To help taxpayers prepare for the upcoming tax-filing season, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) offered tips in a release on Tuesday, and also highlighted new items on the 2025 income tax and benefit return as well as available digital services. The CRA’s communication comes ahead of the agency’s busiest time — and after the agency addressed call centre delays.
The CRA received 32 million calls last year, with peaks of nearly 300,000 per day during tax season, the release said. To address call centre delays, the CRA recently completed a 100-day service improvement plan mandated last year by the federal finance minister. The plan focused in part on digital services and system enhancements. In December when the plan concluded, the CRA said the proportion of unique calls answered during those 100 days more than doubled to 70%, with peaks of 92%.
As the deadline approaches for most individual taxpayers to file their 2025 returns — April 30 — the plan’s results will be put to the test.
Before tax season begins, the CRA suggested in the release that taxpayers confirm they can sign in to their CRA accounts. If a taxpayer gets locked out of their account because they forgot their sign-in information or forgot answers to their security questions, they can regain access online using the CRA’s self-service option.
Beginning in February, CRA account users must have a backup multifactor authentication (MFA) option on file, such as a passcode grid or third-party authenticator app.
Also beginning in February, taxpayers can find their NETFILE access codes (to file electronically) more easily in their CRA accounts, the release said: In My Account, select “tax returns.”
Early tax filers can begin filing their 2025 returns online on Feb. 23, the CRA’s release said. Most tax slips are issued by employers or financial institutions by the end of February. “Once you have all the necessary tax slips and documents, we recommend to file as early as possible to avoid the end-of-season rush,” the release said.
As part of the CRA’s shift to digital services, taxpayers and their representatives can no longer request paper copies of tax slips, including T4s, T4As and T5s. For paper copies, taxpayers would have to contact the issuer of the slip, the release said, or continue to access slips and other tax documents online in My Account.
New for 2025
New items for 2025 returns include the following:
- The lowest marginal individual income tax rate is 14.5% for 2025, down from 15% previously. (A one-percentage-point reduction to the lowest marginal rate took effect midyear, on July 1, 2025.)
- The top-up tax credit effectively maintains the 15% rate for certain non-refundable tax credits claimed on amounts over the first income tax bracket threshold of $57,375 for 2025.
- Eligible expenses for the disability supports deduction have been expanded.
Beginning in February, and after the CRA processes their tax returns, taxpayers can view digital notices of assessment and reassessment only in My Account, the release said, not in tax software service. Taxpayers with no CRA account or with preferences set to letter mail will receive notices of assessment and reassessment via the mailing address on file.
Taxpayers can avoid calling the CRA in certain instances by using digital services. Digital services include the CRA’s chatbot, available 24/7, which can answer a “wide range” of questions, the release said, “including more complex ones for business owners, such as eligibility for tax credits and compliance information.” Any information provided by the chatbot shouldn’t be considered as official records or tax advice, the CRA says online.
In last year’s annual report of the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (2024–25), the top trend in taxpayer complaints related to information provided by contact centre agents. Information was incomplete, inaccurate or unclear — if taxpayers got through to contact centres in the first place.
In Tuesday’s release, the CRA said the agency is “prepared to deliver reliable and timely service during tax season.”
“We know your expectations of us are high, as they should be — that’s why we’re continuing to strengthen security, reduce wait times and expand digital services to offer faster, more responsive support.”
Call centre delays aside, last tax-filing season was rough. In January 2025, the CRA introduced a new validation process to the electronic filing system that employers and institutions use to upload tax slips. Some issuers had trouble uploading slips, and slips didn’t appear in auto-fill or CRA portals — or double slips appeared, suggesting that issuers that had trouble uploading slips re-submitted them. Tax return preparers were stuck with time-consuming manual data entry, as well as uncertainty about whether a return was complete.