After downloading and installing GenuTax Standard 2012 on your home computer, you are ready to do your 2012 income taxes. Then, before the April 30, 2013 filing deadline you can send your taxes in using NETFILE for free. This review is based on a married employee filling out a tax return. I hope to do a second review later using GenuTax Standard to complete a Business Income return, also for free.
UPDATE: I hope to conduct a similar review using GenuTax Standard 2013 in early 2014. IN the meantime, I hope this article about using last years’s program will be of some use.
To Calculate your 2012 Taxes Using GenuTax Standard 2012
Before You Begin
Please note that GenuTax Standard 2012 does not handle:
- the AgriStability or AgriInvest programs
- a business that has its permanent establishment in a different province or territory than where you were resident
- NS Research and Development Tax Credit Recaptures
- filing a Quebec provincial income tax return
Test Tax Case for GenuTax Standard
Let’s try using it to complete a return for
- An employee with a T4
- A wife with no income
- 2 children
- The children took both arts and sports activities
- Charitable contributions
Start 10:26 a.m.
Now, because some of you readers just want to know the end result, I’m reporting that first, then going back to describe using the program in detail below.
What Was the Result of the Test Case and How Did It Do?
GenuTax Standard 2012 calculated the same return that I did.
GenuTax Standard 2012 is better than StudioTax 2012 because it asks “Did you receive any interest and other investment income for which you did not receive an information slip?” With StudioTax I had to remember to manually correct my return by entering my investment income from savings bonds and bank accounts for which I did not receive T5s.
GenuTax Standard 2012 did not pick up on the fact I could claim slightly more in the Ontario children’s activity credit than I thought, like StudioTax did. That is because it asks me to type in the answer for the claim, rather than calculating it based on the answers for the Federal credits. In this case, StudioTax did a slightly better job in maximizing my tax return.
There was one confusing moment. The GenuTax program asked if I had any capital gains or losses to report. I had previously entered some capital gains on T3 slips so I wasn’t sure how to answer. I selected that NO I did not have any capital gains or losses to report. After the test was complete I checked and GenuTax Standard 2012 did properly calculate my capital gains and losses using the information from the T3 slips.
How Long Does It Take to do Your Taxes Using GenuTax Standard 2012?
It took 95 minutes to fill in the taxes for an employee with a T4, 3 T3s, 3 T5s, some additional interest income, a wife with no income, 2 children who both took arts and sports activities, and who made lots of charitable contributions. (No child support; no business income; no medical expenses)
That includes some time to check a few things before typing them in and to read over the final tax report.
Who is GenuTax Standard 2012 Best For?
GenuTax would probably work best for someone who is not sure how to do their own taxes and who wants to be prompted by a series of questions to enter the correct information. It also has a faster mode for those who have done their own taxes before and want to skip steps.
GenuTax did a good job of handling all the numbers behind the scenes.
What’s the Best Way to Use GenuTax Standard?
It’s best to have all of your T forms and information handy before you begin. As with any tax software, you should compare this year’s return to last year’s looking for things that you missed.
How accurate is GenuTax Standard?
Well, this is really just my opinion. I’m not a tax accountant nor employed by the Canada Revenue Agency. I did my taxes by hand using a pencil and a calculator. Then I did them again using GenuTax Standard. The answers were identical. So it seems good to me!
Now, here’s the details of the test review:
How to Use Free GenuTax Software to Calculate Your 2012 Taxes and NetFile Online by April 30, 2013
If necessary, to start the program, double click on the GenuTax Standard icon on your desktop.
Click to select Create a new taxpayer file, then click the OK button.
In the Taxpayer Information field, type the information in the following fields:
- Social Insurance Number
- First Name
- Middle name(s)
- Last name
- Select as appropriate Male or Female.
- From the drop-down list, select your Date of birth, or just type it in.
When all of the data is correct, click on the OK button.
You will be asked where to store the Taxpayer file and what to call it. I left it to the default location and the default of using my name. Then click the Save button.
