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On this resource page for Canadian and US tax filing, you will find details on:

• Tax deadlines
• Ready to go paperless?
• Tips for scanning and submitting your information
• Online forms
• Late tax slips
• Personal vs. Family Taxes
• Submitting Medical Claims
• Working From Home
• Turning 65?
• Investments
• Foreign Investments and Trusts
• Foreign Financial Accounts
• Payment of fees, privacy consent and disclaimer
  

Tax Deadlines

March 14th, 2022
Complete tax information provided to GGFL to meet filing deadlines.

US FILINGS

April 18th, 2022
U.S. citizens or U.S. residents residing in the U.S. on April 18, 2022, or who had employment income from the U.S. in 2021. Includes FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) and Form 8938.

June 15th, 2022
U.S. citizens and residents who are not residing in the U.S. on April 18, 2022, and did not have U.S. employment income in 2021. Includes FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) and Form 8938. Note: Taxes payable are due April 18, 2022.

CANADIAN FILINGS

May 2, 2022
Canadian personal tax return, except for self-employed individuals.

June 15th, 2022
Canadian personal tax return for self- employed individuals. Note: Taxes payable are due May 2, 2022

Ready to go paperless?

We can’t begin your tax return until we have all of the completed, required documents. We appreciate you submitting your information electronically. To do so, please see our instructions below on how to use our secure online portal.

Instructions for using our Online Portal

Please use GGFL’s secure online portal to submit you documents. If you are not familiar with GGFL’s ShareFile portal, please see our Client Portal Training Videos on our website to learn more. Sending your tax information through our secure online portal is safe, efficient, and saves paper. Regular email without additional security is never recommended.

Please create and upload a separate file for each family member and title it with their first and last name.

Tips for scanning and submitting your information

• Only send personal tax information, please do not group in your corporate or trust return information.
• Please, when possible, group similar documents together (donations, medical, T slips, etc.).
• Keep documents for each person separate.
• If you send us something by paper, please do not also send it electronically.
• To save time you can complete schedule T777 (employment and professional expenses), T776 (rental income) or T2125 (business and professional income) instead of scanning and sending all receipts. We provide you with the template for these schedules at your request.

When producing an image of a paper document, you must make sure it meets the following CRA requirements:

• Must be an accurate reproduction with the intention of it taking the place of the paper document.
• Must provide the same information as the paper document.
• Significant details of the image cannot be obscured because of limitations in resolution, tonality, or hue.
• For all electronic documents, please double check that the image is easily read and includes all relevant elements of the original document. Documents that are hard to read or cropped will delay the commencement of your tax file preparation. The best file format for our various tax systems is an Adobe pdf document.

Click here for more information on what CRA considers to be an acceptable format for your documentation.

Smartphone Scanning Apps

Microsoft and Adobe offer apps that will let you use your smart phone to scan receipts.  Learn more in these instructional videos:

• • Office 365
  • Adobe Scan

Online Forms

To assist you in gathering your tax information, please complete the checklists (links below) for each family member. Please provide all required tax slips and documentation to complete your tax return. Upload the checklist and documents as soon as possible.

Below you will also find the worksheet entitled U.S. Citizen or U.S. Resident Tax Checklist. To ensure that we have the necessary information required to complete your U.S. return(s), we ask that you also complete this worksheet.

Fillable – 2025 Personal Tax Organizer – Final

2021 US Checklist – US Citizen & Resident – Fillable

Foreign Investments & Trusts T1135

2021 FBAR Information Organizer

Late Tax Slips?

If you receive a tax slip after your return has been filed, please notify us immediately to avoid penalties and interest. We will adjust you returns to report the income accordingly.

Personal vs. Family Taxes

Please notify us of any changes to your family situation. For new members, we require their Name, Date of Birth, and Social Insurance Number and/or Social Security Number.

If GGFL is not preparing the tax returns of a family member (such as your spouse, child or dependent), please provide the Net Income (even if it is nil) for that person.

Submitting Medical Claims

To simplify any medical claims, we recommend that you send us detailed annual statements as follows:

Where a portion of those expenses are reimbursed from your insurance provider:

• Annual health insurance statements for services received in 2021

For any medical claims where you have no insurance:

• List of prescriptions purchased from your Pharmacist
• List of dental services provided by your Dentist

If you send us these statements, do not provide us with the individual receipts or invoices.

