T-what?

June 3, 2009 4:25 PM

What the heck is a T1 Special?

Okay, this is a tax question, and we're located in Canada. Sadly, a T1 Special is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

I offered to do my boyfriend's taxes online but he said that his mom would do it. Anyway, his mom screwed it up somehow and he asked me to go over the return and Notice of Assessment to see where she went wrong. According to the CRA, he owes about $700.

I used Ufile to punch in the numbers on his T4s and compare them to the Notice of Assessment he got from the CRA. Then I looked at the extra Income Tax and Benefit Return his mom had written out and I noticed that it was a T1 Special, not a T1. Hmmm. So I went to the CRA website and it said this:

In order to improve service, we provide some simplified versions of our return and guide packages. These simplified versions are not suitable for all individuals. We provide them to individuals whose returns for previous years indicate that a particular simplified package would be suitable. If you are eligible to use one of the following packages, it will be mailed to you directly. However, to avoid confusion for individuals who cannot use them, they are not available on our Web site.

What is up with that? I've never heard of it before. Why wouldn't she just be using a regular T1 to file his taxes? How are the two forms different?

posted by futureisunwritten to work & money (3 comments total)

I get a T1 Special in my tax package every year. I don't think it's dramatically different than the T1 (though, of course, the CRA's website is not helping me find the T1). First page is indicative data, Second page is Total Income, third is Net & Taxable Income and last is the refund/balance owing page. Like 90% of the actual work is done in the schedules, the T1 Special itself is not actually complicated.

My vote is she did the math wrong. Like the year I forgot to multiply at one step and the government owed me $12,000. That'll make you go over your work.
posted by machine at 4:55 PM on June 3

The T1 special has limited deductions available. Stuff missing include medical expenses, attendant care and the equivalent-to-married amount. If he has no deductions then filing the general form would do anything for him but it won't hurt either and it's not like the general form is complicated. TurboTax is free for returns under a fairly generous amount making the whole which form thing a moot point if that helps.

People with few deductions often run into tax trouble when they are working multiple concurrent part time jobs. Both jobs end up assuming you have no other income and therefor don't deduct enough tax.
posted by Mitheral at 6:10 PM on June 3

People with few deductions often run into tax trouble when they are working multiple concurrent part time jobs. Both jobs end up assuming you have no other income and therefor don't deduct enough tax.

Yep, that's pretty much what happened and I knew that the second I looked at his T4s. His return consists of a couple of T4s from a couple of different jobs, so it makes sense that CRA would send him a simpler version of it. I just didn't know they had one, I guess, and the website information is a bit cryptic.

And yeah, she did do the math wrong. I offered to prepare Mr. Future's tax return on Ufile and Netfile it, but he is fussy and insisted that his mom continue to do it the old school way. But I didn't "I told you so" him because the extra $600 he owes in taxes pretty much drained his "LCD TV fund" and he's bummed.
posted by futureisunwritten at 6:32 PM on June 3