Author Archives: BetCrooks

How Can I File My 2012 Canadian Taxes Online in 2013 for Free Using NETFILE if my Income is over $35,000?

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Beginning in 2013 for the 2012 income tax year, the Canada Revenue Agency is starting to make it harder to file your taxes using paper forms. Instead of mailing out paper forms to those who used them in 2011, the CRA is telling those people to phone and order the forms, or visit a local post office to pick them up, or print them at home. They are recommending people use NETFILE and file their 2013 Canadian tax returns online. There are quite a few programs that let you NETFILE your tax information for free if you have a low income. But what is available for filing your taxes for free if you have a moderate to high income?

NOTE: local post offices do not carry all of the Canada Revenue Agency forms. If you used to receive some of the specialized forms mailed to your home or business, you will now have to phone to order them or print them off online.

Annoyingly, the CRA did manage to mail a letter to all taxpayers telling them about this change. It stated “free software” is available to file online.

I was suspicious of this statement. One of the reasons why I have been filing paper returns every year is that I had never found any “free” software to NETFILE or e-file. Because I have a business income tax return and a personal income tax return, I also found that most off-the-shelf software was pretty pricey compared to spending an hour and half writing numbers down on a sheet of paper and paying $1.28 to mail it in.

As for those who say “But you’ll have to wait so long for your refund if you paper file.” I say: Why are you getting a refund? Shouldn’t you not overpay your taxes in the first place?

Anyway, I decided to look online to see what these amazing “free” choices had to offer.
The first slap was that the Canada Revenue Agency does not even have a list of approved software for 2013 returns yet. It’s January 23 today. They say the first returns can be filed February 11. So when will they know?!

I then took a look at last year’s approved software. Of the 34 products listed ONE, yes 1!, is free if your income is over $35,000. In fact, almost none are free if your income is over $25,000. So if you have a moderate to high income, there was only one approved free program in 2012 for filing 2011 tax returns using NETFILE.

That one program was called StudioTax by Bhok It Consulting. It was free regardless of income. It does encourage donations, however, to help offset the costs of maintaining and updating the program.

According to the StudioTax website, they continue to offer their product for free for filing 2012 income tax returns in 2013. If it gets approved again by the Canada Revenue Agency, this may be a product I test. Or I may just sharpen my pencil and dig in.

UPDATE: A few weeks later a second program was approved which is free to use by anyone regardless of income. It is called GenuTax.

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Can You Buy Additional Shares for No Fee Using a BMO InvestorLine DRIP?

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If you participate directly in a DRIP by registering your shares with the Transfer Agent (such as ComputerShare) for the stock, you may be able to purchase additional shares without paying any fee or commission at the time of each dividend reinvestment. For example, at the time this was written, you could purchase additional shares of Fortis. I wondered whether participants in a BMO InvestorLine synthetic DRIP could also purchase more shares when they received their quarterly dividends from Fortis. So I asked, using MyLink the secure email function.

Purchasing Additional Shares through a Genuine DRIP for No Fee

Although there is no discount on the price of shares under any circumstances, it is possible to buy additional shares in Fortis at the same time as the dividends are being re-invested.

That means additional shares can be purchased four times a year. It’s done by sending a cheque which must arrive at the transfer agent early enough to clear at least three business days before the dividend date. The shares will be purchased at the Average Market Price as defined in the Fortis DRIP agreement.

The financial advantage of making this type of purchase is that no brokerage fee or commission is required to make the purchase. So if it normally costs you $9.95 to purchase shares, you would save that $9.95 fee.

Is It Possible to Purchase Additional Shares through a Synthetic InvestorLine DRIP for No Fee?

Can I buy more shares in Fortis through the InvestorLine synthetic DRIP without paying any brokerage fee? Unfortunately, no.

The MyLink agent responded that, “Regretfully share purchase plans are not available for purchase through BMO InvestorLine.” I guess that’s my regret, not theirs!

So at this point, you are stuck with paying the commission when you want to buy additional shares in the same company. Regretfully.

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Do you participate in a real DRIP and take advantage of the ability to buy additional shares with no fees or commissions? Please share your experiences with a comment.