You will be asked which year you want to create a tax return for. I selected 2012. Click the OK button.
The Tax Interview part of the program will begin.
Completing the Tax Interview for Calculating your 2012 Taxes Using GenuTax Standard
If you want to read more information about the interview, select the Yes button, then click on the Next tab at the bottom of the screen.
There are 2 ways to use the program. One asks many questions to ensure you capture all of your deductions. The other way is for experienced tax filers who already know exactly what they want to input.
This review will use the Comprehensive Interview. I want to see if it identifies any new deductions or fails to prompt me for any that I already know about.
On the Type of Interview screen, select Comprehensive Interview and click on the Next tab.
From the drop-down list select your Marital Status on December 31, 2012. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for Whether
- your martial status changed in 2012. Click Next.
- you were dependent on your spouse to an impairment. Click Next.
- you were ever not with your spouse in 2012. Click Next.
- you had a medical separation in 2012. Click Next.
Click on the Prepare Returns Together box if you want to prepare returns to share credits to maximize their value. I did not select this option.
Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you were a resident of Canada. Click Next.
From the drop-down list, select where you were resident in Canada at the end of the year.
Click Next.
If you moved within provinces or territories, state the date of your move. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether your mailiing address is your residential address. Click next.
From the drop-down list, select where you currently are resident. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether
- you entered Canada during 2012 as a new resident. Click Next.
- you were deemed non-resident in 2012. Click Next.
Type your Spouse or Partner’s
- Social Insurance Number
- First Name
- Last Name
- Date of Birth
Click Next.
Enter your Spouse or Partner’s net income from line 236 of their return.
Click Next.
(Note: unlike StudioTax it does not advise whether you can enter an estimate.)
Select Yes or No for whether your Spouse or Partner
- reported any registered disability income. Click Next.
- repaid any registered disability income. Click Next.
- reported any capital gains from mortgage foreclosures and conditional sales repossessions. Click Next.
- is filing a form RC310. Click Next.
- was self-employed. Click Next.
- was a resident of Canada. Click Next.
- was in prison. Click Next.
- died in 2012. Click Next.
Review your personal information. If you need to change it, click the Change Personal Information button. If it is correct click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether
- you are a member of a communal organization. Click Next.
- this return is being completed by a volunteer on your behalf. Click Next.
Select whether you prefer to deal in English or French with the CRA. Click Next.
Select whether your mailing address is in Canada, the USA or another country. Click Next.
Type in your mailing address and click Next.
(A warning message tells you how to change your address with CRA.) Click Next.
Type in your home telephone number, if desired. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether
- the taxpayer is deceased. Click Next.
- you are a Canadian citizen. Click Next.
- the CRA can give your information to Elections Canada. Click Next.
- you were in prison in 2012. Click Next.
- you declared bankruptcy in 2012. Click Next.
- you have any dependents not including a spouse or partner. Click Next.
On the Dependent Information screen, enter
- First Name
- Last Name
- Date of Birth
- Social Insurance Number, if applicable
- From the drop-down list, select your Relationship.
Click Next.
Enter the Dependent’s Net Income and click Next.
Select whether the Dependent lived with you at any time in 2012 and at the end of 2012. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether the dependent
- lives at your address. Click Next.
- has an impairment. Click Next.
- has a spouse or partner. Click Next.
- has children. Click Next.
- has unused tuition, education or textbook amounts. Click Next.
Select whether you have any additional dependents. Click Next.
Read the details about the Amount for Children born in 1995 or later and select how many children are applicable. Click Next.
Select which spouse or partner will be claiming the children. Click Next.
Enter your RRSP Deduction Limit for 2012 from your Notice of Assessment. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you
- have unused RRSP contributions. Click Next.
- made an RRSP contribution in the first 60 days of 2012 for specific conditions. Click Next.
- need to make a HBP repayment. Click Next.
- need to make a LLP repayment. Click Next.
Completing the Income Section
Select Yes or No for whether you have any T4, T4A, T4PS or T5 slips. Click Next.
