File preparation
You must prepare your file and your questions, as much as possible, before meeting with one of our chartered professional accountants in our Montreal office. A well-prepared file will reduce costs and the chances of error. The list of documents to prepare is available on our website at www.celestin-comptable-agree.ca in the section individuals / prepare your file. Call us so that we can send you the questionnaire on important information not to forget, updated each year. Our professional accountants ask for a lot of information. Don’t be discouraged; it’s important to allow us to find all the tax deductions you are entitled to.
File analysis submitted
Next, bring your file to the Célestin chartered professional accountants of Montreal office to meet, as much as possible, an office partner who will take the time to make a primary analysis of your documents. This analysis ensures that you haven’t forgotten anything and allows us to reply to your questions. If you are far away in the region and prefer not to travel to Montreal, you can also send us your documents on the secure client area. We can then have a meeting together by telephone or on a webcam session.
Preparing the tax file
The client’s file is sent to one of our office’s preparers (a chartered professional accountant [CPA] or a person on the way to obtaining their professional title) who fills out the tax return to the best of their knowledge. The preparer gathers their questions and communicates with the client if information is unclear, if they are missing documents, etc. The preparer must self-verify. Among other things, they must verify all the data entered, be sure to set all the software diagnostics and analyze comparisons with the previous year, and explain any differences. Comparison analysis must be done for all client statements.
Verifying returns
When a file is completed, the preparer sends it for review. The reviewer is generally a more experienced person whose competence is recognized by the professional designation of chartered professional accountant or another appropriate title. In addition to analyzing the data entered, comparisons, and software diagnostics, the reviewing accountant must ensure that optimization has been done adequately. They must also make a brief analysis as to recommendations to make to the client to reduce the client’s tax burden in the following years. They analyze the return with the help of a 60 point review list. They make sure to communicate with the client if there is a balance to pay.
The verifier puts the returns which are eligible for electronic transfer to the EFILE transmitter. Clients who are ineligible for electronic transfer must be called regularly to ensure that they send their documents before the due date.
The reviewer has the responsibility of selecting the returns that present particular difficulties or are abnormally complex and must have a third review by a tax expert.
Sending the returns (TED)
As the season progresses, the files have completed the process of review and have been accepted by EFILE, the transmitter must send a copy of the client’s tax return to the secure client area in PDF format.
Receiving and revising notice of assessment
After the season, the office will ask you to send us your notice of assessment, both federal and provincial. Copies will be inserted into your file and onto the secure client area. The notices of assessment must be analyzed with the tax return in such a way as to ensure that there are no differences with the tax return produced. Any differences must be analyzed and if there are any, we must prepare an opposition notice within 90 days of the sending of the notice of assessment.
Given that client’s tax returns are sent electronically, government officials can target certain transmitter EFILE clients at random and ask for justifying pieces (T4, educational expense receipts, medical expenses, or other). Therefore the original documents must be saved for several months, at least until the following August. When the department has finished its questions, we can return the original documents to the client. Ideally, the client’s original documents will be returned the next year as soon as they send their new tax documents.
Some of our practice’s policies
• The practice promises eligible clients that their file will be transmitted by EFILE before April 30.
• Clients who drop off their file after April 20 cannot have the guarantee that their file will be sent before April 30, and must be warned of this.
• The practice has a policy of not communicating the amount to receive or to pay before the end of the revision process, in order to avoid deception or hasty decisions on the part of clients.
• All eligible tax returns must be transmitted electronically. This solution reduces the risk of entry errors on the part of government officials and also reduces the burden of clients who often have to have their irregular postage weighed. This is also an ecological and quick solution.
This summary of standards does not replace the office’s quality control standards provided in the quality assurance manual.
If you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate to contact one of our Montreal office’s accountants at 514 493 (FISC) 3472. A question costs nothing, but your accountants’ advice is worth its weight in gold.
Visit our site at http://www.celestin-comptable-agree.ca and send us email.
Goodbye for now
