Review of Turbo Tax Premier Canada

Here is our review of Turbo Tax Premier and some notes on why you may want to use it for your taxes this year.

Most people hate that time of year, but I love it: TAX TIME!  I have done my own taxes every year basically all my adult life. 

It’s just so easy these days to use an online service like Turbo Tax to do it yourself, but also have the peace of mind to know that if you need more help, you can upgrade or get more support. For our tax return, we used Turbotax Premier.

Why Choose Turbo Tax Premier?

Whether you are filing personally, as self-employed, or you want to have someone do your taxes for you, there is an offering for everyone. We chose to use the higher-level offering because many things happened to us this past year. We bought a house, we had a baby, and we invested heavily over the year, we bought and sold some crypto.

Turbotax Premier (regular and full service) specifically notes it is good for those with investment income, capital gains or losses, and crypto currency, as well as rental & foreign income. So, if like us, you are an investor and dabble in either (or both) stocks and crypto, or your have rental properties, you should consider using Turbotax Premier this year.

Remember that if you are primarily investing in RRSP or TFSA accounts, you aren’t subject to tax on the RRSP accounts until you withdraw. Non-registered accounts like crypto and personal taxable brokerage accounts are subject to taxes in the year any capital gains are realized. Realized means that you actually sold the security for a profit (or loss), not that it just went up (or down) in value in your account without selling.

One of the things I like about Turbotax, is you can go through your whole return, and determine which level of service is right for you, and you don’t pay until the end. So there is no risk of purchasing the wrong product for your tax situation. If you are under 25, you can file for free!

Turbotax Options and Pricing

For the tax do-it-yourself-er there are three options you can choose from: Free, Deluxe or Premier.

If you decide you don’t want to do it all on your own and want some level of assistance, there are two levels you can choose from. The first is what they call Assist and Review, where you are still in the driver seat to complete the taxes, but they offer support and review as needed. The final level is their Full Service offerings, where you hand your documents over, and one of their experts completes your taxes for you. Obviously, full service will cost more than if you do it yourself, but you can also get the support and peace of mind that everything was done right.

TurboTax’s Coolest Features

Yes, I said Cool and Tax in the same sentence! One of the coolest features that they have improved this year is the ability to connect to your MyCRA account and download all the T4’s and other tax form that have already been submitted by your employer, or the government. That means you can save your time inputting the data from each form, and finish your taxes quicker!

Forms we didn’t even receive in the mail yet were ready for download there! It was a really useful feature.

Since we are already past March 1st, 2022, you can no longer contribute to your RRSP for the 2021 tax year. However, one of the features I love in Turbotax is a little widget that allows you to estimate your total potential refund based on RRSP contribution. So (had you started your taxes prior to Mar 1.), if you had taxes owing, it would tell you exactly how much to contribute to your RRSP to get the credit you need to reduce taxes owing or receive a higher refund. This results in a double win for you, you don’t have to pay taxes (or pay less) you also get to invest for retirement!

Turbotax – Ease of Use

If you have used Turbo tax before, over 50% of the return is already done for you from importing your previous data. Connecting to your MyCRA account with your Netfile access code (from your Notice of Assessment from the previous year) allows you to download and auto fill much of the required information automatically. I find their platform super easy to use, and it also hints you to potential credits or items you may have missed before you submit. so you get a double check from the software, even if you are using the full do it yourself version.

Tax Deadlines for 2021 Tax year

If you are filing a personal tax return, the deadline for you to submit your 2021 Canadian Personal Tax return is May 2nd, 2022. If you are filing a Self Employed Tax Return, the deadline is June 15th.

What to do with your refund

The idea situation would be that you can reduce your taxable income through RRSP contributions to reduce your taxes owing to zero. Getting a refund means you have over-contributed in your taxes throughout the year, and therefore the government owes you money back.

If you are in a position to get a refund, what should you do? It depends on your financial situation.

Do you have consumer debt? Use this unexpected money to put a lump sum down on your debt to get ahead. I want you to live a debt free life! Putting an unexpected bonus towards debt is really going to take a bite out of your payback timeline.

Already living your debt free life? You need to decide whether to spend, save or invest depending on your goals. You should clarify and calculate what your goals might cost you. Then, make a plan on whether to save or invest.

A fantastic thing to do with the RRSP funded refund you received is to invest it in your Tax Free Savings Account! Make sure you have a TFSA account which is an investment account, not simply a savings account. If you are new to investing, you might consider trying out a roboadvisor service which can help take the complexity out of investing. Try Wealthsimple Invest and get $25 to invest

If this review of Turbo Tax Premiere Canada has been helpful, comment below, or let me know what your favourite tax software is.