Delayed RRSP Tax Slips Cause Trouble
Receiving an income tax refund recently prompted me to make a 2011 RRSP contribution. Not wanting to wait until 2012 to get the resulting tax break, I plan to file a T1213 form to get my employer to reduce the source deductions on my pay. Unfortunately, BMO Investorline insists that they won’t send out tax receipts for RRSP contributions until next year.
Now I’m trying to decide what constitutes adequate proof to send to CRA that I made the RRSP contribution. A call to CRA didn’t help much. I got a couple of levels deep in the help system to someone who had heard of a T1213, but she was just reading the form and couldn’t tell me much more than what was written on the form. She didn’t inspire much confidence by repeatedly asserting that I must have got some sort of receipt when “buying the RRSP”.
I tried to gently explain that one does not buy an RRSP and that a contribution is little more than a transfer between two accounts, but that didn’t help. In the end, all the evidence I have is screen shots from my computer of the transactions in each account. By the end of the month I’ll have account statements showing these transactions as well, but that won’t be much better evidence than the screen shots.
I could go back and yell at Investorline to send me my tax receipt now, but I think I’ll try sending the screen shots along with the T1213 form to CRA. If there are any experts out there who can comment on whether this is likely to work, I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Now I’m trying to decide what constitutes adequate proof to send to CRA that I made the RRSP contribution. A call to CRA didn’t help much. I got a couple of levels deep in the help system to someone who had heard of a T1213, but she was just reading the form and couldn’t tell me much more than what was written on the form. She didn’t inspire much confidence by repeatedly asserting that I must have got some sort of receipt when “buying the RRSP”.
I tried to gently explain that one does not buy an RRSP and that a contribution is little more than a transfer between two accounts, but that didn’t help. In the end, all the evidence I have is screen shots from my computer of the transactions in each account. By the end of the month I’ll have account statements showing these transactions as well, but that won’t be much better evidence than the screen shots.
I could go back and yell at Investorline to send me my tax receipt now, but I think I’ll try sending the screen shots along with the T1213 form to CRA. If there are any experts out there who can comment on whether this is likely to work, I’d like to hear your thoughts.
All I can say is good luck with that. I filed a T1213 a few years ago which would have reduced my taxes withheld at source by around $1000 over the year (or around $83/month) and my request was rejected because submitting that extra tax during the year "would not cause undue hardship". I was tempted to make a stack of copies of the form and just keep submitting it until it was approved.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that (and using this comment to vent a little bit) I think you can get away with providing proof of previous year's contributions. So if your current year's contribution is close to what your previous year's contributions were you should be ok. Unless of course you get a grumpy reviewer.
@Anonymous: I'm not surprised that there is a threshold for getting source relief, but I don't know what the threshold is. I'm pretty sure my request would be big enough, but I guess I'll find out.
ReplyDeleteSo it's ok for the government to knowingly collect excess taxes just because, hey, don't be a crybaby? That's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI file a T1213 every year.
ReplyDeleteI make contributions each month. I think the first year I might have gotten a letter from my financial institution? In subsequent years I've just attached a piece of paper describing my monthly contribution and the year's total. I haven't had any issues other than it taking longer than I expect to get the letter of approval (at least 2 months).
@Anonymous#1 - rather presumptuous for the CRA to say it "would not cause undue hardship" How do they know what you are going through? I would complain.
ReplyDelete@Michael - I would just send the screenshots (or a printout of the account history) It shows the date you made the contribution. If you were expecting a tax refund and had the cashflow end of February...You would have gotten a receipt!