TurboTax for new immigrant

[Mr--Y]

Hi There,

We (myself, my wife and 6 yrs. old son) are new immigrants (PR) to Canda.

We landing at Canada in 2018 and now we are preparing our first tax filing in Canada.

Two questions:

1. Should 1st file taxing filing been done by CPA, or we can still use the TurboTax tools? We've got SIN numbers for everyone in the family, however, looks like we don't have the account for MyCRA (and can't register the CRA account by SIN numbers).

2. If we are OK to use TurboxTax, would you recommend a package for download version? We need to do the following:

- File tax for self-employment(for me) and T4 (for my wife) in Canada

- File salary and investment income from overseas

- We have DTC and medical spending

Thanks for the help!

[TurboTaxEsther · Accepted solution]

Welcome to Canada!

As a first time tax filer, you will have to mail your return in by paper as they have no records for you yet. This is also why you could not create an account with CRA. You will enter the date of entry when you say yes to residency change in the interview section.

Since you show a preference for the download version, I would recommend the Home and business download. It is good to use for new residents and great for your self-employed income. It can handle the overseas investments as well.

DTC and medical are included in all versions of turbo tax. 

You can also add "Pro Review" to the product and it includes all the returns prepared using the downloaded software. One price to review all the returns. I highly recommend this service since this is your first time preparing and you have overseas income to report. You may even speak to me. 🙂 

https://turbotax.intuit.ca/business-tax-software/home-business.jsp

[Mr--Y]

The "Home and business" is for 12 returns, however we only have 3 including my son. I have a CPA working on my company (the part fro self employment), could you recommend a version that only cover the family part of tax filing?

[TurboTaxEsther]

Is the self-employment incorporated? If not, it still goes on the personal tax return.  The premier version is the best for investments and if the accountant is preparing a financial statement for you, it should be easy to enter the self-employment income using the premier version too.

[Mr--Y]

yes, its incorporated. so should i file tax separately for family and incorporated  business? incorporated business is not self employed, right?

[TurboTaxEsther]

That's right Incorporated is not the same as self-employed. You will not need the "home and business" in that case. The premier version would be ideal for you.

[Taxfiler2]

You can use the Free version to get the job done. Turbo Tax is known to push customers to pay for unnecessary products. 

References:

1. https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-deliberately-hides-its-free-file-page-from-search-engine...

2. https://www.propublica.org/article/listen-to-turbotax-lie-to-get-out-of-refunding-overcharged-custom...

3. https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-deliberately-hides-its-free-file-page-from-search-engine...