CRA increasing clerical errors

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reliablesolutions
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CRA increasing clerical errors

Post by reliablesolutions »

Have you noticed you obtaining CRA statement of accounts with unknown amounts - opening balances etc.
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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I would not trust CRA information as far as I could throw it.
1. I went on the CRA site to check on a capital loss carry forward. My accountant also phoned CRA to check the amount. The result - wildly different numbers.
2. My wife has more than one brokerage account with similar Reit holdings in both accounts. CRA said she owed money, so again off to the accountant, who could find no errors in her return. My wife's accountant said that during discussions the CRA official just hung up on her. A CRA bill soon followed. We just paid it. And she sold all her Reit holdings. Nightmare tax return coming up for peace of mind down the road.
3. Want more? So I looked more into this Reit information mess. I looked at 3 sources for return of capital info. First the return of capital number on the RevCan site for my account. Second the return of capital numbers on the T5 slips from the broker and third the return of capital numbers on the company web site. Sometimes all numbers are different! And in one instance over a 4 year period all the numbers matched except for one year where the RevCan number is half the other sources. I will not be selling all my Reits but I am eliminating overlaps. No Reit holdings are in more than one account. Luckily this major annoyance will not affect holdings in our RRSP's and TFSA's.

So yes, I would be cautious of CRA information. Let me rephrase that - I would be VERY cautious of CRA information.
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AltaRed
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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Before CRA is blamed for everything, the data they have on MyAccount (on investment income) has come from the Financial Institution. CRA doesn't manufacture any of this stuff. The broker is the one providing the data to both CRA and on the T3/T5 tax slip sent to the taxpayer, and presumably the FI is getting the data splits from the REITs themselves! Be careful who one blames.

FWIW, I have not seen any differences in any tax slip data, e.g. for REITs, on MyAccount than I get from the tax slips, and CRA's records of carry forward losses (which are also on the NOA) for either my ex's account or my account... and we've had a series of both carrybacks and carryforwards over the years.
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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Well AltaRed I agree CRA does not manufacture these numbers. I think the heading of this thread says it all "increasing clerical errors." If all your numbers agree count yourself lucky. I am just steeling myself for probably several years of aggravation.
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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Then it is clerical errors by the brokerage or the website, not CRA. I would always stick with the CRA numbers....but if you know that number is wrong, demand that your brokerage issue you an amended T5/T3/T5008 tax slip...and for them to send the amended data to CRA too.

There is plenty of time to do that with T5s since they have to be in our hands by now, subject to abysmal postal service for those getting tax slips by pony express, but there is usually not enough time to get amended T3 slips once errors are discovered circa Apr 5-10. In which case, I'd use the original (wrong) T3 data, and then do an amended return once the amended tax slip comes in. Heck... CRA may even see that themselves if the amended data gets to their database before they assess your return. I've had CRA in the (distant?) past tell me in an NOA that they 'adjusted' my return based on tax slip data they had.
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ClosetIndexer
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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I have. My holdco's NOA this year included a line that just said that the amount of dividends received from (business number of my operating co) had been adjusted. Nothing about how much it had been adjusted or why.

When I called, I eventually discovered that they had mistakenly adjusted the amount to be equal to the total amount of dividends paid by the optco, including amounts paid to other shareholders. The T2 correctly showed this; someone just messed up reviewing it. They're going to correct it, and it doesn't affect the amount owing anyway, so no big deal. Could have very easily been overlooked though given the lack of details in the assessment.

First time I can recall finding an issue on a notice of assessment that was CRA's mistake rather than mine (or my accountant's).
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

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But that is a processing error on a return as compared to Transformer's assertion about CRA being responsible for the wrong info on tax slips on MyAccount.

CRA does make processing errors on returns and thus why one needs to compare NOA information against your own tax return submission. It happened with my mother's 2015 Final T1 Return vis-a-vis the Rights and Things return when CRA did not allocate CPP and OAS as I had requested in those two tax returns.
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Re: CRA increasing clerical errors

Post by ClosetIndexer »

Fair enough - I was responding primarily to the title 'increasing clerical errors'. But you're right, it's really a different thing entirely.
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