The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced that tax preparers should desist from including a deceased person's date of death on the living spouse's tax return. This would result in the CRA mistakenly recording the living spouse as deceased.
This type of error could cause major financial and emotional consequences since it can stop all benefit payments to the living person. The type of benefits that are considerably affected includes the Canada child benefit, goods and services tax credit / harmonized sales tax credit, the Canada Pension Plan and old age security etc. To mention just a few a few.
Going forward, tax preparers are only expected to include the date of death information only on the deceased person's tax return.
Social insurance numbers (SIN) on legal documents
If you are a representative settling a deceased person's estate, the deceased's social insurance number (SIN) must be provided with any request or document you are sending to the CRA. This will help CRA to avoid delays and errors in updating the appropriate records with the date of death information.
Comments