The number of "paper filed" tax returns dropped by 6.5% last year. So what's driving Canadians to file electronically?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 9, 2005

(MONTREAL, February 9, 2005) - Last tax season, over 23,254,722 personal tax returns were filed with the federal tax department. Of these, almost 50% or 11,056,214 were filed electronically using TeleFile, NetFile or EFile. This represents an increase of over 11% in electronic filings over last year. The CRA projects an incredible 70% of tax returns will be filed electronically by 2007. Will 5 million more Canadians start filing electronically over the next 3 years? The chances are they will. This year the CRA's NetFile services opens February 14th. There are a number of good reasons why Canadians will be taking advantage of it.

The CRA employees are less likely to make an error when processing your return. The CRA hires humans, and humans make mistakes.
Thankfully they are rare, but filing electronically means that the assessment process is fully automated.

You will make fewer mistakes in preparing your return. Because electronic filing requires the use of tax software, that software can catch some of your errors before you file your return. The CRA's system also catches anomalies and reports an error to be corrected.

A faster refund. Most Netfilers get their refund back in less than 10 days.

When you file electronically, there is no need to sort, staple and mail all your tax slips along with your tax return. In fact, you don't have to mail anything. This means no envelope, no stamp, no trip to the post office. It really is more convenient.

In order to NetFile, you will need tax software. Dr Tax Software Inc. offers its UFile tax program as a Web application and on CD-Rom. According to statistics from the CRA, last year, UFile.ca, was chosen by over 48% of those who NetFiled using an online tax application. For taxpayers with a modest income, UFile online is free to taxpayers with income of $20,000 or less. UFile looks and feels the same whether online or off. Both UFile products rely on the tax-saving MaxBack Refund Analyzer that has been in use by tax professionals across Canada for over 15 years.
"At Dr Tax Software, we believe in the benefits of electronic filing for all of us. That's why we created UFile - to simplify tax preparation and make it easy and economical for consumers to take advantage of the CRA's NetFiling service." says Malcolm Campbell, Vice President and General Manager of Dr Tax Software Inc. You'll never see a bumper sticker that reads, "I'd rather be doing my taxes". It is one of those annual jobs you would rather not have to do at all. Unfortunately, it is not about to go away. Electronic filing helps to take away some of the pain and makes the wait for your tax refund shorter.

About Dr Tax Software Inc.

Dr Tax Software Inc. is a privately-owned, Canadian company located in Montreal, Quebec. It is a leading provider of tax preparation products and has served the professional tax community with personal and corporate tax products for over 15 years. Dr Tax's UFile.ca is offered as the online tax product of Canada's major Web portal, Sympatico.MSN.ca.