For each type of form, if you have it, click the button for it.
A typical form with empty boxes on it is displayed. Type the numbers from your form in the same boxes. If you have two of the same type of form, click the Add a New Slip button. Repeat. Then click the Close button.
Click Next.
Complete this step for each form you have.
Select Yes or No for whether you have any Quebec RL Slips. Click Next.
Enter any tips you received. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you received
- a research grant. Click Next.
- a housing allowance for clergy. Click Next.
- an employee GST/HST rebate. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you
- filed a Quebec Provincial return. Click Next.
- have any foreign income. Click Next.
- have any other employment Income. Click Next.
- want to make any additional CPP or QPP contributions. Click Next.
- have any employment income from a major shareholder. Click Next.
- have any pension income which may be reported on a T4A(OAS), T4A(P), T4A, T4RIF, T4RSP, T3 or T5. Click Next.
- want to split pension income with a spouse or partner. Click Next.
- have any UCCB payments. Click Next.
- have any UCCB repayments. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether your spouse had any UCCB payments. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether your spouse had any UCCB repayments. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you received
- any EI. Click Next.
- any investment income in 2012. Click Next.
If you have a T3, T5, T5013, T5013A, Quebec RL or other form click the button for the form.
A typical form with empty boxes on it is displayed. Type the numbers from your form in the same boxes. If you have two of the same type of form, click the Add a New Slip button. Repeat. Then click the Close button.
Click Next.
Complete this step for each form you have.
Then click the Close button.
Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you received any Dividend Income. Click Next.
*** In this respect, GenuTax Standard 2012 is better than StudioTax 2012 because it asks “Did you receive any interest and other investment income for which you did not receive an information slip?”***
Select Yes or No for whether you received
- any additional investment income. Click Next.
- any foreign investment income. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you
- were in a partnership. Click Next.
- had rental income. Click Next.
- had self employment income. Click Next.
- have any capital gains or losses to report. Click Next.
***I had previously entered some capital gains on T3 slips. Here I selected that NO I did not have any capital gains or losses to report. After the test was complete I checked and GenuTax Standard 2012 did properly calculate my capital gains and losses using the information from the T3 slips.***
Select Yes or No for whether you received
- any support payments. Click Next.
- any social assistance or workers’ compensation. Click Next.
- WTIB. Click Next.
Select Yes or No for whether you
- have any other income not yet reported. Click Next.
- had any retroactive lump sum payments. Click Next.
- held more than 100000 of foreign property. Click Next.
- are a Status Indian. Click Next.
Completing the Deductions and Credits Section
Select Yes or No for the following then click Next
- SPP contributions
- RRSP contributions
- RPP contributions
- Carryforward of RPP contributions
- Contributions to foreign pensions
- Annual union professional dues
- Disabliilty amount
- Disabiity support deduction
- Moving expenses carryfoward
- Moving expenses
- Support payments made
- Carrying charges and interest expenses
- Exploration and development charges
- Employment expenses
- Deferred security option benefits
- Losses from prior years
- Northern residents deduction
- Income amounts paid back
- Legal fees
- Refund of unused RRSP contributions
- Excess RPP transfers withdrawn
- Canadian films
- Tax treaty exemptions
- Vow of poverty
- Employed by international corporation
- Prospector
- Securities from a DPSP
- Other deductions
- Do you wish to claim the spouse or partner amount, if applicable?
- Family caregiver amount
- Various spousal/partner related claims
- Firefighters amount
- Children’s Fitness amount
- Children’s Arts amount
- Home Buyers’ amount
- Adoption expenses
- Tuition, Education, Textbook amounts
- Tuition fees
- Student Loans
- Medical Expenses
- Donations and Gifts
- Gift of land
- Gift of Cultural property
- Gifts to country
- Gift of securities
- Donations of capital property
- Want to limit gifts for this year?
