The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance announced on March 18th an economic relief package to begin addressing the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the economic relief package includes tax relief for individuals and businesses.
Filing Deadline Extensions
The deadline for filing personal income tax returns will be extended to June 1, 2020. However, individuals eligible to receive benefits such as the GST/HST Credit or the Canada Child Benefit are encourage to file as soon as possible to ensure they receive the benefits they are entitled to in a timely manner.
The deadline for filing returns for trusts having a December 31, 2019 year end will be extended to May 1, 2020.
Form T183
As a temporary administrative measure, CRA will accept your electronic signatures on the authorization forms T183 (individuals) and T183CORP (corporations) to authorize electronic filing of your tax return.
Tax Payments
Taxpayers will be permitted to defer payment of tax amounts which become payable from March 18, 2020 to August 31, 2020 until after August 31, 2020, without interest or penalties. This applies to tax balances due and instalments, under Part I of the Income Tax Act for both individuals (including trusts) and corporations.
CRA now has a site on COVID-19 –https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/covid-19-update.html . They are asking the public to limit the use of their personal tax line for issues directly related to 2019 personal tax return filings, benefits, or setting up My Account.
