name. We use the software to allocate % to each of us. Not sure how CRA would handle that. For us, T5008 is just used to update our own acb spreadsheet. Again split between us, so don't see how the slips could reflect that.

I emailed BHOk (Studio Tax) but so far no reply.


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## scorpion_ca

Eclectic12 said:


> There would be a re-assessment for missing the T5 but why at the end of the year?
> 
> CRA has it, it is likely for last calendar year (this tax year) as the T5's are coming out around now. Unless one skips filing the return ... wouldn't the NOA simply show the adjusted numbers (i.e. more income, more taxes which may mean a bill or less of a refund) when the return is filed (likely June or so)?
> 
> Cheers


My friend missed to inform her $80 income in the tax year of 2008 and she filed her income tax in March, 2009 and received the refund within couple of weeks. After that, she received a letter from CRA in January, 2010 and they did the reassessment and charged her couple of dollars for interest. I think they check the file thoroughly at the end of year. That's the reason, I mentioned at the end of the year.


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## Eclectic12

scorpion_ca said:


> This will be the first time I will have to submit T5008 and I will be using Studio Tax.
> 
> How does this affect ACB?
> If I just fill in based on T5008, Why I need to calculate ACB?


As I understand it ... the T5008 does not affect ACB. It should have the correct ACB in box 20 (cost or book value) but as I have seen the broker calculated ACB be wrong, I would want to confirm the numbers before paying CRA.

As I say in post #14, I have read of posts where the stock had an ACB of $2K but was transferred to another broker at a FMV of $5k so that is what the broker had as the ACB. Unless the investor has been paying attention then had the broker adjust the ACB that they have ... this would be an example where even if the broker's calculations are correct, the numbers spit out by the computers may not be. Return of Capital is another type that some brokers handle better than others.




scorpion_ca said:


> My friend missed to inform her $80 income in the tax year of 2008 and she filed her income tax in March, 2009 and received the refund within couple of weeks. After that, she received a letter from CRA in January, 2010 and they did the reassessment and charged her couple of dollars for interest. I think they check the file thoroughly at the end of year. That's the reason, I mentioned at the end of the year.


Weird ... usually I am filing expecting a refund of say $500 then the NOA shows up saying CRA has modified my return, check the details and $467 is the revised amount. After tracing through the numbers that are different, I usually find a mistake on my part.


The time I can recall that was years after the return was filed / NOA was issued was about five years after the affected tax year. A CRA data entry clerk had overwritten the RRSP contribution room instead of adding up what existed plus the pension adjustment reversal (PAR). The notice was that I'd over-contributed to my RRSP, remove the over-contribution ASAP and here's the penalty/interest charges to the tune of thousands of dollars.

About forty minutes on the phone with CRA then about twenty minutes of filling out five or so requests to amend tax year #### that was mailed off then made it all go away.


Cheers


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## agent99

agent99 said:


> I emailed BHOk (Studio Tax) but so far no reply.


Answer: HI,
The CRA Auto-fill option is not mandatory. You can press Next and continue.
Thank you for using StudioTax!


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## james4beach

Eclectic12 said:


> As I understand it ... the T5008 does not affect ACB. It should have the correct ACB in box 20 (cost or book value) but as I have seen the broker calculated ACB be wrong, I would want to confirm the numbers before paying CRA.


The T5008 (trading summaries) I just downloaded from TDDI don't show any "boxes" at all. There are columns: date, buy, sell, security description, price, cost, proceeds, commission.

I'm really just using the T5008 to make sure I didn't forget to report any securities. This isn't a useful form to directly figure out capital gain/loss because the cost or ACB information potentially comes from previous years.

What I've been doing with these is taking proceeds less commission as my net proceeds, and reporting all of those on my tax return. Then I dig up the records (could be this year, or a previous year) of the cost of the position, again adding the commission into the cost. So the ACB may be from a previous year's T5008.

But you'd better make sure that every item that has *proceeds* on the T5008 this year is being reported in your taxes!


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## Eclectic12

Interesting ... the form here at CRA has lots of boxes. 
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t5008/t5008-15e.pdf

So it would appear there are variations.


Cheers


*PS*

The T5008 with columns sounds similar to my "annual trading summary". 

I also use it as a check where I also use the "cost" column on my monthly statements as a second check/balance.


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## kcowan

james4beach said:


> Did you find that all the T5's are available now or were any missing?


Ufile still does not have all my T slips. I will wait a couple of weeks and try again.


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## Eclectic12

It would seem to me the first question is whether your broker has the T slips. 