- Overseas employment tax credit
- Minimum tax carryover
- Carrying charges
- Foreign tax credit
- Political contributions
- Labour-sponsored funds
- Investment tax credit
- Tax paid by installments
- Other Income Tax Deducted
- WTIB
- GST.HST Credit
- Ontario property tax credit
- Northern Ontario credit
- Child activity fees
- Healthy homes
- Political contributions
- Balance of tax unpaid
- Special elections
Phew, you’re done!
From the File Menu, select Save.
Click Exit.
Finished 12:01.
WARNING: Although you have now completed your tax return, you have not yet sent it in to the Canada Revenue Agency! You must either print it and mail it in, or NETFILE it.
Even more importantly, if you owe money you MUST pay it before April 30, 2013, or the government will start charging interest on May 1 and may also charge a penalty. If you need a remittance form to fill in and take to the bank to pay your taxes you can print one from the CRA website at http://www.netfile.gc.ca/fq_rfnd-eng.html#balance_owing.
The CRA website has information about how to pay at
http://www.netfile.gc.ca/fq_rfnd-eng.html#balance_owing
with links to various payment tools.
Supporting the Development of GenuTax
If you liked the product, you can make a donation to support the software. Information is at https://www.genutax.ca/Donate.aspx
Related Reading
- How to NETFILE your Tax Return for Free Using GenuTax
- How to Download and Install Free GenuTax Software to Do and File Your 2012 Canadian Income Taxes
- How to Use Free StudioTax Software to Complete your 2012 Canadian Income Taxes and File Online
- How to Download and Install StudioTax Software to Calculate and File your 2012 Canadian Income Taxes Online for Free
Join In
Do you use GenuTax Standard? Have you been happy with this software? Please share your experiences with a comment.
How do I know if Revenue Canada received my Genu Tax information? I worry about them not receiving the tax information as it is close to the end of April.If they did not receive it on line what do I have to do to get another return in to them on time. I really liked the genu tax program, found it very easy to get through.
When you finished calculating your taxes, you then have to NETFILE them to the CRA. Did you have a chance to do that step? See https://financialcrooks.com/how-netfile-taxes-genutax-online-cra-free/ for details. If it was submitted successfully to the CRA, the government website should have displayed a screen that says: “We have successfully received your 2012 tax return.” It should give a confirmation number, which you can use when speaking with the tax department in the future if you need to.
After you’ve NETFILEd you can also check the status of your return online using the government’s Quick Access program. I just wrote about it today when I checked the status of our returns. https://financialcrooks.com/how-check-status-2012-income-tax-refund/
If you think you NETFILEd but you didn’t get a confirmation number, you might want to use Quick Access and see if it says whether your return has been received. Unfortunately phoning the CRA at this time of year requires a LOT of patience, so I’d try Quick Access first.
Always, always, always go ahead and pay your taxes before the April 30 deadline if you owe anything! You can always straighten out any problems with a delay in filing easily, but they will charge interest starting May 1 if you owe taxes and haven’t paid!
I just used Genutax after reading your review.
I was wondering though, do you know how to get a pdf file of my tax return? It appears that I can only print it from the computer that I have the software on and my printer doesn’t work.
I had hoped to save it as a pdf on a disk and then print it some where.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
I’m not a computer expert by a long stretch, but I think you’ll need to download and install a free PDF writer on your PC. Then within GenuTax you would click on File > Print as usual, but would select “PDFCreator” from the choice of printers. Instead of printing, it creates a PDF file that you can save.
The program I would suggest is PDFCreator which can be downloaded from CNET at http://download.cnet.com/PDFCreator/3000-2064_4-10558866.html
I can’t guarantee it would work, but you may want to try it.
Thanks very much!! Just got the pdf!
It worked very well! I appreciate your help a lot!!
Great to hear! I hope you find it easy to continue and NETFILE your return. (Or mail in the paper copy.) We used NETFILE and our refund was deposited in 10 days.
Hello, I’m attempting to file my own taxes for the first time, and having gone through the program, it reported that I owe a fair bit of money, even though last year I had a rebate and had the same income. I noticed that nowhere in the program does it mention a Basic Personal Exemption, which would make a significant impact. Does the program automatically incorporate that? Thanks.