Working from home

For more details please visit the CRA website.

Turning 65?

Did you turn 65 in 2021? Will you in 2022? If you are employed, you can elect to stop making CPP contributions in the month that you turn 65 by completing form CPT30 (available on CRA’s website). If you choose to continue paying CPP contributions, you will be eligible for an additional post-retirement benefit. If you are not sure what is best for you, please contact your GGFL advisor.

Investments

Do you hold investment accounts that are not RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs and RESPs? If so, please obtain the following information from your investment advisor:

• 2021 Capital Gain/Loss Report in Canadian dollars for each account
• Report of 2021 Foreign Assets in your Non- Registered accounts

For residents of Quebec, who are beneficiaries of Trusts resident outside of Quebec (excluding mutual funds), there may be additional reporting requirements. Please contact our office if this situation applies to you.

Foreign Investments and Trusts

Canada Revenue Agency requires Canadian residents who own foreign investments with a combined original cost greater than $100,000 to complete Form T1135. If this applies to you, please provide us with the original cost and current value for these investments, as well as any income or capital gains earned in 2020.

Foreign investments include:

• Foreign bank accounts
• Shares or debt of any foreign entity
• Shares of a non-resident corporation
• Foreign rental properties
• Interest in a non-resident trust, partnership, property or other entity
• Shares of foreign companies held in your non- registered investment portfolio

Please provide us with the details if either situation below applies to you:

• Any loans or transfers to certain foreign trusts, or a corporation controlled by such trusts
• Individuals who, in the year, received distributions from, or are indebted to certain foreign trusts

Foreign investments specifically exclude assets used in a business, personal use assets, certain specific investments that are foreign affiliates, and foreign investments held in registered plans (i.e., RRSPs, TFSAs and RESPs).

Foreign Financial Accounts

If you have a financial interest in or signature authority over financial accounts held outside of the U.S., including a bank account or brokerage account (including RRSP, TFSA or RESP accounts), and if the aggregate market value of these accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time in the year, you are required to report the accounts on Form FinCEN 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

Form 8938 is another form that you may be required to file to report your foreign financial assets. Form 8938 has a higher filing threshold than the FBAR, but we can determine if you are required to file this form from the FBAR Data Information Organizer that you complete.

If you are required to file the FBAR, please complete and return the 2021 FBAR Information Organizer as soon as possible, even before your other tax information is submitted, so we can get a head start on your tax filings this year.

If we prepared your FBAR in 2020, we already sent you in January, 2022, a partially completed FBAR Information Organizer with details of the financial accounts that you had in 2020. So you only need to enter the maximum value in these accounts in 2021, and add any accounts that you opened in 2021.

The FBAR and Form 8938 are due when your personal tax return is due (April 18 or June 15, 2022). Substantial penalties are imposed if you do not comply properly.

If you believe that the foreign reporting rules may be applicable to you or your family members, please contact us.

Terms

Payment of Fees

Fees for our services are due upon delivery of the tax return, unless alternate arrangements have been made in advance. Please note our fees can be paid online.

Disclaimer

It is understood and agreed that you will provide us with all the complete and accurate information necessary for us to prepare the tax returns, including any required schedules.

We will not audit, review or otherwise attempt to verify the accuracy or completeness of such information, unless otherwise engaged in writing. The responsibility for the tax returns remains with you.

Privacy Consent

GGFL LLP collects certain personal information about you only when that information is provided by you directly or is obtained by us with your authorization. We use that information to prepare your personal income tax returns and to provide various tax and financial planning services to you at your request.

The uses and protection of your personal information are covered by the Rules of Professional Conduct and our Privacy Policy which is available on our website at ggfl-dev.pinkrobot.dev. GGFL LLP does not disclose any personal information about our clients or former clients, without consent.

As part of our preparation of your personal tax return, you are consenting to the use of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Rules of Professional Conduct, for the purpose of preparing your personal returns, including transmission of the return to, and correspondence with, the appro-priate taxation authorities.