Up until I dealt with it by transferring in-kind to my TFSA, most years I was filing the return towards the end of April as some particual companies were end of Mar to early April, which also delayed the broker.


If the company hasn't notified the broker ... then CRA won't have the T slip either.


Cheers


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## FI40

I always need to wait until the end of March to get all my investment related T slips. Plan to use Simpletax and this new feature though for as much as I can except for cap gains.


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## scorpion_ca

james4beach said:


> The T5008 (trading summaries) I just downloaded from TDDI don't show any "boxes" at all. There are columns: date, buy, sell, security description, price, cost, proceeds, commission.
> 
> I'm really just using the T5008 to make sure I didn't forget to report any securities. This isn't a useful form to directly figure out capital gain/loss because the cost or ACB information potentially comes from previous years.
> 
> But you'd better make sure that every item that has *proceeds* on the T5008 this year is being reported in your taxes!


This might be helpful to identify the box number.

www.td.com/ca/document/PDF/webbroker/TradingSummaryT5008Guide_En.pdf


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## agent99

james4beach said:


> But you'd better make sure that every item that has *proceeds* on the T5008 this year is being reported in your taxes!


When we Netfile, no detailed capital gain/loss info is sent to CRA. But lines 131 (total proceeds of all sales) and 132 (Total gain or loss) of Schedule 3 are. So I suppose the Total Proceeds should match whatever brokerage has sent CRA. Don't recall ever getting a T5008 - just the trading summary.


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## BC Eddie

I am using Simpletax for the first time and, so far, I am very impressed with this product. Very well designed in my opinion. I am also using the Autofill feature with it and it is working great. All the T4, T5 and T5008 that I have received in the mail are coming in on Autofill (in fact some come in that I have yet to get in the mail (Live on Vancouver Island and mail is usually delayed). As for the T5008, box 20 is left blank in Simpletax but it is highlighted that it needs to be completed. I get the ACB from my own records and plug it in. On any T5 with foreign currency the exchange rate box is also blank/highlighted for me to complete.

Simpletax can be free but they ask you to pay what you think it is worth. If the product continues to perform as it has so far I will definitely be paying as it is working fine for me.


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## pwm

I didn't realize that the trading summary is a T5008 until I took a closer look:

View attachment 8826


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## scorpion_ca

I am with TDW and using Studio tax to file my income tax return...when I ran the auto-fill feature last Tuesday, it didn't have any T5008 but today when I ran it again, I have received T5008 thru auto-fill feature for some of the securities. Box 20 is left blank that gave me almost heart attack when I saw that I will have to pay $3.5k to CRA whereas I was expecting a refund for $6k. In my cash account, I have ZPR, VCN and TDB8150 (HISA). 

ZPR - Purchased once but didn't sell any. Therefore, no proceeds.
VCN - Purchased three times but didn't sell any. Therefore, no proceeds.
TDB8150 (HISA) - Purchased TDB8150 multiple times last year but sold it only four times. TDW reported to CRA about the TDB8150 fund based on four proceeds but did not report for ZPR and VCN. Now here are my questions -

1) Can I report to CRA based on total costs and proceeds of each security instead of each proceeds?
2) TDW reported based on proceeds for same security. If I overwrite it in Studio Tax and submit my return based on total costs and proceeds of each security, will there be any issue?
3) If I need to report based on each proceeds for the same fund, how do I calculate costs accurately against each proceeds?
4) Box 20 - Do I need to use current ACB or Current ACB/Share amount? I think it would be current ACB. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.


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## Spudd

1) yes
2) no
3) n/a
4) current ACB

I will also add firstly that I am not a tax expert but this is my understanding and will be how I will be doing my taxes. Secondly, I don't think you'll have to report anything this year, TDB8150 isn't something you need to report as it's just a savings account not an investment (you will report its interest given separately).


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## scorpion_ca

Spudd said:


> I will also add firstly that I am not a tax expert but this is my understanding and will be how I will be doing my taxes. Secondly, I don't think you'll have to report anything this year, TDB8150 isn't something you need to report as it's just a savings account not an investment (you will report its interest given separately).


I have found another thing that TD Greenline has reported $26 interest income to CRA though I didn't receive any T5. I called TDW today but the representative could not figure it out. So, I will have to call them again on Monday and they will discuss it with their Tax department. I received some interest from TDB8150 fund and my understanding is that $26 could be the interest from TDB8150. If it is the case, why TDW reported twice (T5 and T5008) for the same fund to CRA. I will ask it to TDW tax deprtment.