Yes, the basic personal is automatic.
Within GenuTax from the top of the screen, if you choose File and then Print Preview and then select the detailed version of your return, not the condensed version for the CRA, you can see on the screen a copy of your entire tax return. You could then compare the line items against last year and see what may have been missed. (I assume that you already compared your T4s for last year and this year and that the tax withheld from your pay is about the same last year and this year.)
Common reasons to pay less tax include
a) charitable contributions
b) child care expenses
Smaller deductions include
a) transit credit if you bought monthly passes
b) child activity credits, if your children are enrolled in arts and sports programs that qualify
I hope you find something simple that was overlooked. I hate paying extra tax!
Thanks Bet! That was very helpful:)
I only got as far as the line requiring my spouses net income from line 236. So do we have to fill out paper copies in order to have that info available to fill in this copy? How do I know that number when it hasn’t asked those questions yet and won’t let us pass until we do? Very confusing!
Please be aware that I don’t work for GenuTax or get paid by GenuTax. Like you, I’m just someone trying to use it.
That said, no I don’t think you have to fill out your paper copies to keep going. You can either put the value as 0 for now, or put an estimate. You don’t FILE your taxes with the CRA until you are ready. So I would estimate her income as 0 (or yours) do the whole return. Save it but do NOT file it. Then do her whole return. Save it but do NOT file it. Then correct line 236 as needed.
I think GenuTax lets you optimize the charity deductions etc. If it does, when you first start it will ask if you want to optimize the taxes for a couple. I haven’t done that part so I’m not sure exactly how it works.
So all I can suggest is that you try without Filing, and see how it goes.
After everything looks the way you think you want it, then you can proceed to NETFILE.
Sorry I can’t offer a better suggestion than this.
I use Genutax in mid-February to plan how much to put into RRSPs, and my wife’s company does not issue T4s until the last bleeping day so I estimate her T4 using the last year’s, then change it later. Like you said, it is easy to go back and change. I write down what is estimated and what is missing when the data entry is done so that I don’t forget later!
That sounds like an excellent approach. Our T4s usually arrive within a reasonable time but some of our other T-slips are frustratingly slow.
&*^(^( I filled my claim with genu tax standard and in the end it wouldn’t let me use netfile cause it said I had a problem with the filling. &|**$($(%! there was nothing wrong with my return it was
[your]the stupid software………what a &**^( waist of time!I’m very sorry to hear you had trouble filing with GenuTax Standard. I believe you already know that this blog does not belong to GenuTax nor do I have any connection to the company nor do they pay me anything. I’m just a taxpayer like you. I did manage to file my return easily and quickly with GenuTax.
I hope you reported your error message to GenuTax so that they can fix the bug that stopped you from netfiling.
Hi I am an ODSP recipient doing my taxes using GenuTax for the 1st time. Everything has been completed with the exception of filling out my rental amount. I can not find where it is located in the program. Help???????
Great review. I’m going to try both GenuTax and StudioTax for 2013. Fed up with paying for other software. I’ll let you know how it goes.
You might think twice about doing another review after some of these comments/questions!!!
I think both GenuTax and StudioTax will be approved for Netfile for 2013 taxes, however it’s worth noting that to date (January 12 2014), the CRA has not yet posted which software they have tested and approved. (Yes, I find that annoying.)
I am hoping to do another review of the 2013 version (issued in 2014 to calculate taxes payable on income earned in 2013) of each program. I’m certainly not a tax expert, though, I’m just a regular worker who has a fairly straightforward return to file.
Hi i used GenuTax last year and i completely agree with you as its more easier for persons who has more straightforward filing then complicated one. When i filed my refund last year, the federal tax and provincial/territorial tax were not deducted in my condensed copy and so CRA corrected it themselves when they refunded the remaining amount. Do you have any idea if i am missing some step which could cause this problem. Thanks for doing this review and sharing your personal experience with this software.
Wow, that’a a nasty software problem. I haven’t heard of that one before.
