Taxpayer gets burned after blindly relying on CRA’s website info

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The Canada Revenue Agency issued a cautionary press launch earlier this 12 months in regards to the significance of sticking inside your tax-free savings account contribution restrict. Titled Watch your restrict – keep inside it!, the CRA reminded Canadians that it’s potential to overcontribute to a TFSA in plenty of methods.

One instance of an inadvertent overcontribution, cited by the CRA, can happen in case your TFSA is ready up for pre-authorized contributions and also you make further contributions with out verifying the quantity of room you’ve gotten obtainable. One other is in case you have a number of TFSAs with totally different monetary establishments and also you’re not fastidiously monitoring all of the contributions you make.

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However a 3rd path to a possible TFSA overcontribution is when you misinterpret or misread your TFSA restrict as proven on the CRA’s My Account self-service portal. That’s precisely what occurred in a latest case. However first, let’s recap TFSA contribution fundamentals and the results of a non-deliberate overcontribution.

Your TFSA restrict is cumulative and begins while you’re 18 years previous, assuming you had been a resident of Canada in that 12 months. Your TFSA contribution room is made up of three issues: the annual TFSA greenback restrict, plus any unused contribution room from earlier years, much less any withdrawals you made throughout earlier years (excluding direct transfers to a different TFSA).

The annual TFSA greenback restrict for 2024 is $7,000, and your cumulative restrict may be as excessive as $95,000 in 2024, assuming you had been not less than 18 years previous and a resident of Canada repeatedly since 2009, and have by no means contributed.

For those who unintentionally overcontribute, the CRA fees a penalty tax of 1 per cent for each month that any extra contributions keep in your account. Withdrawing them as quickly as potential will assist cut back the penalty tax.

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The CRA does, nevertheless, have the ability to waive or cancel all or a part of the penalty tax if it determines it’s applicable to take action after reviewing all components. To think about your request, it’s essential to write to the CRA and clarify why the overcontribution arose and why it might be truthful to cancel or waive all or a part of the tax. Ought to the CRA refuse to take action, you’ve gotten the precise to a second assessment. Ought to that even be unsuccessful, you’ll be able to search a judicial assessment in Federal Court docket, the place the choose will decide whether or not the CRA officer’s determination was cheap.

The troubles for the taxpayer on this latest case started in early 2020. His 2020 TFSA contribution restrict as of Jan. 1, 2020, was $6,337, however he contributed $12,563 for the 2020 tax 12 months. The CRA decided that his extra TFSA contribution for 2020 was $6,226, and despatched him an “instructional letter” in July 2021 with a warning that “sooner or later, when you proceed to contribute greater than your contribution room permits, the CRA might impose a tax of 1 per cent on you for every month that the overcontributed quantity stays in your TFSA.” No cost was ever made in respect of this overcontribution penalty.

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The taxpayer’s woes continued into 2021 when his contribution restrict was unfavourable (minus $226), however he nonetheless proceeded to make a TFSA contribution of $12,153, representing a complete overcontributed quantity of $12,379 for every month of 2021. In July 2022, the CRA decided his overcontribution tax to be $123.79 for every month, for a complete of $1,485. Add in arrears curiosity and the entire penalty tax was $1,566.

The taxpayer wrote to the CRA asking that this quantity be cancelled, saying he was “misled” by the knowledge on the CRA My Account portal, which indicated “very totally different” TFSA contribution limits. He pointed to copies of CRA paperwork, presumably My Account screenshots, displaying he had TFSA room of $12,335 for 2020 as of Jan. 9, 2020, and TFSA room of $12,237 for 2021 as of Jan. 12, 2021.

“I’ve all the time consulted My Account earlier than contributing to my TFSA and contributed in response to the quantities displayed,” the taxpayer stated. “If the contents of My Account are ineffective, not less than have the decency to inform me.”

The CRA denied the taxpayer’s first request to cancel the overcontribution tax, explaining that the knowledge posted in My Account solely contains transactions reported to the CRA by monetary establishments as much as a sure time limit. Since establishments have till the tip of February of the next 12 months to submit their report for the prior 12 months, the knowledge accessed in January might solely be partial. A warning to this impact is displayed on the CRA’s web site, and it’s finally as much as the taxpayer to maintain observe of their contributions and withdrawals.

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In late 2022, the taxpayer once more wrote to the CRA to say he didn’t settle for this primary determination and requested for a second-level assessment. This was additionally denied, so the taxpayer went to the Federal Court docket. In all these instances, it’s as much as the particular person requesting the judicial assessment to show the contested determination was not cheap. The traits of an affordable determination, based mostly on prior jurisprudence, are its justification, its transparency and its intelligibility.

Beneath the Income Tax Act, to ensure that the CRA to waive any TFSA overcontribution tax, two situations should be met: it should be proven that the taxpayer made an affordable error and that they took speedy steps to withdraw their extra contributions to their TFSA as quickly as potential.

The choose reviewed all of the information and concluded the CRA’s determination to not waive the overcontribution tax was cheap because it was as much as the taxpayer to know his personal TFSA restrict.

“In a self-assessment system … a taxpayer should inform themselves … to know the boundaries of their annual contributions,” the choose stated. “The My Account on-line (portal) comprises a warning about receiving data from monetary establishments. (It) can’t represent an affordable error to have ignored the warning and to not have in contrast the (incomplete) data on-line with one’s personal data.”

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The choose concluded that the taxpayer couldn’t ignore the warning on the location and the 2020 instructional letter from the CRA after which declare an affordable error in 2021 for subsequent overcontributions. In brief, “Ignorance of the regulation can’t represent an affordable error.”

Jamie Golombek, FCPA, FCA, CFP, CLU, TEP, is the managing director, Tax & Property Planning with CIBC Non-public Wealth in Toronto. Jamie.Golombek@cibc.com.

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