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## scorpion_ca

I purchased 1,000 shares of ZPR in 2015 but did not sell anything yet. As per T5008, proceeds amount is nil. I also used Statement of Trust Income Allocations and Designations from CDS Innovation Tax Breakdown and adjustedcostbase.ca website to calculate current ACB, which is showing zero (I think it's because of return of capital) even though I paid $12,989.99. So now my understanding is that I will have to fill up only box 14 (date) and 17 (security description) in the Studio Tax as the amounts in box 20 & 21 are zero. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks!


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## AltaRed

kcowan said:


> Ufile still does not have all my T slips. I will wait a couple of weeks and try again.


It is CRA that does not yet have the tax slips on file. I had 2 T5s mailed to me from my brokerage that were not yet in the CRA system for auto download. There will more at the end of the month with REIT and ETF T3's.

Separate point: The auto-fill of T50008 data was a disaster in UFile. It assumed all the proceeds of capital sales were other/interest income....and of course no cost data. For a minute there, I thought i'd died and gone to heaven with income/cash flow beyond my wildest dreams. Anyways, I just deleted all the T5008 forms from the auto-fill and completed Schedule 3 by myself (but like others, making sure my data matched the sales data on the T5008).


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## james4beach

pwm said:


> I didn't realize that the trading summary is a T5008 until I took a closer look:


Yup, that's the T5008. And it doesn't have boxes or anything.


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## kcowan

Ufile online will not support downloads until Mar. 15


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## gibor365

This autofill is complete crap... I did it on on Turbotax and it didn't show 2 out of 5 my T5's and showed T4 for $70 for company where I don't work for 5 years... So, deleted everything and entered correct info


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## 319905

Fwiw ... I used the auto-fill with Studio Tax 2015, worked just fine. As J4B above, since (apart from the boiler plate info) all the QTrade anyway T5008s show is the "Proceeds of disposition or settlement amount", I just use the CRA T5008s to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. An easy way to view them is to log into your CRA account ... they're under tax returns/tax slips/year/information slips ...


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## AltaRed

gibor said:


> This autofill is complete crap... I did it on on Turbotax and it didn't show 2 out of 5 my T5's and showed T4 for $70 for company where I don't work for 5 years... So, deleted everything and entered correct info


Just remember if there is a T4 in your MyACcount and it is for 2015 tax year, CRA will re-assess you declaring you forgot $70 of income. CRA assumes the tax slips in their records are the correct ones for your tax return.


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## gibor365

AltaRed said:


> Just remember if there is a T4 in your MyACcount and it is for 2015 tax year, CRA will re-assess you declaring you forgot $70 of income. CRA assumes the tax slips in their records are the correct ones for your tax return.


 I didn't get any letter, no income from company where I don't work for 5+ years...it just doesn't make ...
So, I entered info from this $70 T4, and my refund increased by $6  . 
If I enter it, can I have issues with CRA?


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## AltaRed

CRA computers assume whatever is recorded in your MyAccount is correct, so unless you dispute it, they could not care less. It us up to you whether you want to argue with CRA computers or not. FWIW though, I don't know how more income can result in less tax. But I am not a tax accountant.


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## gibor365

> I don't know how more income can result in less tax.


 Probably because , as per this T4, I paid taxes


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## 319905

A positive comment on the CRA ... so I filed using the auto-fill, worked just fine. Within days my refund ... the installments they'd dinged me with were a tad high hence the refund ... was in my PCF account. Was going through my files before putting them to bed in my 2015 tax year folder and realized I'd overlooked a taxable capital gain so I went online, used the update feature to update my 2015 return, submitted it, and up popped my amount owing. Hmmm, that didn't look quite right so I called the CRA, within minutes I was talking with a real person who said your taxable income has gone up and so there's OAS being taken back. That's right I said, thanks very much, I'd forgotten about that. Just saying, for my simple tax situation, the CRA is working just fine.


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## scorpion_ca

What is the meaning of "you are claiming less than the maximum federal foreign tax credit"? I have VCN in my cash account, which paid $0.04 foreign non-business income tax in 2015. If I say yes to this question, I am not allowed to submit my income tax return through Netfile.

Here is the Netfile wizard at Studio Tax. 

The following is a list of specific situations that prevent you from filing a tax return through the NETFILE service:
- You are claiming less than the maximum federal foreign tax credit.
- a federal non-business foreign tax credit for more than three countries

Where can I find country name, where VCN paid foreign non-business tax?

Thanks in advance.