Did you file your taxes in January? I’m just wondering if you had a very, very early edition of the software.
Also, did it show the correct numbers when you looked at it before NETFILEing it? If so, at least you would know what real refund to
expect, and would know how much to pay if you owed tax.
If you haven’t already, you should probably report the bug to GenuTax to see if they can figure out what happened.
I’m sorry it didn’t work well for you.
So I got everything filled out and finished but it’s not letting me send it using netfile. It keeps telling me that it can on;y be a * tax file and of course my genutax saves as gt1 so my question is how do I change the gt1 to *tax? I think I had the same problem last year and I can’t remember how i fixed it. I just know that I filed it with netfile last year. PLEASE HELP
Hi,
NETFILE only opened yesterday (Feb 10) so that may be part of the problem?
I haven’t used GenuTax 2013 yet, but I did write up the steps to NETFILE for 2012 in How to NETFILE a Tax Return from GenuTax Standard 2012 Online to the CRA for Free. Were you able to follow similar steps with this year’s program?
If all else fails, you may have to contact GenuTax directly. Their website is http://www.genutax.ca. (I don’t work for them; I’m just a taxpayer, too.)
I am a CPA, CGA and have been using Genutax since 2005, the company’s 1st year. I do about 8 returns a year for family and friends, including two with small businesses and foreign investment income. Genutax handles it easily. I used to use Quick Tax and it was a little easier to use but I have saved about $600 over the years and Quick Tax is not nearly worth that much more. Keep up the good work Genutax!
I’m glad to hear that you’ve found GenuTax a useful program. I thought it was well written as well!
CREATING A .TAX FILE and A NEW METHOD TO NETFILE MORE QUICKLY WITHOUT A .TAX FILE
You must go all the way to the end of the interview in GenuTax Standard, where you are given full instructions on using the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE system.
As we explain in the ReadMe file that is available when installing this version of GenuTax Standard, if your computer is connected to the Internet, there is a new direct filing method available in GenuTax Standard, where the software directly sends your tax return information through an encrypted channel to the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE web service, instead of creating a temporary NETFILE transmission file (or .tax file) for you to manually upload on the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE website.
If you do not wish to use the direct filing method, or your Internet connection is not allowing the direct communication, go back a few steps in the interview, and answer “No” to the following question:
NETFILE Does this computer have access to the Internet?
When you click “Next”, you will be presented with the manual filing method, where a temporary NETFILE transmission file (or .tax file) is created for your tax return.
You will be given further instructions in that step in the interview.
If you have a spouse or common-law partner, you will have to go further in the interview, and repeat the same steps for that tax return as well.
Please contact us if you require any further clarification regarding this issue.
Although our customer support services are provided at no cost to you, our website includes a secure page which permits individuals to make a voluntary donation toward the costs of providing these customer support services, as well as other annual maintenance costs for GenuTax Standard software: https://www.genutax.ca/Donate.aspx GenuTax SupportGenuSource Consulting Inc.
Thank you for the detailed explanation of changes to GenuTax Standard 2013! I’m sure this will be very useful for us all!
I downloaded GenuTax 2014 and tried to fill in my tax return. My tax is very simple. But I could not find where to put in T4 and T4A slip. Even I did it step by step. Maybe I loaded the software wrong? I got the link from CRA website.
Please help.
Thanks!
When you get to the Income Topics section near the very beginning it asks if you have
Capital Gains and losses
Employment Income
Employment Insurance Income
Investment Income
Partnership Income
Pension Income
Rental Income
RRSP Withdrawals
Self-employment Income
Social Assistance and worker’s compensation
Support payments received
Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
Other Income
Unfortunately, it appears you MUST click to select the box beside Employment Income here to get any way to input your T4 later. Also if your T4A is for Employment Insurance income or Investment Income (bank etc.) then you must also select those boxes here.
Unfortunately, I think you may have to start again from the beginning. From what I can see, you have to get back to the Income Topics screen. There you need to be sure to click to select the box beside Employment Income and if your T4A is from an investment (bank, etc) or Unemployment Insurance, be sure to click to select those boxes, too. After about 20 other questions about your province, your citizenship, etc, you will get to the screen Employment Income.
