CRA is running a public consultation on automatic tax filing. You can fill it out here.
Here’s the verbiage about the project
It’s unbelievable that Canada makes people with trivial tax needs jump through so many hoops. If someone is elderly and poor, they need to file taxes to receive their full benefits. That’s a huge barrier to many people.
Oh won’t someone think of the job creators.
It’d be interesting to know how much money Intuit & co are spending on lobbying here in Canada. I have a sneaking suspicion they’re going to start trying to shut this down. Just like they did in California.
Intuit (and any other company allowed to offer NETFILE services) is required to offer a free tax filing option for individuals. The problem is they’re allowed to upsell as much as they want, so you have to be careful that they’ll absolutely try to sell you some service that you don’t need (i.e. audit insurance on a basic T-4 only filing).
For the most part, I have not had a problem using the free service, though you do need to know how to fill out any forms that aren’t part of their default wizard.
That being said, if your tax filing is 100% just confirming information the government already knows, then that should just be done for you. I would expect to get correspondence via MyCRA/lettermail (ideally both) that lists what forms from whom were submitted, their final calculations and a notice that it would be finalized on April 30th unless a supplementary return is filed (i.e. un-filed income, deductions etc).
Like, some of it is just silly; to claim disability on a dependent, I have to submit a form that the government sent me, which was submitted by the doctor who provided the diagnosis - to the government. It’s not even that department A isn’t talking to department B; it’s a form submitted to CRA!