Canada Revenue Agency review of my moving expenses

[eddly]

Hello everyone, just a quick question.

I received notice in August that the CRA wanted to review my moving expenses for 2012. I sent in all my documents in the beginning of September. Does anyone have any experience with doing this? I'm just wondering when I'll hear back from them, it is already approaching a month and a half. Will I get a letter back from them if they have made changes to my return or if they haven't? I keep checking my online account with CRA... balance owing still says $0.

[Superfraggle]

They reviewed my tuition, etc credits this year, and I got a letter back saying it was all good a couple months after I sent my document in. I would imagine you will get a letter one way or the other eventually, but it could take another month or two.

[Wormius]

Had the same thing with childcare expenses being reviewed a couple of months back. Scanned the supporting receipts, submitted to the online account and haven't heard anything back. If you're concerned, give them a call and check on it. I don't think they would respond unless something was amiss still, but that's just me.

[The Yen Man]

From my experience, anything with the CRA takes at least 2 months to process. I had to file an correction when I found a mistake in my return after I netfiled it, and it took them 6 months to correct. I wouldn't worry too much as long all the documents are sent.

[Northendzone]

I would not panic too much about the whole situation, the bottom line is that your expenses were slightly higher than they typically see. I have had this in the past with daycare receipts and when my wife went to grad school......just gave em the requested data and told them to go pound sand.

[Fusebox]

I received a letter back in March about something similar. Submitted my response immediately and haven't heard back. I phoned two months ago to ask for an update on the situation and was told that they would be back to me within ten days. Still waiting. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you aren't trying to claim more than what it actually cost you, you have nothing to hide.

[bigtmac19]

It takes on average 8-10 weeks for CRA to process that kind of request. They will send you a letter saying that your return is acceptable as you filed and no changes were made, or they might change your return and send you an explanation of what they did. If so you still can appeal their decision, write them a letter or call, etc. if you have any further information to support your claim.

This is standard procedure with CRA. They do post assessment reviews every fall. Due to efiling, they randomly select returns for review, for the client to produce receipts in support of claims made. The most common, in my experience, are medical, tuition, donations, and claims with respect to foreign income.

They claim it's strictly random, but we have clients who have been targeted over and over, due to large amounts of legit medical, etc.

[Fusebox]

Yeah, it is most definitely not random. A couple of years ago my union changed the way they collect dues and an enormous amount of our members were "randomly audited" the next fiscal year. Far too many for it to have been a coincidence.