If this is your first appointment with Artbooks, there are a few things you really don’t want to forget:
- Last year’s tax return
- CRA’s assessment of your previous tax return
- All other recent CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) correspondence
- Total revenue for the year you’re working on
- Total your expense categories
These are the crucial bits. There will be no time to do this in the appointment. It might be helpful to bring a list of your questions.
If you have several years of taxes to catch up, we suggest five basic steps to organize yourself:
- Gather all the bits of paper that might pertain to the task. Don’t forget that storage locker or the pile in the junk drawer.
Rest. - Sort the pile by year.
Rest. - Sort the first year into envelopes, lunch bags or baggies by category.
Rest. - Borrow an adding machine with a tape and add the contents of each envelope.
Rest. - Go over the Tax Checklist and see if there is anything that you are missing and begin to track it down. (Especially RRSP receipts, T4 slips, and large medical receipts).
If, as a model citizen, you have only one year to prepare, you can follow the above steps skipping the second one. In the Resources section, there is a list of forms and information to help you get organized and prepared to meet your tax expert at Artbooks.