2019 T1 Jacket

T1
1

I understand the CRA has decided to incorporate Schedule 1 into the T1 Jacket (Form 5006-R) and make 6 pages out of 4. Presumably this is all part of the Federal plan to fight Climate Change and reduce our carbon footprint.

In the latest TaxCycle update it seems these 6 pages are actually 8 pages (at least on my screen and when I print the T1 Jacket). When I made the migration over to TaxCycle a few years ago I remember the joy I felt when I realized they could actually fit the 4 page T1 Jacket on 4 pages. Hopefully by the time the production version is released we can lose those extra pages and can fit the form on 6 pages, which is still a 50% increase over the jacket that worked for the last 40 + years.

I normally print the 4 page T1 Jacket for the client when I prepare their returns because that is usually the only part of the return a financial institution asks a non-business client to bring in when they are looking for a mortgage or other financing.

2

I print double sided for my client copy it is actually 4 pages for me using the t1 jacket

3

I keep everything in a secure pdf format. The banks are getting more and more paperless. The have to specifically ask for a paper copy from me. If they do, I usually charge extra for paper (just like all th telecom, utility companys are doing now in an effort to get everyone to paperless billings)

4

I don’t want to be the liaison between a T1 client and their banker, nor do I want the identity theft liability associated with emailing clients or their financial institutions T1 returns. Until 2019 I would provide the client with the 4 page T1 jacket (2 sheets of paper printed both sides) as part of their income tax return they pick up and pay for in March or April. If they need to renew their mortgage or obtain financing they would already have in their possession the documents necessary to provide to their banker. It seems that if I wish to continue with this I will be printing double the amount of pages (8 page T1 on 4 sheets of paper rather than a 4 page T1 on 2 sheets of paper).

While I realize giving the client a copy of their T1 jacket may seem antiquated to many, it has saved me time over the years… and time is a scarce commodity.

5

I give the client a copy of their T1 Jacket but still need to (email) or ecourier documents to bank. Then professional people like bankers can’t open ecourier and so they request email.

6

I should have been more clear.

I send to my clients a password protect PDF File of their T1 file directly from TaxCycle. Zero paper involved, zero printing involved by my firm and a great time saver of at least 1 to 2 minutes per file not to mention the savings of printing
costs.

The client can then do whatever their heart’s desire is with that pdf file. We don’t get involved with their banking or mortgage work (we have strategic partnerships with mortgage brokers, and CFP’s we refer them to if they need that help)

We are looking to use the ecourier function within TaxCycle to make it even more secure and ensure the client confirms receipt of the PDF electronically. Zero paper, very secure, trackable, more time savings since tax cycle and ecourier
does the work for us.

I am still looking at the best way to have them click a button to pay for their return electronically before we finish the file and send them the PDF. (Hopefully TaxCycle will offer that soon.)

If the client comes back to me asking for a paper copies or any other information, I bill them my regular billable tax rate.

7

The final CRA version of the T1 jacket for 2019 is 8 pages, not 6. As noted in the notes from the last release the CRA has modified many of their forms to add a great deal of spacing. In the interest of reducing your paper usage when you are printing copies for your clients and your own files, as well as to keep related parts of the form on the same page for ease of use, we have attempted to condense some of these into fewer pages where possible.

8

Thanks Darlene
I agree with your statement that CRA has added a great deal of spacing to the forms.
I measure over 21 inches of unused (wasted) space on those 8 pages alone.

I suppose most of the rationale behind the CRA redesign is to support make work projects and job justification.

I wonder if there is some way to create a facsimile type jacket that resembles the old style, along the same lines as the T1 summary or T1 Short Summary, which are not a prescribed CRA forms but provide useful information.

9

If you don’t like emailing the tax return to the banker, ask them to provide the company secure system to transmit the return. Or ask them to email a T5 or similar slip to confirm that they are actually the banker.

BMO is good in this regard - They now have rolled out secure email services and can grant external parties the ability to send documents securely to BMO staff.

10

Does anyone not realize that you can provide the T1 Condensed instead? It is four pages and has exactly the same info.

As far as the bankers getting fixed on the long form, given that the IRS is no longer using the full 1040 returns any longer, the bankers have to switch over.

11

Thanks Tim, that might be an option. I haven’t filed any paper returns in a while so kind of forgot about the T1 Condensed.

For 2019 that T1 Condensed seems to take 5 pages to print, but I suppose it depends on how many entries there are and on which lines. 5 printed pages is still less than 8 printed pages, and would save 1 sheet of paper.

I might just have to rethink the entire process. Still looking for good (for lack of a better word) portal app, that would be like an electronic filing cabinet. I envision something along the lines of how we receive all of our utility bills, bank statements, pay stubs, credit card statements etc. The client would log into the portal and all of their tax information would be there.

