Your Ideas Helped Make TaxCycle More Beautiful in 2023-2024

This is the time of year when we like to reflect on what the previous tax season brought to TaxCycle. From legislative changes and new services from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenu Québec, to the invaluable contributions from our clients. Your feedback, shared during webinars, on the support lines or in posts on ProTaxCommunity.com and Dialo-impôt has been pivotal to TaxCycle’s progress. 

In case you didn’t read each set of release notes in detail this year, here’s a list of some of the notable changes you helped create and improve in TaxCycle this past tax season. (Can you spot your idea?)

Significant CRA and Provincial Initiatives

Many CRA changes require additional research and design to implement them well in TaxCycle, and make them available quickly as well as easy-to-use. Worth noting this year are the following:

Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR)

• Updated the name of the Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR) on the worksheet and any summaries and letters to reflect the CRA’s rebranding of the program.
• Updated the CCR estimated benefits calculation to use the amounts announced by the Department of Finance on February 14, 2024, and adjusted the rural supplement to 20% as per Bill C-59. 

T2/CO-17 Updates

• Updated the T2 Schedule 63 to add the new 2023 payment rates, as well as four new designated provinces in which these rates apply.
• Updated forms CO-1029.8.36.II and CO-1029.8.36 to include changes announced in Québec’s mini budget on November 7, 2023.

T3 Schedule 15 and Bare Trust Returns

• Added Schedule 15, Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust and a Beneficial ownership information (Beneficial) worksheet to the T3 module, to help trusts gather and report beneficial ownership information. 
• The S15 includes a field at the top of the form to track the filing status for each year. 
• Added a caution message that appears if you answer No to the second question about beneficial ownership information in Part A, but enter reportable entities in Part B.
• Added a Beneficial Owners on File (BeneficialOnFile) worksheet to carried-forward 2024 T3 returns to track the information reported on the S15 in the prior year.
• Watch the Bare Trusts webinar to learn more about the new trust reporting requirements for T3 returns.

TaxCycle T1

• Added new fields to the T2202A/TL11A tuition certificates to enter a foreign tuition amount, currency and exchange rate.
• Added electronic signature support to the TP-1.R.
• Added forms RC66, RC66-1 and RC66SCH for the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) application.
• Updated the optimization for claiming donations in coupled returns to accommodate the new Alberta donation rate of 60% on the first $200 of donations. If the return was already filed, a Quick Fix solution message appears to allow you to recalculate the return using the new optimization.
• Updated the Nickname field on the Info worksheet to “Nickname/preferred name.”
• Widened the middle name field on the Info worksheet to allow more text to appear and to accommodate how Service Canada inserts names into the field.
• Added a check box to the Investment Income and Carrying Charges worksheet for the Transfer of dividend income under subsection 82(3) where the transfer will result in the higher income spouse being able to claim a higher spousal amount, allowing you to transfer dividend income from a lower-income spouse to the higher-income spouse with just one click.

TaxCycle T2

• Added electronic signature support to the T1044 Non-Profit Organization (NPO).
• Added electronic transmission support using a Web Access Code (WAC) for the T106, T1134, T1135 and the RC4649 Country-by-Country Report.
• Added GIFI code 7010 (Income tax relating to components of other comprehensive income) to line 101 of the S1.
• Added new questions to the Federal Instalments worksheet to allow preparers to verify whether a corporation’s (and the associated corporations’) estimated taxable income and taxable capital for the current year is nil.

TaxCycle T3

• Added an Operating name field in the Preparer section of the Engagement worksheet.
• Added a Payments worksheet to the 2024 T3 module, allowing you to manage and enter payment information for the client invoice without unlocking the Billing worksheet.
• Added electronic signature support to the T3SlipSummary and NR4Summary. TaxCycle will use the first trustee’s signature if there are multiple signatures. If you want all trustees to sign, you can print to PDF and create a manual signature request using TaxFolder or DocuSign®.
• Added option to change the default answer to the final return question on the Info worksheet in New File Options.
• Added a line for tax withheld in excess of the tax treaty limit to the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) worksheet.
• Create a 2024 T4 file from a 2024 T3 return. To get started, go to the Data menu and click on Create 2024 T4 slips.
• See also T3 Schedule 15 and Bare Trust Returns, above.

TaxCycle T4, T5, NR4, T5018 and T3010

•  T4—Added Smart Copy/Paste to the T2200.

