Watch Out for Missing Slips!

Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes tax slips get misplaced or lost in the mail and consequently don’t get entered in your tax return.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is pretty understanding the first time it happens, but after that there can be some costly fines if you miss reporting a slip more than once.

CRA accepts most returns as filed at first. A little later, when things quiet down, they do a closer inspection of what’s been filed to make sure that you’ve reported every income slip CRA has on file (CRA usually receives a copy of all of your slips from the senders around the same time you do). When they see a discrepancy they correct your return to include the missing slip and let you know by letter that they’ve done it.

Sometimes it’s a slip reported in the wrong place, or reported on a line where they don’t expect to see it. For example, self-employed people who are paid with T4As for services or T5s for royalties often correctly report them as Professional or Business Income, while CRA tends to look for the income as part of Other Employment Income or Investment Income, respectively. It’s a misunderstanding rather than an error, and here at Personal Tax Advisors we always untangle this misunderstanding with CRA on behalf of our clients.

But sometimes something has been outright missed. Frequently it’s a slip from your bank, reporting interest or other investment income. If you’ve moved but the bank doesn’t yet have your new mailing address, the slip can go missing.

As mentioned, CRA will just fix errors like this by entering the slip themselves and adjusting your tax bill/refund accordingly. Your Notice of (Re)Assessment will mention any slips they’ve entered on your behalf.

There’s no penalty the first time it happens. But if you miss the same slip again, CRA will levy a fine.

So pay attention whenever CRA makes a change to your return, and read their explanation. If they say they’re incorporating income from a slip they think you’ve missed, check in with your tax preparer to see if it’s a misunderstanding regarding where the slip was reported. Alternatively, if you simply didn’t report the slip because you never received it, it’s time to contact the issuer of the slip to make sure their records are up-to-date so you never miss that slip again.