Several accountants say they’ve discovered identical copies of certain tax slips in some of their clients’ online CRA accounts.Zaripov Andrei/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
In a tax season already mired in delays and technical issues, two additional snags have emerged: duplicate tax slips in the Canada Revenue Agency’s online portal and incorrect error codes triggered when some users try to submit their tax return electronically.
Several accountants say they’ve discovered identical copies of certain tax slips in some of their clients’ online CRA accounts, including duplicate T4s, which record employment earnings, and T4As, used to report pension payments and several other types of income. Separately, the CRA warned earlier this week that its system is mistakenly triggering error codes that may temporarily block some users from submitting their tax paperwork.
The two issues add to a litany of woes that have created confusion and uncertainty for both taxpayers and tax professionals this spring.
“This shouldn’t happen, the system should be a bit more robust and checked,” said Steven Watson, executive director of the EFILE Association of Canada, which represents tax preparers on issues involving electronic filing, speaking about the problem with error codes.
The CRA warned weeks ago that a systems update it introduced in January had created technical challenges for some tax-slip issuers, such as employers and financial institutions, when they tried to upload taxpayers’ data to the agency’s secure portal. The issue has resulted in scores of taxpayers missing a variety of tax slips from their online CRA accounts.
It’s unclear whether the same update, which rolled out stricter protocols for vetting tax slips, is also causing the problem with duplicate slips and the spurious error messages.
The CRA did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Ryan Minor, director of taxation at Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, said the tax agency told his organization it is aware of a limited issue with duplicate tax slips.
The CRA said it will rectify the problem on its end and is asking tax slip issuers not to pro-actively try to remove the duplicate forms, according to Mr. Minor.
While missing slips carry the risk that tax filers will understate their income when using the agency’s auto-fill feature to populate their returns, duplicate slips can result in users declaring too much income and overpaying taxes.
Mr. Watson said some tax preparers have also warned that some tax slips available on the CRA’s portal are missing information that is reported on the paper copy of the same slip.
Canadians should rely on the tax slips they’ve received directly from employers, banks and other issuers to cross-check the information available in their CRA accounts and enter the information manually if necessary, tax professionals advise.
Those who notice identical copies of the same slip in their CRA accounts should file their taxes based on their actual income and reach out to the affected slip issuer to flag the problem, said Hugh Neilson, director of taxation services at Kingston Ross Pasnak LLP.
On the issue of error codes, the CRA said in an online notice on April 14 that a problem with its system is triggering false error codes in tax software programs for do-it-yourself tax filers as well as those used by tax professionals.
The agency said it’s tracking cases affected by these errors and working to tackle the problem. If it can’t resolve the issue by the April 30 tax filing deadline, it will pro-actively waive arrears interest and penalties for individuals who filed late after receiving a bogus error message, it said.
“To be eligible for relief, an impacted filer must have attempted to submit the return electronically on or before April 30th, received the specific error code, and was unsuccessful in resolving the error code despite taking the appropriate corrective action,” the agency said in the update.
For tax preparers, Mr. Watson said the CRA’s directive amounts to the onerous task of keeping track of clients whose returns don’t go through and try repeatedly to submit them until the relevant error message is resolved.
“It’s not an ideal protocol,” he said.
Mr. Minor also worries about how much time taxpayers who are running into the error messages will have to resubmit their returns without incurring interest and penalties if the CRA doesn’t manage to fix the problem until very close to the filing deadline.
“They’re going to provide relief if the issue is not resolved before April 30, but what if they resolve it, for example, April 29,” he said. “Then practitioners have to go and file these returns again – this adds another layer of stress.”