TaxCycle T5013

• Added a review message related to the residency of the partnership for immediate expensing purposes.
• Added a field to designate the Country of residence for each partner on the T5013 slip if the country of residence is different from the mailing address.
• Added support for importing Excel® templates using drag and drop to align with similar functionality in other TaxCycle modules.

TaxCycle Forms

• Added SERs transmission support to the T2054, T2057, T2058, T2059, and UHT-2900 forms.
• Added Smart Copy/Paste to the UHT-2900 and T1134Sup.
• Updated the T2058, T2059 and T2060 so you can edit partner names on the forms instead of selecting partners from the “Contact and filing” section of the Info worksheet. Also added a check box so you can still select partners from the Info worksheet.

Workflow

• Added a new keyboard shortcut (Alt+Shift+P) to print all selected forms in the print set.

Client Manager

• Updated the Client Manager to only index competitor tax returns going back three years in order to improve the database’s overall performance and search speed. Read the Indexing Competitor Returns in the Client Manager post to learn more.
• Added new search result columns and a search box to the Available Columns list to make finding columns easier.

Templates

‌Based on customer requests, we made several improvements to templates.

• Added text about the Underused Housing Tax (UHT-2900) to the T1 2022 and 2023 pre-season and post-season letters.
• Added a link to the EI benefits for self-employed people page to the T1 2022 and 2023 client letter.
• Updated the T1 2023 pre-season letters to separate out the foreign property section, and renamed the French pre-season letters so they show up together in the template editor sidebar.
• Added information about T3 bare trusts to the T1 2023 pre-season, 2022 and 2023 post-season, and 2023 client and joint client letters.
• Added foreign slips to the list of documents in the T1 pre-season and post-season letter.
• Updated the optional review message on the T1DD worksheet to only trigger if the client is not signed up for direct deposit as shown on the AFR client data enquiry (CDE).
• Hid the sentence suggesting the client would be automatically enrolled for the GIS if they are already receiving the GIS or OAS payments from the T1 client letters.
• Added template “cheat sheets” (*T1Code and *T2Code) to the Template Editor, as demonstrated in the Templates—Part 2 webinar, to help you code your own templates.
• Added a sentence about the CO-17 refund being applied to next year’s instalments to the T2 2023 and 2024 client letters.
• Changed the subject line in the body of the T3 2023 client letter to “trust return.”
• All French templates now use “Bonjour” as the standard salutation.

Options

• Added the option to set the signing date on the Info worksheet to default to the current date or leave it blank.

TaxFolder

It was another big year for TaxFolder. With your feedback, we implemented the following changes and improvements:

• The Client Portal and Preparer Dashboard are fully supported in French. Clients can change the default language for their accounts from the Settings page in the Client Portal.
• Added a column to the “In Progress” tab in the Preparer Dashboard to show the total of all uploaded client files that have not been marked as “Used” in the Client Files section of an engagement. This helps improve tracking when clients upload new files that have not yet been reviewed.
• Added a Time Zone field in the Organization settings to allow firms to set a preferred time zone for dates shown on signed and approved documents. 
• The Preparer name now appears on the History page for events related to deleted and restored users.
• Added a new column to the Client List tab in the Preparer Dashboard to show whether or not each client is connected to the Client Portal.
• Added support for Sage backup (.cab) file upload in the Client Files section of the engagement.

Interface Changes

• The workflow items in the Complete tasks drop-down menu in the print configuration dialog box now only show tasks that are manually completed and no longer show automated workflow items.

Technology Updates

• Added Data Mining to all TaxCycle modules.

DoxCycle

• Added a field to capture the Donation receipt number for posting to TaxCycle.
• Added support for box 45 (employer-offered dental benefits) in TaxCycle T4.
• Added box 15 (payer-offered dental benefits) to the T4A slip for posting to TaxCycle.
• You can manually add box 11 to the RC210, Advanced Canada workers benefit (ACWB) statement for posting to TaxCycle.

What About Other Years?

Curious about enhancements in prior years? Check out these news articles:

• A Year in Review: TaxCycle Highlights for 2022-23
• You Helped Make TaxCycle More Beautiful in 2021-22
• Your Ideas Made TaxCycle Better (2020-21)
• Look What You’ve Done for TaxCycle This Year (2019-20)
• A Year in Review: What Was New to TaxCycle in 2018-19
• Look what you’ve done for TaxCycle this year (2017-18)
• Your feedback becomes features in TaxCycle (2016-17)