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Tax
season is upon us and Canadian residents and all who
earned money must file a Tax
and Benefit Return for individuals by April 30
or June 15 (for self employed individuals) and their
spouses or common-law partners. Here is a review of
FREE StudioTax software that can be used for Individual
tax filing in Canada.
Most
salaried individuals might have already received their
Tax slips (T4, T5 etc) from their employers, banks and
other financial institutions. If you are ready to file
taxes, Canadian government has made it really convenient
to send your returns electronically using NETFILE
There are several benefits to using Netfile, including
- Faster
refund
- Even
faster using direct deposit
- Convenient
Internet filing with instant acknowledgement
- No
need to send your receipts
- Access
Code available on-line
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As
per Canada's Revenue Agency (CRA)
"the NETFILE
transmission service is open from February 11, 2008, until
September 30, 2008, for the electronic filing of your 2007
personal income tax and benefit return. Tax returns filed
via NETFILE must first be prepared using one of the commercial
tax preparation software packages or Web applications
certified for NETFILE."
Review
of StudioTax 2007
After
review of several CRA certified software for individuals, I used StudioTax
2007 this year as it is available for FREE download and
use (and not just FREE Trial, mind you: It is a freeware software).
As per their website "you don't have to guess what
version you need or afford; only one fully functional version
is available for all at the affordable cost of $0.00/return!"
This I think is a really great deal! Argument in favor of
using a FREE software like StudioTax:
- Preparing
taxes with a booklet, a pile of receipts and pay stubs and
a blank tax form can be a confusing and frustrating experience.
However, spending hours waiting at Walmart, mall or supermarket
to turn in your tax slips to a guy/lady with a computer,
have them use the software without a personal touch or additional
advice is worse than doing it yourself (?!)
- Caveat:
However, if you can afford it, a top-notch tax service can
gently guide you through the process of preparing your taxes
and offer financial and tax advice. Tax services reach far
beyond just basic tax preparation and reach towards tax
strategy and financial planning.
- Tax
Software generally provide benefits, including:
- Online
filing
- Provincial
forms
- Error
and deduction checks
- Imports
information from popular accounting programs
- Full-text
publications
Macintosh Compatible Tax Software
Macintosh users often times find it harder to find free software to use for
various tasks they are trying to accomplish. Finding software to do ones taxes is no different. Turbotax offers mac tax software for free, and you don't even have to download anything. Just use any of these three browsers: Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, log on, and be guided through doing your taxes, like a GPS! Turbotax enables you to find every deduction you deserve and guarantees your maximum refund and 100% accuracy with free support. Millions of Canadians use Turbotax because it's easy and affordable...even for Mac users!
My
personal experience using StudioTax 2007 this year:
- Easy
to install on a computer, especially if one has a high-speed
dialup.
- StudioTax
certified with the Canada Revenue Agency for use with NETFILE.
I was able to use my NETFILE code to upload the ".TAX"
file generated by the software.CRA has confirmed acceptance
of my returns!
-
If you prefer, you can print and post the tax returns to
CRA too (this is an advantage if you don't have a NETFILE
code.
Caveat
and restrictions. Following are the restrictions (some
from StudioTax website):
Blogger
comments on the StudioTax
[Caveat
on the writeup: this is not tax advice. The opinions in the
article are that of the author and not an official endorsement
or advertisement of a product]
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