orly

Yea things like that are fun.

The stuff that gets me is when they write to my wife to inform us she's no longer entitled to some such credit or benefit which we never asked for.

Then a month or two later they write to me and say "oh btw you're entitled to that benefit we took off your wife, here's a cheque, thanks"

It's mad.

puggirl

it took 6 months before we got ours back the first time we filed , Id forgotten all about it by then so it was a nice suprise when it turned up ! our others after that all turned up after about two weeks

foreigngirl

Thank you. Gosh, that IS long.

puggirl

The lady who did the taxes told us the first one takes that long as it goes to the international tax department hopefully yours will be a lot quicker

JonboyE

Yes. New immigrant returns are pre-assessed. I.e a real live CRA person wil review the return before entering it into their system.

The vast majority of net-filed or e-filed returns are post-assessed. Unless there is something wacky on your return the CRA's computers will just accept whatever you file and spit out refund cheques or demand for payment. Later on in the year they will do some statistical analysis and select the returns they want to review.

cheeky_monkey

my first tax refund took 2 months to arrive thereafter they take about 2 weeks or seem to for me.

Steve_

I seem to recall a similar thread but in the past I've actually got refunds faster by filing on paper.

I remember talking to some Chinese kid once when I phoned up to ask a question and he says to me: "What software did you use to prepare your return?" Er... the stuff inside my head called a "brain".

I can't see any point to tax preparation software for Canadian personal returns unless for some strange reason it's really complex (e.g. you are self-employed). Or maybe you live in Québec.

By the time you've figured out the software you could have done it. It's not like a US return where the State and Federal returns are largely separate and there are huge numbers of tax credits you can claim.

And you don't get refunds faster using software, contrary to common belief.

foreigngirl

Refreshing this as my OH finally got the tax back, but it's around $800 less than what we had calculated. He didn't get a letter with an explanation or anything. The money just appeared in his account. Will he get something? Should WE contact them? Thank you!

MrWindUpBird

You should get a letter from CRA explaining what they adjusted. It's probably in the mail.

Almost Canadian

He will receive a Notice of Assessment. He will need to compare the figures stated in the Notice to the figures he stated in his Tax Return and speak to CRA if there is a difference.

foreigngirl

Thank you everyone. The letter actually arrived today.