Referrals - Income Tax - General

 We do not assist in the area of tax law or income tax preparation.  We do offer the following referrals:

General Information on Income Tax

For general information about your taxes, call Revenue Canada at 1-800-924-0622

If you disagree with your assessment, call Revenue Canada at 1-800-959-8281

The "Resolving Disputes" page of their website outlines how to request a formal review. In these situations, appeals representatives who were not involved in the original decision are available to conduct a formal and impartial review.

For tax information and services available for people with disabilities, visit the Canada Revenue Agency's People with Disabilities page. 

You can get tax credits even if you don't owe any taxes, but you must file your return to claim them.  To learn more about what low income earners, seniors and those living in Northern Ontario can get when they file their taxes, please read the following brochures (bilingual):  

• Seniors,          Seniors in Northern Ontario

• Low Income,    Low Income in Northern Ontario   

ARCH Alert (PDF, 16 pgs, 181 kb), the newsletter from the ARCH Disability Law Centre (April 2, 2007 edition), has a section entitled "Twelve Tax Tips for Your 2006 Return" (pg 3) and "Assistance with Tax Filing" (pg 8).

Important Changes to Early Tax Refunds

If you have a low income – from work or from OW or ODSP – you may have had your taxes done early in the past to get a tax refund before Christmas.

The way this worked was that you could “sell” your lump-sum tax refund to companies that do people’s taxes in order to get the money up front. The company would do your taxes, estimate how much your refund was going to be, and give you that amount – minus their fee.

You no longer get these tax credits as a lump-sum refund at the end of the year. This means these companies will no longer give you any money up-front when they do your taxes. 

But some companies will tell you that even though they can't give you the lump sum they will still do your taxes for you if you open a special bank account (with fees), sign up for a prepaid debit card or other requirements.

Read these bulletins prepared by the Income Security Advocacy Centre about your rights and better ways to get your taxes done.

• Tax Credit Payments changing
• Tax Refunds 2011  (What you should know before you file your return)

Property Tax

To learn more about property tax relief for residences built or modified to accommodate seniors or persons with disabilities, visit this page of the Guide to Programs and Services for Seniors in Ontario (scroll down to "Property Tax Relief for Residences Built or Modified to Accommodate Seniors or Persons with Disabilities").