Electronic filing of tax returns grows in popularity
Canadians are increasingly embracing electronic tax returns rather than filing on paper, the Canada Revenue Agency says.
New figures show that more than 55 per cent of returns filed this tax year have been by Netfile (where taxpayers file their returns themselves through the web) or Efile (where professional tax preparers use the web to file client returns).
Tax returns filed Method 2008 2007 Change Efile9,014,295
8,259,416 +9.1% Netfile4,150,737
3,957,938 +4.9% Telefile 478,023 505,966 -5.5% Paper 10,044,362 10,376,644 -3.2% TOTAL RECEIVED 23,687,417 23,099,964 +2.5%Source: Statistics Canada (figures as of May 28, 2008)Just over nine million returns were Efiled — a jump of 9.1 per cent from last year. More than 4.1 million returns were Netfiled. That's up 4.9 per cent from last year, the tax department said.
About 10 million returns have been filed on paper, down 3.2 per cent from the 10.38 million paper returns received last year.
Telefile — which allows people with simple returns to file over the phone — continued to drop in popularity. Only 478,000 returns were telefiled this year, down 5.5 per cent from last year.
The average refund so far is $1,440 — up almost $200 from last year. Retroactive tax cuts contained in last year's fall economic update explain the increase.
The Canada Revenue Agency is expecting about 25 million returns to be filed this year. As of May 28, almost 23.7 million returns had been processed.
Self-employed individuals have until midnight on Monday, June 16, to file their returns.
In late April, the Canada Revenue Agency announced that taxpayers who were Netfiling would have until May 6 to file their returns. The six-day extension was granted after some people found it difficult to connect online with the tax department during the last few days of April because of the crush of late filers.
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