With April 30 behind us, many individuals have filed their personal income tax return for 2024 and paid any taxes owing. Even though self-employed individuals have until June 16 to file their tax return, taxes owing are still normally due by April 30. However, if you earned capital gains in 2024, you may still be in the process of completing your tax return. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is providing interest and penalty relief until June 2 for individuals affected by the late release of forms due to the previously proposed, and now cancelled, capital gains inclusion rate increase.
Regardless of which situation applies to you, there are things you should be aware of after you file your tax return. While you may think that you're done with your taxes for another year, this may not be the case. You may need to make an adjustment to your personal tax return, or you may be receiving a refund. The CRA may contact you or make changes to your tax return, or the CRA may contact you about paying instalments for 2025. There are a number of scenarios that may arise after you file your tax return. We've summarized some of the key things you should keep top of mind after your personal income tax return is filed.
1. Check the status of your refund
The CRA indicates that their goal is to issue a Notice of Assessment (NOA), along with a refund where applicable, within two weeks if your return is filed online and on time. If your return is filed by paper, the period extends to within eight weeks. Keeping this time frame in mind, you can check the status of your refund if you are expecting one from the CRA.
To check your refund status:
- Sign in to CRA My Account online; or
- Call CRA at 1-800-959-1956.
2. Make an adjustment to your personal income tax return
After filing your return, you may realize that you've missed a tax deduction or credit or you missed including an amount in your taxable income. More taxpayers may find themselves in this situation due to delays in receiving certain tax slips, original or revised, for 2024 due to the proposed capital gains changes.
In these situations, you may want to make an adjustment to your tax return to take advantage of the additional deduction or credit or avoid incurring interest and penalties associated with unreported income.
You can request a T1 adjustment online or by mail—you don't need to re-file your entire tax return. However, for faster processing by the CRA, you should wait for your 2024 NOA before making an adjustment.
3. Watch for CRA communications
The CRA will issue an NOA after processing your tax return. This is an important notice that you should watch for and review each year because it details the amount of taxes you owe (or the refund you are entitled to), along with other important details about your tax return, including whether the CRA has made any adjustments. Where adjustments are made by the CRA, it will provide an explanation―review your NOA to make sure you agree with any changes and to decide if further action is required (more on this later).
If you are registered to receive online mail, the CRA will send you an email to notify you that important letters, including your NOA, are available for viewing in My Account―a secure portal.
If you are not registered to receive online mail, the CRA will send your letters or notices by regular mail. In addition, a CRA representative may also contact you by phone.
It is important to keep in mind that the CRA does not disclose any confidential tax information through email. Letters or notices are only made available to registered users in My Account—not in email notifications. In addition, it is advisable to check your junk email or spam folder from time to time. As emails from the CRA are infrequent, these emails may be sent to junk mail or spam by your email service provider.
4. Watch out for communications that are not from CRA
You've likely heard of the numerous and often creative ways fraudsters pretend to be with the CRA, attempting to access your personal information and money. Many of these schemes use aggressive methods to pressure individuals to pay a tax balance that doesn't actually exist. Fraudsters may demand immediate payment by Interac e-transfer, cryptocurrency, cash, wire transfers, pre-paid credit cards, gift cards, and other methods that are not easily traced. There are also scams that attempt to lure would-be victims into giving away personal and financial information by falsely claiming that the information is needed in order for a tax refund to be paid to the individual.
You should be aware that the CRA does not request payment or personal information from you in this manner. The CRA does not use aggressive language or threaten arrest. The CRA does provide guidelines on their website to help you identify legitimate phone calls, letters and emails from the CRA. Note that the CRA only sends text messages for multi-factor authentication for its sign-in services.
As a result of the heightened awareness of this type of fraud, many taxpayers may be ignoring all communications—including legitimate ones from the CRA. It is very important not to ignore valid requests from the CRA as doing so may result in your tax return being assessed or reassessed inappropriately, and could result in additional taxes, interest, and penalties. In addition, failing to comply with a legitimate CRA request and any resulting adjustment to your return could be a factor considered by the CRA when selecting a tax return for audit.
It is very important when you receive communication from the CRA to not only watch for the warning signs of potential fraud and to protect yourself, but to also take the extra step to verify your tax status through secure portals such as My Account or by calling the CRA’s individual tax enquiries line at 1-800-959-8281. These are effective ways to quickly verify authenticity of a call claiming to be from the CRA.
5. Respond to your NOA and other letters from the CRA
We've mentioned the importance of reviewing your NOA each year. If you disagree with your assessment, your first step should be to call the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 to try to resolve the issue quickly. If you are not able to resolve the issue with a phone call to a CRA representative, contact a trusted BDO tax advisor. We can help you communicate with the CRA before the Notice of Objection period expires. The deadline for filing a Notice of Objection for individuals is the later of one year after the tax return due date and 90 days after the date of the NOA. If this attempt to resolve the issue with the CRA is not successful, we can then assist by initiating a formal process for dispute resolution by filing a Notice of Objection to protect your rights and keep the taxation year open.
If you receive a letter indicating that your tax return is being reviewed and additional information is being requested, there's no need to be alarmed. The CRA conducts many types of review programs that can occur at any time during the year. For example, under the Matching Program, the CRA may compare your return with information received from third parties, such as your employer and financial institutions. If there is a discrepancy between the information provided and what was reported on your tax return, the CRA may contact you to work out the difference.
You may be wondering how tax returns are selected for review. The CRA may consider a number of factors, including your compliance history, the types of deductions or credits you claimed, any differences in reported amounts from third parties, and random selection. It is common for the CRA to contact taxpayers for charitable donation or medical receipts, as these are not sent to the CRA unless requested.
Regardless of the reason that your tax return was selected for review, you should always respond promptly to legitimate CRA requests by providing them with the necessary information before the deadline, which is usually 30 days from the date of the letter. You should always quote the reference number from the original letter as well. If you are unsure of what the CRA needs to resolve the matter, your BDO advisor can assist in responding to the CRA and can help close your case more quickly and easily.
6. Review a request to pay instalments
If you owed more than $3,000 (or $1,800 if you live in Quebec) when you filed your tax return for 2023 and 2024, you may receive a request from the CRA to pay tax instalments for the first time for 2025.
It is important that instalments are paid on time, and as requested by the CRA. Please see our Tax Bulletin, Failure to pay tax instalments can be costly, for further details.
The information in this publication is current as of April 10, 2025.
This publication has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only. The publication cannot be relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained therein without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact BDO Canada LLP to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. BDO Canada LLP, its partners, employees and agents do not accept or assume any liability or duty of care for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken by anyone in reliance on the information in this publication or for any decision based on it.