Tax Tip - The tax-filing deadline has passed, but you can still file your 2024 income tax and benefit return Français

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Canada Revenue Agency

May 08, 2025, 09:01 ET

OTTAWA, ON, May 8, 2025 /CNW/ - The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) understands that life can move fast, and tasks like filing your income tax and benefit return can slip through the cracks. The deadline to file a 2024 tax return was April 30, 2025, but you can still file if you haven't yet.

You may not want to file because you don't know the process or are worried about making mistakes. We want to remind you that you can still file after the deadline, and there are a number of CRA services that can make the process easy. Filing your tax return is important for several reasons:

  1. You may be eligible for a refund. This tax season, the CRA has issued more than 13.9 million refunds for a total of more than $30.8 billion. That's an average refund of $2,202.
  2. You may be eligible for benefit and credit payments. This could include the Canada child benefit, goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax credit, Canada workers benefit, and more.
  3. You will avoid interruptions to your benefit and credit payments. To keep getting your payments, you need to file your tax return every year, even if you have no income.

When you file your tax return, you could put more money into your pocket. Last year, the CRA delivered more than $52 billion in benefit payments, all because individuals filed their tax returns. If you need help filing, we offer resources and services designed to simplify the process.

How to file your tax return

This tax-filing season, more than 27.8 million tax returns have been filed to date. Here are some of the ways people filed their taxes this year, and options that may be available to you:

  • Online filing – Join the 26.5 million individuals who have already filed online this tax-filing season. That's 95% of all tax returns! To file online, we have a list of NETFILE-certified tax software products that are easy to use, fast, and secure. Some options are free.
  • Free tax clinics – If you have a modest income and a simple tax situation, a volunteer may be able to help you file your tax return for free. More than 765,000 returns have been filed so far through free tax clinics.
  • SimpleFile – More than 70,500 individuals have already used this free, fast, and secure service to file their tax return this tax-filing season.

When you file online and are registered for a CRA account, you can use the Auto-fill My Return service. This service automatically fills in parts of your return with information the CRA has on file, saving you time and reducing errors. Once Auto-fill my return service has populated your return with the information, make sure that all the proper fields on the return are filled in and that the information provided is true, accurate and complete before you file your return. More than 19.3 million individuals used this service to complete their 2024 return.

What's new in service delivery

The CRA is committed to putting people first by constantly improving its services to meet the changing needs of Canadians. This includes making sure everyone has the information they need to file their taxes each year.

Recently, the CRA introduced new services and improvements including:

  • The document verification service: It's easier than ever to register for a CRA account! The document verification service allows you to verify your identity and get immediate access to your online account. You don't have to wait for a CRA security code by mail, which can take up to 10 business days. In 2025, more than 561,000 individuals have registered for a CRA account and more than 280,000 of these individuals used the document verification service.
  • Online chat in My Account: You can now discuss account-specific issues with a live CRA agent in My Account. This includes questions about personal income tax, benefits, payments to the CRA, and more. To use the online chat service, you need to sign in to your CRA account and go to My Account. You can find the chat widget at the bottom right corner of the page
  • Simplified access to your CRA account – You can now access the My Account, My Business Account, and Represent a Client portals with a single sign-in.
  • GenAI Chatbot – You can now try using our GenAI chatbot beta to get detailed and context-specific answers to questions you may have. Your feedback on our beta will help us enhance and improve the service in the future. Try it out today!

If you need to call the CRA

During this tax season, our contact centres received more than 7 million calls. To help save you time, visit our tax tip before calling us. It might help you find the answers to your questions online. If you need to call us, start by checking telephone wait times. We offer estimated wait times on the Contact the CRA page. Please note that starting on May 10, 2025, hours of service for our contact centres will be adjusted and open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, Eastern Time and closed on weekends and holidays.

More than 96% of calls made to the enquiries contact centres occur Monday to Friday between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, Eastern Time. An adjustment to hours of service is being made to increase efficiency, answer more calls during peak hours and ensure Canadians are receiving service in the official language of their choice.

Helpful resources

If you need help to file your tax return, try these resources:

What to do if you owe money to the CRA

When you file your tax return, you may end up owing money to the CRA. To make a payment, the CRA accepts many methods, including online options. If you can't pay your debt right away, you can arrange to pay your debt over time.

Please note that if you file your tax return late and owe tax for 2024, you may be charged a late-filing penalty. In addition, the CRA will charge you compound daily interest on any unpaid amount owing for 2024 starting the day after the balance is due. This includes any balance owing if the CRA reassesses your return.

To provide additional time for taxpayers reporting capital dispositions to meet their tax filing obligation, the CRA will grant relief in respect of late-filing penalties and arrears interest for:

  • impacted T1 Individual filers until June 2, 2025.
  • impacted T3 Trust filers until May 1, 2025.

This relief extends to any forms and/elections that are normally included with the T1 and T3 returns, such as foreign reporting forms (e.g., Form T1135, Foreign Income Verification Statement). For the T3 Trust filers, relief also extends to the Schedule 15 (T3SCH15 Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust) and Schedule 130 (T3SCH130 Excessive Interest and Financing Expenses Limitation).

Contacts

Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
613-948-8366
[email protected]

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SOURCE Canada Revenue Agency

Organization Profile

Canada Revenue Agency

Related Organization(s)

Government of Canada