{"id":1027,"date":"2020-03-02T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fortax.ca\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2022-10-18T21:42:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T21:42:14","slug":"10-common-tax-mistakes-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/2020\/03\/02\/10-common-tax-mistakes-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"10 common tax mistakes to avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n.page-title-inner {display: none;}<br \/>\n.entry-header-text-top {display: none;}<br \/>\ndiv#comments {display: none;}<br \/>\n.entry-author {display:none;}<br \/>\nfooter.entry-meta {display: none;}<br \/>\n.sp-big-p {font-size: 120%; font-weight: 600;}<br \/>\n<\/style>\n<h4 style=\"font-size: 180%; font-weight: 500;\">Listen to this Podcast<\/h4>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/simplecast.com\/e\/52c16231?style=medium-light\" width=\"100%\" height=\"94px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n[gap]<br \/>\n[divider width=&#8221;100%&#8221; height=&#8221;1.5px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"margin-bottom: 1em;\">10 common tax mistakes to avoid<\/h2>\n<p>Every year, thousands of Canadians make errors when they prepare their income tax returns. These may go unnoticed \u2014 or they could result in an unexpected payment or penalty. Play it safe and avoid these common errors.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Filing late.<\/strong> Be sure to file by April 30. If you owe taxes, you\u2019ll pay a late-filing penalty of 5% of the tax owing plus 1% for each month you\u2019re overdue, up to 12 months. You\u2019ll also pay interest on the amount owing, plus on the late-filing penalty, starting May 1.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ignoring your partner.<\/strong> If you\u2019re in a common-law relationship, you\u2019re required to file as a couple. This can often be to your advantage.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lacking documentation.<\/strong> You may not need to provide certain slips or receipts with your return, but you do need to have them. Make sure they\u2019re complete and ready to provide to the government if requested.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Claiming moving expenses.<\/strong> If you\u2019ve relocated your home to take a new job, run a business at a new location, or attend full-time post-secondary school, and are moving 40 km or more, you can claim a wide range of related expenses. However, if your new employer paid for them, you can\u2019t claim those amounts as deductions on your tax return \u2014 and you\u2019ll need to claim them as income.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Claiming twice.<\/strong> Like moving expenses, there are other expenses you can\u2019t claim if you\u2019ve already been reimbursed. For example, if medical costs have been paid for by your insurer, you can only submit the remaining, unpaid amount as medical expenses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mistaken medical expenses.<\/strong> Be sure to consult the list of approved medical expenses. Items that people often try to claim but which aren\u2019t eligible include health plan premiums, gym memberships, birth control, blood pressure monitors, supplements or vitamins (even if prescribed by your doctor) and personal response systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Misusing \u201cother deductions.\u201d<\/strong> This area is intended to capture allowable amounts not deducted elsewhere on your return, such as certain special instances with RRSPs, RRIFs and other types of pension plans. You can\u2019t claim funeral expenses, wedding costs, legal fees or other non-allowable deductions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Claiming interest expenses on the wrong things.<\/strong> In general, you can only claim interest expenses if they were directly linked to an investment to earn an income. You can\u2019t claim mortgage interest on your principal residence (if you\u2019re not self-employed), for example, but you can claim it on your rental property.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Claiming ineligible tuition fees.<\/strong> You can only claim tuition at recognized institutions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Not filing at all.<\/strong> In addition to possibly incurring hefty interest charges and penalties, you could be missing out on important tax breaks and the ability to accumulate RRSP contribution room.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>At FORTAX Private Wealth Corp. we have a team of tax experts to assist with complex situations. If you have any questions, don\u2019t hesitate to contact your FORTAX Financial Advisor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this Podcast [gap] [divider width=&#8221;100%&#8221; height=&#8221;1.5px&#8221;] 10 common tax mistakes to avoid Every year, thousands of Canadians make errors when they prepare their income tax returns. These may go unnoticed \u2014 or they could result in an unexpected payment or penalty. Play it safe and avoid these common errors. Filing late. Be sure&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fortax-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14767,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/14767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evolvethought.com\/fortax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}