Property taxes, which pay for most municipal services, are the product of your home’s assessed value multiplied by the local tax rate. You can’t change the tax rate, but you can argue that you have been over-assessed. Begin by checking your home’s assessment report. This is typically a computerized estimate of your home’s selling price, based on sales information from a particular assessment date. Is it fair? If a similar house on your block sold for much less than your valuation around the time of the assessment date, you may have evidence of over-assessment.

Assessments are carried out by provincial agencies or municipalities. If you’ve spotted a factual error on your assessment—it claims you have a two-car garage when you don’t—you can often get this fixed by simply calling the assessor. If there are no clear-cut mistakes, but you still think you’ve been over-assessed, you will need to officially appeal your assessment.

The more unique your house, the harder it is to value—and the better your chances of winning an appeal. “If you live in a cookie-cutter neighbourhood, assessments are usually pretty accurate,” says William Howse, a Toronto tax lawyer. “But as soon as you get anything unusual in features or lots, or get into pricier neighbourhoods, then the computer can have big problems.” An older or smaller house in an expensive area or proximity to a busy road, railway or school can provide a strong case for appeal.

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If you wish to file your Canada tax return to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) before the deadline, you should know how to do it accurately.

It is really difficult to learn about the processing time taken by the CRA for your return because it depends on the way you file your taxes and the time when you submit your return file. If you file your return before the 15th April and you choose paper filing then you will get your return processed within four weeks. If choose TELEFILE, EFILE or NETFILE for your return, then your file will be processed within two weeks.

And, if you file your income tax return after 15th April using paper filing method, then you will have your return being processed within six months. For TELEFILE, EFILE or NETFILE return will take two weeks to get your file processed.

There are certain things you should remember while filing your Canadian taxes online. You should pay the exact amount of tax you owe. You can also benefit from certain things like HST/GST Credit or the Guaranteed Income Supplement under the Old Age Security Program.

You should not miss the deadline for paying taxes set by the CRA. The deadline for filing tax return is 30th April. Generally, Canadian individual returns for any specific year must be filed by April 30 of the subsequent year. If you file your income tax return after the deadline, then the Canada Revenue Agency will charge you a penalty and interest on your unpaid amount.