I’ve received a suggestion for a change to the medical expenses paragraph in the T1 client letters.
The paragraph currently says this:
Medical expenses
We have prepared a medical expense schedule to claim your net eligible medical expenses of $3,075.55. We have attached the receipts that you provided to your copy of this schedule. Should the CRA request your receipts, please send them a copy of this schedule, as attached to your copy of this return, along with all of the attached receipts.
The suggestion is to change the paragraph to say either
Medical expenses
We have prepared a medical expense schedule to claim your net eligible medical expenses of $3,075.55. Should the CRA request your receipts, please send them a copy of the included medical expenses schedule, along with all the related receipts.
Or, to also cover the scenario where the CRA goes to the preparer and not the taxpayer remove anything but the first line, given we tell them to retain supporting documentation for seven years later on in the letter
Medical expenses
We have prepared a medical expense schedule to claim your net eligible medical expenses of $3,075.55.
Here is the wording we use in case CRA contacts the client directly, which happens:
We have prepared a medical expense schedule to claim your net eligible medical expenses of $x,xxx.xx. We have retained scanned copies of your medical receipts. Should the CRA contact your directly to request your receipts, please contact us as soon as possible so we can submit them on your behalf.
Your text is great. I’m looking for something that will cover off those preparers who keep the receipts for their clients and those who do not and who do not edit their letters. We could do something like this…
Medical expenses
We have prepared a medical expense schedule to claim your net eligible medical expenses of $3,075.55. Please keep copies of all medical receipts in case the CRA requests them.
I have some clients that give me their medical receipts and some that don’t. If they do, I attach the receipts to the Med worksheet. If they don’t, I don’t bother changing the wording of the letter (maybe I should have been). So the change works well for me.