As I mentioned before, I realized this year, about 12 hours after NETFILEing my 2013 tax return, that I have a reporting error on my T2125 business return. Checking through my files, I discovered the error goes back at least 10 years because this numeric code has been copied, by me, erroneously from one year’s return to the next. Sigh. Because it doesn’t affect my taxes owing, I doubt Revenue Canada cares. But I’d like to keep my files accurate, so I want to adjust all of my returns. I decided to send a letter or a T1-ADJ in to the Canada Revenue Agency to change the info on my past tax returns.

NOTE: Each of these tax returns has been assessed and I have received the Notices of Assessment for them. The CRA does not like it if you try to amend your return while they are still processing it for the first time. Wait till you get your NoA before making corrections or phone them to discuss it if it is an urgent mistake.

Always  pay any taxes you know you owe immediately. It puts you in a much stronger position to request they waive any interest or penalties.

Do I Have to Re-Do All My Taxes Because I Made a Mistake?

No.

You only submit a request to change the mistake. You do NOT re-calculate all of your taxes. Their computer will do that.

So if you forgot to report $51 in interest from a T5, you will only report a correction to Line 121. And pay the tax you owe as soon as possible.

Which means I have to contradict myself and say you may *want* to re-do your taxes so you can pay the tax you owe sooner even though you will not be sending your re-calculated return to the CRA. Or you could overpay what might be owing and wait to get a refund after they re-assess your return. (For example, you could pay $50 in tax on the $51 mistake and wait a few months to get some of that overpayment back.)

Why Did I Submit My Tax Correction on Paper?

I have electronic access to my tax returns through the CRA My Account program. So why didn’t I just file a T1-ADJ online?

Two reasons:

• I didn’t notice anything to click to select to adjust a T2125 online, although I could find how to change line 135 my net business income, if I needed to.
• The correction I need to make is to a field that does not have a line number. It’s an informational field at the beginning of the form, not one of the numbers used to calculate my income, expenses or taxes.

In my situation, it seemed easier to explain what needed to be fixed in a letter than to try to summarize it into a tiny text field.

How to Adjust Your Tax Return With a Letter to the CRA

Write a letter including

• a brief explanation of the cause of your error
• what needs to be corrected
• which year’/s’ return/s need/s correction
• the line number, if applicable, of the number to be corrected
• the name of the line that needs to be corrected
• your social insurance number
• your full name as used on your tax returns
• your mailing address
• a telephone number where you can be reached during CRA business hours

You’ll need to sign the letter.

Don’t explain more than necessary. For example, just say “I mistakenly reported my business code on my T2125.” Don’t bother saying “My uncle’s cousin insisted that code 1235 was for businesses importing chinchillas from Ecuador but not for businesses importing chinchillas and aardvarks which would be code 1236 and like the fool I am I believed him and used it not realizing that that was really the code for businesses exporting chinchillas from Ecuador.”

Enclose with your letter any required supporting documentation. For example, if you are *mailing* in a request to adjust your tax return because of an un-reported RRSP contribution, you should include the original RRSP contribution receipt. (If you are electronically filing a T1-ADJ for this problem you would keep the RRSP contribution receipt until they request it unless the website tells you to send it in.)

How to Adjust Your Tax Return by Completing a Paper T1-ADJ Form

If the change you need is easy to explain, for example you want to report some interest income that you received for which you only found the T5 a few weeks after you mailed your return, you may find it easier to fill in a T1-ADJ than to write a letter.

Go to the CRA website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t1-adj/README.html
And click on a link to either fill in and print a T1-ADJ or just print one and fill it in by hand.

As with a letter, you’ll need to fill in

• your social insurance number
• your full name as used on your tax returns
• your mailing address
• a telephone number where you can be reached during CRA business hours
• which year’s return needs correction (fill in one T1-ADJ for each year that needs to be changed)

You’ll also need to list

• the line number from the form or schedule of the number to be corrected
• the name of the line from the return or schedule (probably in case they can’t read your printing for the line number; or because you’ve already admitted you make mistakes)
• the incorrect original amount you reported
• whether to add or subtract the next amount from that original amount
• the amount to add or subtract
• the revised, correct amount you should have reported

If you need to make an explanation or provide details, there is a space to do so.

