Your Checklist for Your Canadian Tax Return

This article originally appeared on the SimpleTax blog. SimpleTax has joined Wealthsimple to become Wealthsimple Tax. Now you can invest, trade, save, and do your taxes all in one place.

Before you start working on your tax return, you’ll need to gather a few things. To make sure you don’t miss something, and to help you get every deduction and credit you can, we’ve prepared this handy checklist.

If you prefer, you can also download and print a copy of our Tax Return Checklist (non-QC residents).

Our Tax Return Checklist for residents of Québec can be found here. Vous pouvez télécharger ces aides-memoire en français aussi. Pour les résidents hors Québec l’aide mémoire se trouve ici et pour les résidents du Québec l’aide mémoire se trouve ici.

Tax Slips

• Employment income (T4)

• Employment insurance benefits (T4E)

• Pension and annuity income (T4A)

• COVID-19 Benefits received (T4A)

• CPP and OAS slips (T4A§ and T4A(OAS))

• Investment income (T3, T5, and T5008)

• Tuition (T2202 or TL11)

• Social assistance and worker’s comp (T5007)

• RRSP and RIF income (T4RSP, T4RIF)

• Partnership income (T5013)

• RL-1 / Relevé 1 (QC only)

Receipts

• Charitable donations and political contributions

• RRSP contributions

• Medical expenses

• Child care expenses

• Children’s fitness and arts expenses (MB, YT)

• Adoption expenses

• Student loan interest

• Professional or union dues (if not included on your T4)

• Investment advisor fees and interest expenses

• Moving expenses

• School supply expenses (teachers)

• Tools expenses

• Employment expenses & form T2200/T2200S including work-from-home due to COVID-19 expenses

• Examination fees for professional designations

• Rent or property tax (ON, MB)

• Legal expenses to collect alimony, pension or retiring allowance

• Home renovation/accessibility expenses (if a senior or eligible for the disability tax credit)

• Transit passes (Ontario seniors only)

Other Documents/Information

• Last year’s notice of assessment from the CRA

• Tuition carry forward amounts

• RRSP deduction limit and unused amounts

• Loss carry forward amounts

• Other carry forward amounts (business-use-of home, donations, etc.)

• Other CRA correspondence

• Last year’s tax return (helpful for first-time users)

• Instalment payment amounts

• Information about your dependants

• Birth date and net income

• Post-secondary tuition available for transfer

• Capital gains information (if no T5008 slips)

• Child support or alimony information

• Home buyers’ plan and Lifelong learning plan information

• Information about the sale of your principal residence

• Disability tax credit certificate (T2201)

• Rental property income and expenses (including CCA)

• Self-employed people and commissioned employees

• Income and expenses (including CCA)

• Vehicle logbook

• In-home office expenses

• Volunteer firefighters’, search and rescue volunteers’, or volunteer emergency medical first responders’ certificate

• Northern residents information

• Business investment loss information (if you invested in a company that went bankrupt)

• RentAssist information (MB)

• Graduate retention certification (SK)

• Digital News subscription expenses