2019 Canadian personal income tax filing survey results

The results are in! For almost 3 weeks in April 2019, HighInterestSavings.ca ran an online survey of how 201 people file their personal income taxes in Canada.

Have you filed your taxes yet?

15% of respondents wait until the last week in April to file their taxes. 1.5% file in February, while another 1.5% file in May or June. Naturally, the bulk of people file in March (36%) or April (61%). You are average if you file on April 4, whereas the median is roughly the same on April 5.

Who files your taxes?

81% of respondents do their taxes themselves, and of that number, 68% of them believe their tax return is “simple”. 14% of respondents use a tax professional, and of them, 41% rate their tax return as “simple” while the other 59% rate their tax return as “complex”. If you have a family member who does your taxes for free, count yourself as the lucky 4%, or feel guilty that you’re not the 1/201 respondents who said they pay a family member.

How much do you pay to do your taxes?

48% of respondents pay nothing at all, either to someone else or for software. People who pay someone else average $275, although this drops to just under $100 for a self-rated “simple” return. If people pay for software, including donations, the average cost is $26.50.

Software: the Big 4

For those who do their own taxes, 8% of people either eschew software altogether or use only spreadsheets. For the 92% of people who do use software, the vast majority of them (92% of the 92%) use one of StudioTax, TurboTax, SimpleTax, or UFile. The full breakdown of software from our survey is as follows:

• StudioTax: 27.7%
• TurboTax: 25.2%
• SimpleTax: 20.6%
• UFile: 18.1%
• GenuTax: 2.6%
• H&R Block: 1.9%
• FutureTax: 0.6%
• myTaxExpress: 0.6%
• ImpôtExpert: 0.6%
• TaxFreeway: 0.6%
• ProFile: 0.6%
• TaxTron: 0.6%

What are some key features in personal income tax return software? 57% of respondents mentioned that ease of use is important, and to 44% of respondents, free or low cost is important. 15% say they use a given piece of software simply of habit, 5% mention NETFILE as a reason for their choice, and 4% cite security as a key feature.