T7DRA Changes - New Pilot Program

When I called CRA to order some T7DRA forms, they responded with the email below.

When the time comes, perhaps the connection to CRA and any printing of the T7DRA could be integrated directly into TaxCycle?

Mike

------ EMAIL TEXT FOLLOWS --------------------

For the 2017 filing season the T7DRA paper forms will not be available for order.

Historically, the T7DRA was ordered by you to provide your clients in order for them to make CRA payments. Over the last few filing seasons, the amount of T7DRA remittance forms received by CRA have been decreasing.

In 2016-17 the amount of T7DRAs received only represented 29% of the number of T7DRAs ordered by Efilers.

To address this change, CRA will be launching a pilot project for the next filing season and provide you with a link (URL) to an electronic version of the T7DRA remittance voucher in lieu of the paper form.
Each T7DRA will:

• Be personalized for each of your clients
• Contain a QR code – allowing your clients to pay at any Canada Post retail outlet
• Contain validations to ensure information is accurate
• Be easy to use and take less than a minute to complete
Pilot period: February 1st – July

The CRA has been in consultation with Payments Canada, Canadian financial institutions and the Efile Association of Canada (EAC) regarding this pilot project.

An email will be sent February 1st, 2018, containing the URL and instructions for completing and printing the T7DRA.

Note: The dedicated URL and the PDF version of the T7DRA are not to be distributed outside of your organization.

I suspect most clients would prefer to pay at the bank as opposed to the post office. Good thing I ordered a bunch of T7DRA forms last year. Many clients are waiting for the NOA to come out but many still prefer to take the T7DRA form to the bank.

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Thank goodness I order a stack in the fall. I can survive this season. This explains why they were only issuing 10 at a time since the summer. Of course there was NO heads up. But they expect us to help them wherever possible. We need to rethink this situation.

Thank God I have 7 packages left nice they told us.

@mike

CRA has been trying to phase out the T7DR’s as part of an overall cost saving measure which included the closure of many services at Tax Services Offices (TSO) such as cashiers, in-person appointments, mailroom with stamped receipts, and CRA guides and forms supplies.

I had thought that T7DR’s had already been phased out. I have had trouble replenishing my stock during the past couple of years. I still have about 20 left from a big batch that I ordered in 2007 or 2008, plus a stack I picked up at Harry Hayes when the mailrooms were still open and the forms were readily accessible.

Many of my clients rely on CRA paper payment advice.

I was told that CRA wants to send individualized remittance slips only.

I recall being able to print out T7DR’s in 2001 - 2003 in Toronto. We use a separate printer with MICR toner. The banks and CRA would not accept anything by MICR. I worked at the second largest Liberty Tax Franchise in Canada with 4 franchises and processing tens of thousands of tax returns each year. We had an assembly line going through cashback early filing and during regular tax season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition

Since moving to Calgary at the end of Feb 2003 I have not seen anyone in Calgary using this method. Not at the large Liberty Tax Offices in Calgary, nor at the mid sized CPA firms where I sub-contracted.

Thank you for this heads up.

Do you know of we need MICR toner?

I’m only aware of what was included in the CRA email, but I would be surprised if they required us to use MICR – more likely to be some sort of personalized code printed on them or something?

@mike

Hi Mike,
Ok. So the client with pay the CRA bill at a Canada Post Retail location using this custom form which we download and print.

This makes sense to me.

Most banks still need some encoding to process and manual bill payment accurately, to the right CRA account and period.

In this case the client will bypass the bank and pay at a Canada Post Retail location.

I always felt that Canada missed the boat with our use of Canada Post as compared with Europe. Most European countries used their national postal stations to process some form of banking, benefits payments, and the like. These institutions have undergone massive changes in the past 25 to 30 years. Some more successfully than others.

Germany
https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/germany/the-german-post-office/

Europe

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Actually, I believe Canada post used to offer postal banking up until about 1968.

I am actually happy this is changing, My printer that I use for the T7DRA is going to be retired soon and I was not really wanting to replace it. I print these forms off an I am sure most end up in the garbage

@james1

T7DRA NEW PILOT WORKFLOW
I am glad that CRA has chosen some workflow for those who require some form of direct payment that is not online. There is still a significant part of the Canadian population who do not bank online and who need some method of direct payment to CRA with a payment receipt.

