Tax season is definitely upon us and as we prepare to file our taxes, there’s much to consider. Most Canadians prepare and submit their own taxes or their employer does much of the preliminary work for them. For others, who own businesses or are self-employed, the process is more complicated and downright daunting at times.
27 million Canadians prepare and file tax returns yearly, 11 million of those do so online and 40 per cent of Canadians do their own taxes. H&R Block has pooled the expertise of Tax professionals to create a Free Online Tax Preparation Software solution for Canadians.
In the past, I’ve hired an accounting firm to sift through business-related expenses and investments in order to put together and file my family’s taxes for the maximum possible refund.
While accountants take care of everything, hiring them costs a considerable amount of money that could just as well go to cover other household or personal expenses.
It never occurred to me that there was software that could help me do this. I’ve always been afraid of screwing up a tax submission and not confident enough in software solutions to use them.
Remember, the deadline to file taxes in Canada is April 30th. For those who are self-employed and their spouses or common-law partners, the deadline is June 15th but if you have a balance owing for 2014, you still have to pay it on or before April 30, 2015. So the sooner you submit file your income tax, the better.
When I heard that H&R Block was now offering their Online Tax Preparation Software for free, I became interested in finding out more. While I always believed that tax preparation software was geared towards people who weren’t self-employed but H&R Block’s new tax software covers all types of situations and their Canadian tax expertise is something I felt I could trust.
Free online tax filing software is now available for all of Canada's 27 million tax filers. After more than 50 years of helping Canadians file their taxes, H&R Block, Canada's trusted leader in tax preparation, is introducing H&R Block Online Tax Software, the completely free (absolutely no hidden costs) online Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tax filing solution. H&R Block says their software is 100 pre cent free, which means that regardless of income, job, age or the complexity of the tax return, users don’t pay to use the service.
I'll be trying out H&R Block's free online tax preparation filing software and look forward to reporting back on the process user experience from the point of view of a complete newbie and someone who has never really used any software to file their own taxes.