On the Employment Income screen you have to click to select the button beside YES to say you want to be asked for T4 information. If you select Yes, then click on Next, the T4 Slips window will open. It will ask you to enter the information for your T4. You must click on the button: T4 Slips. A screen that looks like a blank T4 will open. You should type any numbers on your own T4 into the same spaces on the screen (e.g. Box26 for your CPP pensionable earnings). Make sure you have all the numbers from your T4 on the computer T4 before you click to save the information.
The screen after the T4 Slips screen is the T4A screen. Again, you click on the T4A slips button to open a blank T4A so you can copy the information from your own slip onto the computer slip.
If this doesn’t help, all I can suggest unfortunately is to contact GenuTax and ask if they can help you. Sorry!
StudioTax 2013 is another free program that you could try if you’d like.
I have a child that entered university last year for first time and want to transfer her tuition credits over to my spouse (lower income). Do I need to get any paper forms or will genutax fill out all the proper forms on both her return and my spouses?
Unfortunately, I have never tried to test GenuTax with tuition transfers because my children are too young, so I’m sorry but I don’t know how it will work. When you complete your child and spouse’s returns and look at the schedules, you should be able to see what it is using for each of their tax returns. (You will need to keep the official tax slip from the university in case you are audited.) You could try contacting GenuTax’s support group if it doesn’t seem to be working. (I don’t work for GenuTax; I’m just a taxpayer myself.)
UPDATE: Please see a new article at: https://financialcrooks.com/test-genutax-standard-2013-student-parent-tuition-education-textbook-t2202a/ where I tried some tests of GenuTax Standard 2013 using the Education amount. I hope it may answer some of your questions.
Hi,
I am filing the 2013 tax return but when uploading to the netfile from genutax, ther eis no .tax file created. How can I have a .tax file from genutax since genutax saves it something like .gen and not .tax? I downloaded genutax at the end of Feb 2014.
We received a question similar to this earlier, and GenuTax itself responded with this information:
CREATING A .TAX FILE and A NEW METHOD TO NETFILE MORE QUICKLY WITHOUT A .TAX FILE
You must go all the way to the end of the interview in GenuTax Standard, where you are given full instructions on using the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE system.
As we explain in the ReadMe file that is available when installing this version of GenuTax Standard, if your computer is connected to the Internet, there is a new direct filing method available in GenuTax Standard, where the software directly sends your tax return information through an encrypted channel to the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE web service, instead of creating a temporary NETFILE transmission file (or .tax file) for you to manually upload on the Canada Revenue Agency’s NETFILE website.
If you do not wish to use the direct filing method, or your Internet connection is not allowing the direct communication, go back a few steps in the interview, and answer “No” to the following question:
NETFILE Does this computer have access to the Internet?
When you click “Next”, you will be presented with the manual filing method, where a temporary NETFILE transmission file (or .tax file) is created for your tax return.
You will be given further instructions in that step in the interview.
If you have a spouse or common-law partner, you will have to go further in the interview, and repeat the same steps for that tax return as well.
Please contact us if you require any further clarification regarding this issue.
Although our customer support services are provided at no cost to you, our website includes a secure page which permits individuals to make a voluntary donation toward the costs of providing these customer support services, as well as other annual maintenance costs for GenuTax Standard software: https://www.genutax.ca/Donate.aspx GenuTax SupportGenuSource Consulting Inc.
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I hope that helps a bit! (I don’t work for GenuTax and I have not yet filed my 2013 return, so there’s nothing I can add in the way of personal advice.)
Will genutax automatically do income splitting for me when I file mine and my spouses taxes this year?
Do you mean for the new “family tax” split or for the “pension income” split? It does not automatically calculate the split for pension income.
I’ll try to test this in GenuTax very soon and report back. I know that StudioTax does calculate and apply the “family tax” benefit automatically.
