{"id":5956,"date":"2016-03-07T09:04:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T17:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/?p=5956"},"modified":"2020-05-28T13:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T20:56:34","slug":"stress-free-tax-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Have a Stress-Free Tax Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the two certainties of life is an annual event that can leave more than a few people feeling stressed.\u00a0 Read on for our tips on how to navigate through this year&#8217;s tax season.<\/p>\n<h2><strong><u>Pre-filing &#8211; Keys to Minimize Tax Stress<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping a list of documents you expect and need (ie. T4s, RRSP receipts) and then check them off as they arrive.<\/li>\n<li>Get ahead of the tax game by organizing your year-end slips and receipts right away as they are received.<\/li>\n<li>Seek professional assistance filing your return if you feel filing your own return is beyond your abilities.<\/li>\n<li>If you regularly anticipate a refund, plan to spend it wisely.\u00a0 Consider bulking up your savings for example.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong><u>Owing Money \u2013 How to Deal with your Tax Debt<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>If you owe \u2013 pay in full on time!\u00a0 Interest and penalties compound daily, so even a manageable tax amount can get out of hand.<\/li>\n<li>Look at why there is a balance owing and try to correct it going forward.\u00a0 For example: Were more instalment payments needed?\u00a0 Did you withdraw RRSPs?\u00a0 Were you working two jobs with not enough deducted by your employers?<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t stop filing altogether because you think you\u2019ll add to the balance.\u00a0 Failing to file taxes on time can result in other problems, such as a back-log of MSP premiums, not receiving government benefits, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t ignore the problem.\u00a0 The Canada Revenue Agency is a powerful creditor and has the ability to seize a bank account or your wages without advance notice to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>If it sounds too good to be true\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many Canadians regularly get caught up in tax scams not realizing it and then are faced with interest, fines and penalties from Canada Revenue Agency as a result.\u00a0 Educate yourself on fraud and scams \u2013 if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>There are options for Tax Debt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you have unmanageable Canada Revenue Agency debt, such as income taxes or GST, both a consumer proposal or bankruptcy can eliminate or reduce these debts \u2013 they are also the only methods that can legally force CRA to stop seizing wages or assets.\u00a0 In Canada, a consumer proposal filed by a licensed trustee is the only option that is available to reduce the balance you repay, in full settlement of the debt.<\/p>\n<p>With over 29 years of experience, Sands &amp; Associates is BC\u2019s largest firm of Credit Counsellors, licensed Proposal Administrators and Bankruptcy Trustees focused exclusively on assisting individuals and small businesses achieve their \u201cdebt free\u201d goals.<\/p>\n<p><em>To meet with a representative for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/free-debt-consultation\/\">free, confidential consultation<\/a> in one of our local BC offices, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/downloads\/\">contact us<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the two certainties of life is an annual event that can leave more than a few people feeling stressed.\u00a0 Read on for our tips on how to navigate through this year&#8217;s tax season. Pre-filing &#8211; Keys to Minimize Tax Stress Keeping a list of documents you expect and need (ie. T4s, RRSP receipts) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[38,39,74,37,117,120,42,70,35,82],"class_list":["post-5956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-debt-free-living","tag-bankruptcy-bc","tag-bankruptcy-trustees","tag-bc-debt","tag-consumer-proposals","tag-credit-counselling","tag-credit-counsellor","tag-debt-settlement","tag-financial-stress","tag-sands-associates","tag-tax-debt"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v26.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Have a Stress-Free Tax Season - Sands &amp; Associates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read tips on minimizing tax-season stress, how to deal with your income tax debt, and where to get debt solutions if you can\u2019t pay.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Have a Stress-Free Tax Season\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read tips on minimizing tax-season stress, how to deal with your income tax debt, and where to get debt solutions if you can\u2019t pay.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sands &amp; Associates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SandsAssociates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-07T17:04:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-28T20:56:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Stress.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Blair Mantin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Blair Mantin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Blair Mantin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bce0833a5a7c2b89498e7d357aa214bf\"},\"headline\":\"How to Have a Stress-Free Tax Season\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-07T17:04:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-28T20:56:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\"},\"wordCount\":450,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Stress.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bankruptcy BC\",\"Bankruptcy Trustees\",\"BC Debt\",\"Consumer Proposals\",\"Credit Counselling\",\"Credit Counsellor\",\"Debt Settlement\",\"Financial Stress\",\"Sands &amp; Associates\",\"Tax Debt\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Debt-Free Living\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sands-trustee.com\/blog\/stress-free-tax-season\/\",\"name\":\"How to Have a Stress-Free Tax Season - 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