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Portal options:

  • eCourier - Linked in Taxcycle. Not entirely certain how appropriate as I am not a subscriber. I also question if the files expire. I think that this is better suited to transmitting files on demand and ensuring that the recipient only receives.
  • ShareFile - I switched to this system this year. For about $100 per (internal) user per year, unlimited guest users, at the most basic level, provides portal hosting in Canada, multilingual support and a huge variety of apps. This provider is also available in EU so very good privacy rules. (I would switch my internal document management system over, but my internal system is too good.)
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I have an active subscription to eCourier for a few years now… it’s not the answer. Realistically (as the name suggests) eCourier is more of a secure way of sending files back and forth as an alternative to email. Yes, it is mainly for transmitting files on demand and also, the files expire from eCourier. The clients that I use eCourier with are ok with it, but they still prefer to use email. Also, I have experienced cases where I set up user accounts or eCourier files and the recipient never gets the email notification. I wouldn’t have believed this could happen but I have seen it first hand.

I will look at ShareFile again and also will look at how ClientTrack is making out with their portal software.

I use Acronis True Image for a backup service. Essentially, Acronis syncs folders on my system with those same folders in the cloud. If I log into my Acronis Dashboard I can see all of those folders and files there.

Envision something like a folder on your computer, server, NAS etc for each client. When TaxCycle prints to pdf it saves the T1 to that clients folder. All of the client folders sync with an online mirror. Additionally, as you drag and drop other files into that client folder (or make subfolders) this mirrors online. When you log into your online Dashboard you see all of your client folders. When a client logs into their online Dashboard they only see their own folder, and all of its contents (several years of their T1 files, perhaps NoA’s, and tax slips). The client would have read (and download) capabilities but no write capabilities. In addition, the client could upload documents to their folder using drag and drop, or mobile device etc. It doesn’t need to look like email, the Dashboard (accountant and client) could look like folders or some other nice GUI where they can view all of their files.

This integration would seem like a natural progression for Trilogy. They already have DoxCycle to organize and import information and TaxCycle to prepare the returns. The completed returns (pdf format) would be exported (saved) to a local client folder that syncs with cloud based storage that clients could access through a Dashboard style app they would log into. Clients could retrieve tax documents and upload tax info through the dashboard to their own folder.

  • Employee paystubs are available online
  • Utility bills are available online
  • Software such as Hubdoc can automatically retrieve and import most of your online documents (bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills, etc) into its dashboard do you don’t need to log into multiple accounts to get your bills.
  • CRA does it with your income tax documents and other tax information

Heck… I have to log into my online banking and retrieve my own bank statements… it seems quite natural now, and is considerably easier than using eCourier.

Having a shared online folder similar to an electronic filing cabinet for documents that you wish to share with clients seems like something that could be created and made simple enough for the less computer savvy clients to use. eCourier doesn’t fulfill this need, and the feedback that I have received is that it feels awkward to the less sophisticated users. The software that Trilogy has created looks and feels very natural. I’m sure someone can come up with a client portal / electronic filing cabinet / file sharing app that is secure and easy to drop and retrieve files.

I think this is something along the lines of what Norm Adams was talking about back in 2015 when he started a topic here. Client Portal / Practice Management

This thread went a little off topic, but I guess if there was a convenient and user friendly way to host the client tax returns online, the clients could retrieve and print their own (if needed). That way I wouldn’t give them a complete paper copy each year. The client’s tax documents would always be available (as long as I was paying for TaxCycle or their client portal) to them for download just as most of their other documents are now stored online.

14

I think that you will have to realize that, no matter what you do, some clients only want to do things by email. Heck, some want you to send them their tax papers to their employers email!

Since I am located in Ottawa, I have a fair number of clients who will only give me government of Canada email addresses. They are currently really surprised that the attachments no longer are being accepted/sent. That includes the T4 slips that the government employees can only download from the government server. So they have to print the “paperless” slips on government printers. Which really isn’t saving anyone any printing costs.

15

The US Intuit Preparer Software (Proconnect) has the ability to create a customizable checklist/questionnaire where the client can actually log onto their own little web portal and upload the relevant files as they go through the checklist. It creates a shared filespace for both the preparer and the client to share and manage the clients files ongoing. AND THEN when you are in the return you can even pop a little window on the right and pull up their relevant answers to each checklist question as you are doing the entry AND the slips that pertain to that section, to either data enter yourself or even try to OCR them into the form. They have some major bugs to work out, but providing the Preparer with one integrated system for the checklist, file sharing and then sending final documents for sign off via docusign (which we aren’t allowed to do in Canada obviously) and efiling are pretty slick ideas that none of the canadian efile software seems to have yet. Although in the US they are missing the whole Autofill thing so we definitely have the advantage there.

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Tim Parris - " eCourier - Linked in Taxcycle. Not entirely certain how appropriate as I am not a subscriber. I also question if the files expire.:

Files expire after one year unless you renew your subscription before the expiry date.