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## AltaRed

Pick one of your choice. The USA is always a good standby since that is where most Cdn companies (in VCN) would have the bulk of their foreign income.

There is no reason for tax software to ask that question if you simply fill in all the boxes from your Tax slips. If there is 'foreign non-business income' in one of the boxes, simply enter it into ST and then add the USA as source when asked. I do the same thing with VTI, VGK, XWD, REI.UN et al.


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## scorpion_ca

Yeah, I selected Country 2/unknown option. However, I would like to know the meaning of "you are claiming less than the maximum federal foreign tax credit". What is the maximum federal foreign tax credit? I searched Google but didn't find it. I will have to wait until Monday to find it out from CRA. In the mean time if any experienced member can help me, I would really appreciate it.

I think it's up to CRA to determine the eligibility of filing income tax return through NETFILE. 

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/netfile-impotnet/lgblty-eng.html


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## AltaRed

Check out http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/foreigntaxcredit.htm and note this quote


> If the federal foreign tax credit is less than the foreign tax you paid, you may also be able to claim a provincial or territorial tax credit. For territories, and provinces other than Quebec, form T2036 Provincial Foreign Tax Credit is used.
> 
> The foreign taxes are often not completely recovered by the foreign tax credits. Non-business foreign taxes which are not recovered as a tax credit may be deducted from income on line 232 of the personal tax return, "Other deductions", as a s. 20(12) deduction (again, foreign taxes reported on a T3 are not eligible). This deduction is not usually done automatically by income tax software. You would enter this amount in the software on the foreign tax credits worksheet. When this is done, the foreign tax credit calculation is automatically revised, by reducing both foreign non-business income and foreign tax paid by the amount of foreign tax deducted on line 232. This is what is called a "circular calculation", so may have to be done a few times before final amounts are determined.


You can tell if the calculation is giving you less than the total foreign tax paid in the upper section of the box on T2209 http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2209/t2209-15e.pdf


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## Eclectic12

pwm said:


> I didn't realize that the trading summary is a T5008 until I took a closer look ...


Good catch.

Though as I say, one of the T5008 sample PDFs on CRA's web site has boxes similar to a T4 so I wonder how it is determined who gets the "annual summary" flavour and who gets the "box" flavour.


Cheers


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## scorpion_ca

AltaRed said:


> You can tell if the calculation is giving you less than the total foreign tax paid in the upper section of the box on T2209 http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2209/t2209-15e.pdf


What is the line number you are referring to?


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## AltaRed

When Line 3 is less than Line 1, or the resultant Line 3 (because Line 429 on Schedule 1) is less than Line 1. If Line 3 is less than Line 1, then you are not recovering all of your foreign tax credits based on Federal Tax alone. As Tax Tips suggest, you then look at your Provincial taxes to see if you can recover the rest. In reality, your software should already calculate both Federal and Provincial and that should be enough between them to get all of your foreign taxes credited.

The issue overall is uncommon and affects mostly those with a highly disproportionate foreign income and not much Canadian sourced income.

Edited: to correct 2nd sentence - adding NOT


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## OptsyEagle

The only other thing to make note of, is to look also at the T2036 (Provincial or Territorial Foreign Tax Credit) form. In my case, Studiotax took my Foreign tax paid and put some of it on the T2209 (Federal) and the rest on T2036 (Provincial). I live in Ontario.

In this case, I doubt CRA would allow me to deduct anymore on line 232.


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## scorpion_ca

In my T2209 form, both line 1 an 3 are same, which is $0.04. 

Should I say yes or no to this question "you are claiming less than the maximum federal foreign tax credit"?


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## Karen

I used the Auto-fill feature with Simple Tax this year, and it worked perfectly I did have to add one more T5, but that was because neither CRA nor I had received the T5 yet. I knew exactly the amount of interest I had received from the investment, so I just added it manually. I should add, though, that I did not have any T5008s; from what others have said, that might have caused me a problem.

By the way, this is the third year that I've used Simple Tax to file my tax return, and I love it. I had used Turbo Tax before that and found Simple Tax more straightford to use. For interst's sake, I prepared my tax return with each of them this year and the results worked out to just one cent difference, so they were both accurate. I didn't take the final step to complete the Turbo Tax return, so I didn't have to pay; I sent Simple Tax a donation of the amount I would have paid Turbo Tax had I used it to file.


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## AltaRed

scorpion_ca said:


> In my T2209 form, both line 1 an 3 are same, which is $0.04.
> 
> Should I say yes or no to this question "you are claiming less than the maximum federal foreign tax credit"?