Yes I’m referring to the new family tax split. Thanks.
Hi,
Sorry for the delay. I did some testing today and YES GenuTax does calculate the Family Tax Cut (based on income sharing of up to $50 000 for a benefit of up to $2 000) automatically. I’ll write up a post soon with the details. It seems simple and useful.
Thanks a lot.
Hi, I have used Genutax since 2012. I found it wonderful. I does out 5 returns a year.
I just got this problem that I can’t get. In 2012 I had a another computer than the one I am using now. One of the tax return that I did on genutax 2012 need some information. they have their printed.
I went under Genutax to goto 2012 but its telling me no tax year filed. Now I did do it under another computer but is there any way of getting the information I need from another computer that I didn’t do the work on. Need to print off the entire return of 2012.
I don’t think so as it would have stored the return on your hard drive on the other computer. Sorry.
If you need further info, you could try to contact GenuTax directly. I just use the software, I don’t work for them.
Good luck!
How do you enter Quebec tax slips into this years Genutax for 2015 that was released on Feb 29 GTStandardSetupV147.exe.
The Quebec RL Slip screens are usually between the T5S slips & the Tips screens. Without them it is giving a ridiculous balance owing of over $5K when my salary is the same as last year. Which just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps there are other mistakes making this years genutax unusable. Unfortunately there is no phone number to call.
I haven’t downloaded GenuTax yet this year so I can’t poke around and see if I can find this for you yet. In the meantime, I noticed on their website that they say: “(Residents of Quebec may use GenuTax Standard to prepare their federal tax returns that are to be sent to the Canada Revenue Agency. However, GenuTax Standard does not support the completion of the Quebec provincial tax return which is to be sent to Revenu Québec.)” I don’t know if that’s a factor or not, although from what you say about last year’s version it doesn’t sound like it’s the source of the problem. I’ll post again when I get a version of the software to start searching through.
I am trying GenuTax for the first time.
I have 5 T5008 slips (actually just a copy of transactions),but can’t figure out how to input this information. I know it needs to be on schedule 3. How would I go about doing this. Also we income split (pensioners) and GenuTax put my charitable donations in my wife’s return and I would like to put it in mine. How would I do this? In the interview for donations only one box opens and it’s the one for my wife.
I haven’t used GenuTax yet this year (2016) so I haven’t got a quick answer for your questions. I’ll try though:
One thing to check, when you were asked the Income Topics near the very beginning of answering the questions, did you tick the box saying you had “Capital gains and losses?”
You can check by opening your file in GenuTax then click on the button at the bottom of the screen called Jump to Section (F9), then select Type of Interview and click on OK. You’ll have to click Next through a couple of questions to get to the Income Topics questions.
If you have not selected to report Capital gains and losses, it will not provide you with questions to fill in Schedule 3. These questions come up after it asks for info about income slips including T4A -Ps etc for both you and your wife. The first slide is entitled Capital Gains and Losses and it asks if you have any to report. After several screens asking for info about capital gains and losses reported on T slips, there will be a screen asking about gains and losses from publicly traded stocks and shares, mutual funds etc. That’s where you would start to enter your trading data.
Similarly, near the very beginning for the Deductions and Credits questions, when asked did you tick the box beside “Charitable donations?” If you didn’t, there won’t be any screens for you to enter the charitable receipt info on your own return.
It’s also possible that the Charitable contributions are all being attributed to your wife’s return if you chose the “Prepare Returns Together” button near the beginning. If you selected that option, then the program is trying to optimize your savings by putting the credit where it will help the most.
If you have other questions, you may have to contact GenuTax directly as I haven’t actually used the program this year so I’m not sure of all the details. I hope this helps to get you started.
how can a genutax file be sent to another persons email address for printing?
You could “print” the file as a PDF and then email the PDF to their address for them to print. Make sure you proof read the PDF to ensure it includes the information the other person needs.
I’m sorry for the slow reply. I don’t work for or with GenuTax, I just pay taxes. I hope you were able to get an answer directly from them in time!