Tax filing digitally for 2025 | Income tax filing | Discussion forum

lesley said
I always use the paper copy.If I want to change to online as 93% people do, what is the FREE service and where is it.Thankyou  

Good luck. I switched to online and switched back to paper. By the time I figured the software I found I could do the return manually much quicker. The software requires a learning curve and unless you are doing a 1,000 returns I found it easier and faster to do the return manually on a paper return.

There is no learning curve with GenuTax. You just answer a bunch of questions and it does the rest. The best part about it is that it is completely free and your tax return resides on your own computer only.

BK said
There is no learning curve with GenuTax. You just answer a bunch of questions and it does the rest. The best part about it is that it is completely free and your tax return resides on your own computer only.  

Thanks.

I use Studiotax which use to be free but now I think they charge $15 or something like that.

That would be the SimpleFile service for those with "lower income and a simple tax situation."

There is an additional initiative in the last budget:

Transitioning to Automated Federal Benefits

… That's why the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will make it easier for Canadians to file a tax return and access key benefits by:

• Preparing a pre-filled tax return in CRA's My Account online filing system for about 1 million lower-income individuals with simple tax situations, starting for the 2026 tax year—scaling up to about 5.5 million individuals for the 2028 tax year; and
• Continuing to add new information to its secure Auto-fill my return digital service that helps individuals using certified commercial tax software fill parts of their tax return.

…

SimpleFile needs an invitation, from what I can see.

Bill said
SimpleFile needs an invitation, from what I can see.

That's correct. Many people's idea of what a "simple tax situation" is doesn't line up with what CRA thinks.

itsme said
Does Genutax have an option to save a copy of your return in PDF format?  

Yes.

There are free tax clinics organized by community organizations:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/community-volunteer-income-tax-program.html

To qualify for these free tax services, your income should not exceed:

Family size Total family income
1 person $40,000
2 people $55,000
3 people $60,000
4 people $65,000
5 people $70,000

The free Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) clinics are also only for "simple tax situations".

It is not considered a simple tax situtaion if one has over $1,200 of interest income:

Complex tax situations are not supported

Volunteers will not complete a deceased taxpayer's return, or returns that have any of the following:

• self-employment income or employment expenses¹
• business income and expenses
• rental income and expenses
• interest income over $1,200
• capital gains or losses
• bankruptcy in the tax year (or the year before, if that return has not yet been filed)
• foreign property (Form T1135)
• foreign income²

If one can, I recommend one learn to do a T1 General return. The options for "simple" or "low income" are not always good.

I remember years ago helping some university students with their returns. There was a simplified T1 General return then for taxpayers with non-complex tax situations.

We discovered the simplified T1 General return was missing some tax credits applicable to students and resulted in a smaller refund than filing the regular T1 General return. Everyone used the full T1 General return after that.