The answer is No... because line 1 is all you can possibly get anyway.... if you have entered your data correctly from T5s and T3s.


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## scorpion_ca

Data is correct as I used auto fill feature. Thanks for your clarifications.


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## BC Eddie

I had the same experience with SimpleTax and Auto fill. Both worked flawlessly for me and my wife. We both had T3's T4, T4A's$, T5's, Multiple T5008's. Was actually fun to do.


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## Tawcan

Really like this new useful feature. Used SimpleTax and all the forms were correct. Makes tax filing so much faster and easier.


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## OntMan

Would love to have used the Autofill feature, but it didnt work on my Win XP computer with any of the browsers.
Will have to upgrade my computer before next year.


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## Mukhang pera

I'm not sure about the Autofill feature, but the CRA's new three-part return is disarming in its simplicity, viz.:

1. How much money did you make last year?
2. How much do you have left?
3. Send it.


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## agent99

OntMan said:


> Would love to have used the Autofill feature, but it didnt work on my Win XP computer with any of the browsers.
> Will have to upgrade my computer before next year.


I have a good Win 7 computer, but had trouble getting Autofill to work with both Studio Tax and Taxfreeway. I did our taxes the usual way with Studio Tax. But thought I would do a double check with TaxFreeway this morning and test out Autofill. TFW has two options under Autofill - Download CRA Data and Import CRA Data. No explanation of what difference is. I started with Download and it connected me to CRA and My Account Log-In. Then CRA site said I was authorized, to close browser and go back to TFW. But when I got to TFW, nothing had changed. I tried the Import button and it was looking for a file with a certain suffix. Searched my whole computer and no such file existed. So what am I doing wrong? Thinking it might be a security or other type of computer problem?

Anyway, I gave up on Autofill.

One other thing. I did not find anything anywhere in any software or even on CRA sites about where to enter our re-contribution of earlier RRIF withdrawal. BTW, it apparently goes on line 232.


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## BC Eddie

I don't think this was an Autofill problem, more likely a hitch with Studio Tax. I suspect CRA makes Autofill available to all vendors and it is up the the different packages to develop the import routines. In my case Simpletax had the same two step process. Download where I suspect your T4, T5, etc data is copied from your personal CRA records to some common file structure the packages can all access. Then import where the package reads that data into the tax preparation program.

In my case with Simpletax I re downloaded multiple times as new T4A, T5, etc. data came available from the financial institutions, importing after each download. Never had a problem.

PS I may sound like I am promoting SimpleTax but I have nothing to gain and have no connection to the company. I just like well engineered software.


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## Ag Driver

I used the autofill function with StudioTax this year, and I couldn't be any more pleased. It easily cut time in half and worked flawlessly. 

My taxes are very simple with T4's, T5's, among other various simple forms.


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## Eclectic12

I have to check but I believe all my T forms should be with CRA at this point as they have been given to me electronically by my employer/broker.
I will see what happens but I hope for a nice time savings automatic entry.


Cheers


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## AltaRed

Just be cognizant you have to know which ones are in CAD vs some other currency so as to add the forex rate if necessary on the individual sheets in your software. There is no differentiation on the CRA site


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## newuser

Spudd said:


> Update, I just tried it with T5008's. It wasn't very successful. It filled out a bunch of T5008's, but they didn't reflect properly in the tax return. I think capital gain/loss stuff is still best done by hand. (At least if you're using SimpleTax).


CRA only has the selling info on T5008. You must manually override the ACB price.


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## Spudd

newuser said:


> CRA only has the selling info on T5008. You must manually override the ACB price.


Indeed. Also, I didn't like how there was an individual form for each different stock. I prefer to put them all on a single form with multiple line items. I felt the bazillion forms was messy.


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## AltaRed

Spudd said:


> Indeed. Also, I didn't like how there was an individual form for each different stock. I prefer to put them all on a single form with multiple line items. I felt the bazillion forms was messy.


Why do you say that? Even manually, they are entered as separate items in tax software and then consolidated by the software onto Schedule 3.


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## Spudd

AltaRed said:


> Why do you say that? Even manually, they are entered as separate items in tax software and then consolidated by the software onto Schedule 3.


It's purely for neatness sake. In SimpleTax they have a form for capital gains/losses where you can list all your stocks as line items in the same form. I have 2 forms, one for my personal account and one for my joint account. When I did the autofill, it created a bunch of individual forms. I just felt it looked messier. I know it would have the same end result, I just like things to look tidy while I'm working on them.


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