To find the tax software that suits your situation, compare them with our product comparator, see our list of recommended software and read our tips on how to choose a tax software that will “search” all your deductions. If your tax situation is relatively simple, and includes, for example, only a record of employment, RRSPs and some deductible expenses, such as medical expenses, several effective and easy-to-use turbo tax calculator are available to you. One of the products we recommend is even free!

When filling out the W9 tax form, make sure that the tax name for which you are filing the federal tax return is included on the “Name” line. The federal tax classification and the tax identification number must be associated with the legal name entered on the “Name” line.

If you are the only member of a limited liability company (SL) that is a transparent entity, the name of the SL owner (who will be filing a federal tax return) should be listed on the “Name” line of the W9 form instead of the SL’s fiscal name. The combination of tax classification and tax identification number of a SL owner with a single member that is a transparent entity can be one of the following three options:

Are your sources of income diversified, do you have dependents and several deductible expenses? During our test, few software programs managed to produce a moderately complex declaration without making calculation errors like turbotax calculator. Two of the six software programs even failed miserably, sometimes causing their users to lose more than $ 1,000. In all, only three software programs fare reasonably well and are suitable for most user profiles.

User profiles

To test the software, we filled out around forty tax declarations applying to the following five user profiles:

• Couple with two young children using childcare services (daycare center and primary school). Employed parents have a combined income of approximately $ 135,000. One has private drug insurance and contributes to an RRSP; the other has investment income and deductible fees.

• Employed woman and single parent. She has sole custody of her child, for whom she receives child support. She owns a condo in a big city in Quebec. She has private drug insurance, a portion of which is paid for by her employer.

• Self-employed worker who founded a small business with a partner. She has a car and various costs associated with using a home office. She pays off a student debt and deducts tuition fees.

• Retired couple whose income comes from, among other things, Old Age Security and a private pension plan. They own a rental building for which they incur various expenses (insurance, municipal taxes, alarm system, etc.).

• Young salaried worker who lives alone in an apartment. He contributes to an RRSP every month. He has some medical expenses, but he does not have private insurance.

In addition to the accuracy of the calculations, the ease of use and the efficiency of the products, we also evaluated the quality of customer support. To do this, we asked the publishers a difficult question by contacting them by email or by phone. The quality and timing of responses were noted. Finally, we also surveyed our panel of readers to find out their satisfaction with the tax software used. To find out which tax software to buy based on your situation, compare the software between them using the search filters corresponding to these five user profiles.