PAYMENT WITHOUT COMPUTERS AND AT A SAFE AND REPUTABLE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IS STILL IMPORTANT TO MANY
It was very upsetting to some of my Tech illiterate trades and my elderly clients when CRA announced the end of all checks, the closing of the CRA Tax Services Office Cashiers, and the requirement to pay CRA electronically only. I ended up with a line-up people in my office upset with how they were going pay their remittances on time. These individuals feel comfortable paying their bank. I will need to create some sort of information package advise my clients about this new option. I really hope that CRA will provide some sort of supporting documentation that is easy to understand. This group does not like change and is suspicious of unusual workflows. This is especially true with all the CRA telephone and email scams. I really hope that we don’t need a special MICR toner to print these forms.

WHY SPECIAL PRINTER
I have a very small quantity of non-individualized T7DRA remittance slips which I print through the sheet feeder of my HP laserjet enterprise M506. I can easily load the form into the same spot as I use for letterhead. Previously I had used either the HP Laserjet 4 or 5 or one of a couple of gravity feed HP printers which I reserved for checks and letterhead for dedicated use reasons only. I did not use MICR toner.

Why do you have a special printer for this purpose, if you don’t mind me asking you so directly.

I guess my post made it look like I purchased a “special printer” for the T7DRA. I do not have a special printer, I just had a old Lexmark that The T7DRA forms sit in the bypass tray. The print quality is starting to go and the toner cartridge is almost empty. I was considering buying another cartridge but with this change, I will just retire it and send it to recycling.

I have one dedicated to this form too and I have 7 packages till I give up on it make it easier for printing

Ok. I called CRA, in summary …

New CRA remittance voucher online replaces T7DRA.

T7DRA is no longer available per a recently sent eFiler email. If you have questions, then call CRA 1-800-959-8281 to ask someone from the payment project to call back.
The replacement program requires payment using a custom generated form using QR code with payment made at a Canada Post retail outlet. There will be a processing fee.

This is the replacement program as described online.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/pay-canada-post.html

I read the CRA information sheet. I’m sure my age 65+ clients (and many under that age) will know to bring their cell phone to the post office, produce the QR code (I can see explaining that one), willingly pay the fee, without telling me that this is the stupidest idea they’ve ever heard of.

I don’t even know how I would realistically explain this process to most clients without having their eyes glaze over. It sounds like CRA wants to give something … anything, to Canada Post to do now that delivering the post has become a fraction of what it once was.

I guess the only potentially good thing is that taxpayers can now pay their tax on credit and debit cards.

I think that this will be a bumpy ride.

Most clients who like to pay at the bank are best served with a remittance slip. I will encourage my clients to file early to receive their remittance forms early.

Those clients who have difficulty paying the correct account, or, those who want to immediately, I help by helping them navigate the CRA My Payment function. This accepts debit cards only.

Over the years I found that it was faster and easier to help them up front than to fix the payments after it was deposited to the wrong account. The first time may be time-consuming as we work out the kinks associated with their financial institution. It is time-consuming but it gets a bit simpler, as long as their bank supports the CRA MyPayments. For CIBC is use the custom CRA bill payment set-up.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/payment-save-time-pay-online.html

According to CRA, the Canada Post Retailer fee is not fixed yet. Initially it was planned to be a flat rate. Now they are thinking about a tiered rate based on the payment amount. They won’t finalize this until Feb 1, 2018. In the banking world, we had to have our new systems and processes done, tested, and in production for at least three months before the RRSP season. Too bad CRA does not adopt this methodology.

I think that the fee may be the stumbling block.

Those who use cheques can pay at the bank for no charge with the T7DR form as the CRA eats that fee.

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CRA will eventually discover that the post office option will be rarely used by taxpayers. No one likes paying a processing fee when they don’t have to. I will not be even be making my clients aware of the post office option.

Yes, I would agree with this

I will make them aware. It maybe beneficial to some clients with or without the fee

We are going to provide an option to print the form for Canada Post directly in TaxCycle. I don’t like the fee either, but if we don’t offer the option in the software, CRA could attribute failure to the software vendors. This way, if it doesn’t work, they’ll know it’s the fee :slight_smile:.

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