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According to Revenue Canada's
latest personal tax filing data, 26,333,940 1
Canadians filed income tax returns for the tax year
2011. This number represents approximately
77 percent of the entire population of Canada at
the time. It takes a great deal of time for the
Government to process all the tax returns and to
develop these statistics so, unfortunately, these
are the most recent numbers. (Sorry, there is no
data for 2012 yet) None the less, they paint an
impressive picture of how many Canadians are filing
and paying income taxes. So you are not alone. You
are also not alone in researching tax preparation
software. Google Trends reports an over 80% increase
in searches for the keyword "TurboTax"
since 2010. 2
Intuit's TurboTax claims to be the #1 tax preparation
software in Canada. The Google Trends data confirms
this statement. The nearest competition to the TurboTax
suite of products would be H&R Block but, until
their recent release of similar consumer tax preparation
software, they only offered storefront walk-in services.
So, look out TurboTax, there is finally some competition
in town.
TurboTax offers several varieties of versions. Choosing
the one that is right for your needs can get pretty
confusing because many of the products are so similar
but have important differences. So, be careful,
know and understand which version you are buying.
These different versions can be divided into 2 distinct
categories: personal and business editions. Both
are available in either last year's version as well
as the present year's version. On top of all that,
all of these editions are available in either English
or French language versions. The personal edition
can be broken down further into three different
sub-versions: Basic, Standard and Premier. Each
one has different allowances for the number of tax
returns that you can complete as well as how complex
the return can be. There are also some versions
that offer more returns than others or combine TurboTax
tax preparation software with Quicken personal finance
software. TurboTax have stopped publishing in depth
details about their products on their website so
we decided to fill the gap here.
Question: Can I claim the cost of TurboTax software
as a Canadian tax deduction? Unfortunately,
you cannot. 3 This software
is not a valid deductable expense so please do not
try to claim it on your Canadian income tax return.
Typically, you can only deduct expenses that were
incurred as part of earning income.
Note
1: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/stts/gb11/pst/fnl/menu-eng.html
Note 2: https://www.google.ca/trends/explore#q=turbotax
Note 3: https://turbotax.community.turbotaxonline.ca/questions/850587-can-i-claim-the-cost-of-turbotax-as-a-tax-deduction
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