You're not my mother's accountant...

November 23, 2018 4:44 PM

My mother had to submit a tax adjustment to the Canada Revenue Agency to fix a pretty huge mistake the accountant who initially did her taxes made. The CRA sent her a letter requesting one of several tax forms and several receipts from the bank. My mother has already called the bank and will get the receipts, but... we have *no idea* where to get the forms the CRA wants. What do we do now?

(I'm in pure anxiety panic mode, realizing that my mother won't get her taxes adjusted based on this unless we attach these forms which I have no idea WTF they are. I did send an email with all this info to her NEW accountant who did the adjustment, so hopefully we hear from him).

We need one of the following forms:
-T3012A Tax Deduction Waiver on the Refund of your Unused RRSP, PRPP, or SPP Contributions from your RRSP
-T746 Calculating Your Deduction for Refund of Unused RRSP, PRPP, and SPP Contributions
-T1043 Deduction for Excess Registered Pension Plan Transfers You Withdrew from an RRSP, PRPP, SPP or RRIF

Are these forms her accountant can fill out and submit? I have found them ALL on the CRA website. Would they have been filled out by... idk the ban? I just don't... get it. The letter the CRA sent us, in general, read like fucking gibberish to me.

(Personally, I have very easy taxes and only use TurboTax so I have no idea WHAT to do).

Any Canadian Tax people who can shed some light on what this all means?

posted by VirginiaPlain to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Hang on. You're specifically paying someone with expertise in this area to deal with this? Why not get them to deal with this?
posted by turkeyphant at 5:30 PM on November 23, 2018

Response by poster: I guess I panicked. I've been very, very stressed out and extremely anxious due to this entire tax situation. My lizard brain thought it was logical to post on AskMeFi in addition to emailing the accountant with this info. Sorry.
posted by VirginiaPlain at 5:38 PM on November 23, 2018

Best answer: Looking at the forms, the T746 and T1043 look like ones your accountant would fill out in their entirety. The T3012A is a bit more complicated, in that the accountant would fill out the first two sections, send it off to CRA, who would fill in the third, your accountant would then fill in the fourth, and send it to the bank to complete the last bit.
posted by bethnull at 5:39 PM on November 23, 2018

Best answer: Are these forms her accountant can fill out and submit?

Absolutely.

Just make sure the accountant also has a copy of the letter your mother got from the CRA along with the receipts from the bank. Any CPA will know exactly what to do from there.

In any case, a letter from the CRA asking for receipts and completed forms is nothing to panic over - it seems officious and it's understandable that this is anxiety-inducing, but they are simply asking for more information to correctly adjust her income tax.

Would they have been filled out by... idk the ban?

No. Simply put, the receipts from the bank are used by the taxpayer (or their accountant) to populate the various lines on the form and make the required calculations. The bank doesn't fill out the return forms themselves - that's the responsibility of the taxpayer and/or the person they've hired to prepare their taxes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:40 PM on November 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks! I should have just read the forms instead of going into a blind panic. I was more panicking about getting those forms, more than the receipts from the bank. Also, honest-to-god, the letter we got from the CRA reads almost nonsensically. Twice they say you can't send the T4RIF or T4RSP slips... and then they also request them two times in the same letter? Multiple paragraphs with the same info (and exact same wording) appear twice in a row.

I'm in grad school (not that it this says anything about my intelligence), but holy shit, I've never been more confused reading anything in my life.

So thanks mandolin conspiracy & bethnull, I'm so very relieved that this is something the CPA can take care of, hopefully we hear from him soon.
posted by VirginiaPlain at 5:52 PM on November 23, 2018

There have been a number of CRA scams over the past few years. You should call CRA and confirm that this letter is legit, especially since the language seems nonsensical.
posted by phlox at 7:42 PM on November 23, 2018 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Honestly, don't panic about this. Hand it off to the accountant you're paying to fix this, and relax. Things don't exactly move at lightning speed at the CRA; I've been trying to straighten something out with them for 9 months and it finally just got wrapped up a few days ago (when I got a cheque from them in the mail, lol, I'm surprised it didn't get caught in the postal strike). They were unfailingly kind and helpful every time I had to talk to them, by the way.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 2:41 PM on November 24, 2018

Agreed, the potential for a CRA scam is very high these days. PLEASE, work only through your accountant on this.
Alternatively, your mom can go to/call her local federal member of parliment''s office, and have them look into her file. The MP offices have a direct hotline to the CRA, and will get more accurate answers than if you just called the general CRA info line. Have your MP or accountant call the CRA directly and confirm what needs to be done on the file (if truly, anything at all needs to be done)
posted by NorthernAutumn at 7:44 AM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]