SCL Tax Newsletter Mar 2025 Update (Personal Tax Season Kick Off)

With March here, it is officially personal tax season! 🎉 Actually, it officially kicked off Feb 24 2025 per the CRA. Kudos to those of you who’ve already reached out, well done! For the rest of you, do not panic, there is still lots of time. Here’s what you need to do to action next to kick things off:

✅ Step 1: Complete Your 2024 Personal Tax Checklist

📌 We’re using the Cognito platform this year. Make sure to read each question carefully— as saying "Yes" or "No" can have tax implications! If anything is unclear, just ask ❓. Check out the ⚠️ SCL Personal Tax Checklist 

📌 If you have a sole proprietorship or earn rental income, you may benefit from using one of the trackers available to stay organized. Check out the ⚠️ SCL T1 Tax Prep Toolkit for Personal Tax Returns 

✅ Step 2: Upload supporting documentation to your secure portal

📌 When the checklist is ready to go, please email Sarah to request a link to your secure portal 🌟. Avoid sending your sensitive information over email ❌

▶️ Need a walkthrough of the scary checklist?

Please watch this explanation video walking through why we ask certain questions (yikes, it's 25 minutes long sorry but only 20 minutes at 1.2x)

📄 Prefer a PDF version of the checklist?

No problem—just reach out and a pdf copy can be sent instead.

⚠️ Important Deadline Notice:

Reminder, I’ll be away from April 16 - May 2 2025! If you need to file by the April 30th deadline, please submit your info by Friday, April 4th. Submissions after this date may not be filed before April 30th.

Are you self-employed? You have until June 15th to file, but any tax owed is still due by April 30th. Miss the April 4th submission deadline? No stress—we can draft a tax estimate and fine-tune it in May 2025.

💡 Want to DIY Tax Filing? Here’s a Sample Walkthrough

💭 For most people, tax filing is straightforward. If your situation is basic, free tax software like Wealthsimple, UFILE, TurboTax, etc. does a solid job! The AI bots are smart enough nowadays to guide you through common tax deductions. No need to fear taxes—give it a go!

⚠️ If you have a more complex situation (like business income T2125, rental income T776, or selling taxable capital properties), you might need professional help.

💡 At SCL, financial and tax education is at the heart of what we do. At a couple of recent high school visits, we did a simulation of a young adult filing personal taxes with the Wealthsimple Tax platform (free). Feel free to check out :

🔎 Example: A young adult filing with ✅ T4 (employment income), ✅ T5 (investment income), ✅ T2202 (eligible tuition credits), ✅ T4A (taxable scholarships & grants)

▶️ Sample walkthrough video of Person SRS available here (28 minutes at 1.2x)

Apologies in advance—SCL video production is still a work in progress (as in, pretty basic) 🎬😂

Feel free to share with anyone you think who may benefit from this walkthrough 🚀

As always, reach out if any clarification or assistance is needed. Don’t wait until the last minute—April will be here before you know it. 🚀