Tax documents missing? A new CRA process is still posing issues as filing deadline approaches

By Abby Hughes, CBC News, RCI

Those doing their own taxes who don’t notice that some of their income information is missing could possibly end up filing incorrectly, and either missing out on savings, or owe more than what was initially calculated as a result. (Pexels photo)

While some digital slips missing through CRA, copies can be accessed through employer, financial institutions

Though the deadline to file tax returns is less than two weeks away, tax slips for many Canadian taxpayers are still not showing up through the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) online platforms.

Each year, employers and financial institutions have to give copies of tax documents — like T4 slips, which show income information from your job, or T5 slips, which show investment income — to the CRA by a certain deadline. The CRA then makes those slips available through their online portals, like taxpayers’ CRA My Account. This is how tax products like TurboTax, or tax preparers like accountants, access necessary tax information digitally.

The issue this year stems from a new validation process the CRA introduced for these slips in January 2025. The process is supposed to ensure that the data they’re getting from employers and financial institutions is correct, according to the CRA.

The CRA is actively working to address any outstanding issues, including consulting with issuers, to ensure tax slips are made available on the portal, a CRA spokesperson wrote in part by email.

The revenue agency told the Globe and Mail (new window) earlier this month that they were hoping to remedy the issue by mid April, though the CRA did not answer the CBC’s question about whether or not they had made any progress toward that goal in their email response.

Kim G C Moody, founder of Moodys Tax and an expert on tax law, says while some slips are starting to show up, many are still not available digitally for many of the professionals in his firm. He also says duplicate slips have been appearing as of late in some cases, posing a new set of challenges.

Which documents are missing also seems to be completely random, he says, rather than problems originating with a certain kind of slip or ones generated by certain financial institutions or employers.

The CRA hasn’t extended the deadline despite the issue.

What does this mean for my taxes?

Despite the missing information through CRA, you can (and must, if you owe money) still file your taxes by April 30. It just might not be so quick or convenient.

When employers and financial institutions send your tax information to the CRA, they also send you a copy. That means you have access to the information you need to process a return, it’s just not so readily available through your CRA My Account. It may mean downloading various slips from places like your bank’s website or an online employee portal, or waiting for some to come in the mail.

If you do your own taxes online using a service like Intuit or TurboTax, this means you probably won’t be able to use the autofill function to import information. Instead, you’ll have to manually fill out each field line by line.

Both Wealthsimple and TurboTax told CBC they are aware of the issue. TurboTax acknowledged in an email statement that the missing slips were impacting their service’s autofill function, and said they were in direct contact with senior officials at CRA, underscoring the need for accountability and decisive action to resolve these issues for our customers and all Canadians.

For those who pay a professional to file their taxes for them, that will require sending your accountant or bookkeeper some or all of your individual tax slips so they have the information they need to complete your return.

Those doing their own taxes who don’t notice that some of their income information is missing could possibly end up filing incorrectly, and either missing out on savings, or owe more than what was initially calculated as a result.

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Shari-Lynn Hiltz, a certified bookkeeper in Halifax, says those filing their own taxes without autofill should verify their income sources as much as possible before they file. That can look like cross referencing your total yearly income as shown on your T4 with the year-to-date amount you earned that’s shown on your last paystub of the year.

Contacting investment advisors and financial institutions to make sure you have all of the necessary slips is also a good idea, she says.

And even if the lengthier process is dragging things out, Hiltz says it’s important to file by April 30 — especially if you expect to owe money, as you’ll have to pay a fee to the CRA in that case. She says it’s better to file on time and find discrepancies or possible savings afterward.

Causing headaches for tax professionals

While an inability to autofill might not pose huge slowdowns for folks filing their own taxes, it is creating headaches for tax professionals who file hundreds if not thousands of returns for clients each tax season.

Hiltz is just one of those professionals who says the issue of missing slips is making her job a lot harder this year.

She says almost all of her clients have had at least one or two documents missing online — in fact, she says only one or two returns she’s processed have had no issues with missing slips whatsoever. This means she has to start a return, then put it on pause while she asks that client to provide the missing documents by email or by bringing her a physical copy.

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She also uses the autofill function to speed up the process, rather than manually entering each amount line by line. The manual entry, plus the stopping and starting when things are missing, has slowed Hiltz down tremendously, she says.

Hiltz anticipates it’s set her back by a week or two at least. And while all tax preparers do absolutely everything in their power to avoid filing past the end of April deadline, she says it’s possible a few of her returns will get pushed past that date.

It’s exhausting, Hiltz said. It’s causing more … interruptions in our work. You know you can’t stay as focused on one thing because you’ve got all these people trying to find the missing information.

Moody echoes Hiltz’s concerns. Depending on how many documents a client has, he says this could double, triple or even quadruple the amount of time it takes to process their return.

He says he’s disappointed with what he sees as a pattern of tax seasons mired by some sort of issue — the 2023 tax season saw a last minute extension granted (new window) for homeowners to file taxes for vacant or underused residential properties, while last year, a pause for new bare trust filing requirements (new window) came just days before the filing deadline.

I’m hesitant to criticize the CRA … because they’ve got an important job to do. But I think there needs to be a serious reflection of what is going on with their technology platforms and their internal processes, Moody said.

This article is republished from RCI.