You’ll need to sign the form.

They have an example on the form if that sounds confusing. Here’s my own example:

Say you reported $120 in interest income from a T5.
Then you found another T5 for $51 that you forgot to report.
You’d report:

• Line number from return or schedule: Line 121
• Name of line from return or schedule: Interest and other investment income
• Previous amount: $120
• + -: +
• Amount of change: $51
• Revised amount: $171

Where Do I Mail My T1-ADJ or Letter Requesting an Adjustment to My Income Taxes?

You should be mailing your form or letter to the CRA office that handles your taxes. You can check which office this is by looking at your most recent Notice of Assessment. It’s on the top line after your Social Insurance Number and the Tax Year. For example, it may say “Sudbury ON P3A 5C1.”

You can get the complete mailing address online from the list on the CRA website. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cntct/prv/txcntr-eng.html

Yes, there is a tax centre in Shawinigan. What a surprise! (For those of you too young to know why put “the little guy from Shawinigan” in your search engine and become enlightened.)

How Long Will I Have to Wait for the CRA to Change My Tax Return (and Send Me My Money?)

This is where the bad news comes in. It’s slow to revise your taxes and even slower if you file a request by mail not electronically.

The CRA website says an online T1-ADJ request usually takes 2 weeks to process. A letter usually takes 8 weeks to process. They say it may take longer in late summer and fall and for a variety of other reasons.

So don’t buy anything on your credit card until AFTER they deposit your refund!

What Happened In My Case?

Well, I’ve just mailed my letter so I guess I won’t expect to hear anything till August.
I spoke with the CRA already about my mistake so I’m not really expecting to hear anything anyway. The representative told me that they likely will just add a copy of my letter to my file because the number I’m correcting isn’t really used for anything. (I wonder just how many of those fields we fill in on our taxes are never really used?!) Still, I feel better knowing I’ve done my part to make my returns “correct and complete” because “It is a serious offence to make a false return.”

Related Reading

• How to Change Your Tax Return by Filing a T1-ADJ Online Using the CRA My Account Website
• CRA Website: How to Change Your Return

Join In
Have you had to correct an error by mailing in a T1-ADJ or a letter? Did it seem like forever before you heard back from the CRA? Please share your tax tales with a comment.

Well this has been a major year for tax errors in the clan. First I discovered I’ve been reporting an incorrect business code for over 10 years. Then another relative discovers (admits?) he has some T2125s from some continuing education certificate courses a few years ago that he never claimed. I helped him out by showing him how to change his tax return by filing a T1-ADJ online using the CRA My Account website.

First he had to apply online to get a CRA Security Code and wait for it to arrive in the mail. That took about 3 days. Now his CRA My Account is fully set up so he can start using it.

NOTE: His tax returns have all been assessed and he has received his Notices of Assessment. You generally do NOT file a T1-ADJ until after they have processed your return. If you mail or e-file it too soon you will likely cause the entire Revenue Canada computer system to crash to its knees and start coughing out audit letters. Please restrain yourself from invoking mass audits on yourself and your colleagues and wait for that Notice of Assessment!

Save Yourself Some Tax Penalties

If you know the correction you need to report means that you will owe the CRA money, PAY IMMEDIATELY! The sooner you pay, the more successfully you can appeal to have any fines or penalties waived. If you wait to pay the government is not as likely to look kindly on your request for forgiveness.

What Years Can I Correct Online?

In 2014, you can ask for corrections to your tax returns for 2004 to 2013. (You won’t file your 2014 taxes until spring 2015.)

How to Adjust Your Tax Return Online Using CRA My Account

To sign in to your My Account website

1. Go to http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/myccnt/menu-eng.html
   1. Click on the CRA Login button.
   2. The CRA Login Page
   3. In the User ID: field type in your id.
   4. In the Password: field type in your password.
   5. Click on the Login button.

The Additional Security Feature Page
Type the answer to your security question and click on the Continue button.

The Last CRA Login Page
Check the date and time of your last recorded login. If it’s ok, click on the Continue button.

The Welcome Page
Now you are in your main CRA My Account home page.

