Tax documents missing? A new CRA process is still posing issues as filing deadline approaches

Though the deadline to file tax returns is less than two weeks away, tax slips for many Canadian taxpayers are still not showing up through the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) online platforms.

Each year, employers and financial institutions have to give copies of tax documents — like T4 slips, which show income information from your job, or T5 slips, which show investment income — to the CRA by a certain deadline. The CRA then makes those slips available through their online portals, like taxpayers' CRA My Account. This is how tax products like TurboTax, or tax preparers like accountants, access necessary tax information digitally.

The issue this year stems from a new validation process the CRA introduced for these slips in January 2025. The process is supposed to ensure that the data they're getting from employers and financial institutions is correct, according to the CRA.

"The CRA is actively working to address any outstanding issues, including consulting with issuers, to ensure tax slips are made available on the portal," a CRA spokesperson wrote in part by email.

The revenue agency told the Globe and Mail earlier this month that they were hoping to remedy the issue by mid April, though the CRA did not answer the CBC's question about whether or not they had made any progress toward that goal in their email response.

Kim G C Moody, founder of Moodys Tax and an expert on tax law, says while some slips are starting to show up, many are still not available digitally for many of the professionals in his firm. He also says duplicate slips have been appearing as of late in some cases, posing a new set of challenges.

Which documents are missing also seems to be completely random, he says, rather than problems originating with a certain kind of slip or ones generated by certain financial institutions or employers.

The CRA hasn't extended the deadline despite the issue.

Despite the missing information through CRA, you can (and must, if you owe money) still file your taxes by April 30. It just might not be so quick or convenient.

When employers and financial institutions send your tax information to the CRA, they also send you a copy. That means you have access to the information you need to process a return, it's just not so readily available through your CRA My Account. It may mean downloading various slips from places like your bank's website or an online employee portal, or waiting for some to come in the mail.

If you do your own taxes online using a service like Intuit or TurboTax, this means you probably won't be able to use the autofill function to import information. Instead, you'll have to manually fill out each field line by line.

Both Wealthsimple and TurboTax told CBC they are aware of the issue. TurboTax acknowledged in an email statement that the missing slips were impacting their service's autofill function, and said they were "in direct contact with senior officials at CRA, underscoring the need for accountability and decisive action to resolve these issues for our customers and all Canadians."

For those who pay a professional to file their taxes for them, that will require sending your accountant or bookkeeper some or all of your individual tax slips so they have the information they need to complete your return.

Those doing their own taxes who don't notice that some of their income information is missing could possibly end up filing incorrectly, and either missing out on savings, or owe more than what was initially calculated as a result.