This month taxes are due with lots of people working hard to make sure their forms are properly filled out.

That will include changes to some surrounding taxes, but as a whole, taxes will be handled mostly the same way.

David Hammermeister, a partner with MNP in Estevan, talks about the wider situation for taxes.

"Nothing too significant, I guess kind of the biggest thing given that we've had a fair bit of inflation in the last couple of years, the tax brackets and some of the other means-tested thresholds increased during the year, but as far as the actual tax rates and income sources and things like that, there really hasn't been much for changes."

One change has been the opening of new accounts that are made for first-time homeowners.

"The first home savings account came into effect in 2023," said Hammermeister, "So we've seen a few of those where you actually get a tax deduction for opening up a new registered account to save for buying your first home." 

While tax changes are lean this year, Hammermeister says there are some other financial changes to watch for.

"Not necessarily income tax related, but a couple of other goofy things that the federal government has done is the underutilized housing tax, UHT. So that was new this year, kind of the intention was I think to try and you know capture (unused) homes. It isn't really applying to anybody around here, but the idea was too free up the rental market and the housing market. But it's catching a lot of unintended people that are still expected to file the returns."

In addition, those opening trusts should watch that reports and filings may be required.

"The other one that came in and is a lot more pressing of an issue at the moment is the broadly expanded filing requirements for trusts. So now there's kind of the concept of what's been referred to or often referred to as a bare trust," said Hammermeister, "Even though the trust itself might not have any income, it is still expected to file a tax return, and disclose a whole bunch of information on who the beneficiaries and sellers of the trust are."

"So that can be the not even particularly unusual circumstance where somebody's opened up a trust bank account for their child or grandchild to save for their education or their money, or, you know, tooth fairy coins or whatever the case may be, and they're expected to file a new tax return for that, even though there are no taxes owing, but there are significant penalties for failure to file."

In addition, Hammermeister says that the CRA will no longer accept cheques over $10,000, instead asking those be sent through transfer.