Click on the link on the left side of the screen called: Change my return

The Change My Return Page
Read the information on this page about adjusting your tax return. If you are not sure you can request the required change this way, click on the link to Help with this page and read the information there.

From the drop-down list, select the year for which you wish to change your tax return.

Click on the Go button.

The T1 General 2013 Page

1. Click on the tab for the form or schedule you need to change.
   For example, to add an amount for eligible tuition fees, click on the tab: Federal tax SCHEDULE 1
2. In this case, nothing had been reported previously for tuition fees.To add a line, in the Other lines for Federal tax: section, from the Select a line drop-down list, click the down facing arrowhead and select the needed line.We selected:
   323: Tuition, education, and textbook amounts
3. Then click on the Add line button.
4. When that was done, a new line was added to the web page. It stated:
   To revise line 323, refer to schedule 11.
5. We clicked on this new link to schedule 11.
6. The web page refreshed and added a mini Schedule 11 with lines 320, 321, 322 and 327.
   We typed in the appropriate values in the New Amount fields.
   NOTE: This did NOT change the value of 0 in the new line 323. That’s because 0 is the value submitted on the original tax return. It should not change at this point.
7. We then scrutinized the entire web page carefully to make sure everything else looked ok.
8. When we were sure it looked ok, we clicked the Review and Submit Changes button at the bottom of the web page.

Argh. It says “The new amount in line 320 must be a whole number only (no decimal.) So why does his T2022A have cents on it!

Anyway, we removed the cents and tried again. (Huh. No credit for that 37 cents!)

Ah, this time it progressed.

The Review Changes Page
We read the information about errors and warnings, then clicked on Continue.

The Warning(s) Detected! Page
We claimed tuition costs but not any education or textbook amounts and we did not transfer any amounts to a spouse or a parent. This screen just asks us to confirm that we didn’t want to make any of these related changes.

We read through it, then clicked on the Continue button.

The Submit Changes Page
The system responded with a summary of the lines we had changed and their past and present values.

If you need to change something else, click on the link Make More Changes to go back to the T1 General 2013 screen.

We thought we needed to add the tuition amount to his Ontario tax return. So we clicked on the tab: Provincial tax ON428

The Provincial Tax ON428 Page
Again, there was no line 5856, so we had to add it.

1. To add a line, in the Other lines for Provincial tax: section, from the Select a line drop-down list, click the down facing arrowhead and select the needed line.We selected:
   5856: Tuition and education amounts (provincial/territorial Schedule S11
   Then click on the Add line button.
2. When that was done, a new line was added to the web page. It stated:
   To revise line 5856, refer to schedule S11.
   We clicked on this new link to schedule S11.
3. The web page refreshed and added a mini Schedule S11 with lines 5914, 5916, 5918 and 5920.
   In the Eligible tuition fees paid section, it states: To revise line 5914, refer to line(s) 320.
   So we clicked on the link to 320.
4. This is the line we have already corrected on the federal return. So the CRA system will apparently automatically adjust the provincial Eligible tuition fees paid based on the correction we have already made to the Federal tuition fees paid.

That means we’re done in this section.

We then scrutinized the entire web page carefully to make sure everything else looked ok.
When we were sure it looked ok, we clicked the Review and Submit Changes button at the bottom of the web page.

We read through the Certification Statement and clicked to check the box to acknowledge the statement.

We clicked on the Submit button.

The Thank You for Submitting a Request to Change Your Income Tax and Benefit Return Page
We were informed his request had been accepted and that he would receive his Notice of Assessment within the next two weeks.

Cool! He’s due to get a small tax refund! It says how much.

If he owed taxes, he could use this reported tax difference to immediately pay his taxes owing. That would strengthen his case to request the CRA waive any interest or penalties.

Exit the My Account Website Safely
Since now he just has to wait, it was time to sign out of the My Account program.

1. Click on the Logout button.
2. Click on the Exit button.
3. Empty your cache and close your Browser session for increased security.

Related Reading

• CRA Website: How to Change Your Return
• How to Change Your Tax Return by Mailing In a Letter or T1-ADJ to the CRA

Join In
Have you filed a T1-ADJ to revise your taxes online? Did you get a whopping refund or have to pay a nasty penalty? Please share your CRA stories with a comment.