What Is Line 15000 on a Tax Return?

What line 15000 means

Line 15000 is the total income line on a Canadian personal return. It adds employment, interest, business, rental and the other income lines. Deductions come after it, so it is not the tax you pay and it is not your refund.

Where to find line 15000

You find it on the T1 General, in the income section, after the individual income lines. A tax program fills it from the slips. On a paper return it is the line numbered 15000.

Why line 15000 matters

Benefits and credits that look at income often start from this total or from net income a few lines later. A missed slip makes line 15000 too low. An extra slip makes it too high. Either one is a reason to adjust the return.

Checking line 15000 on your notice of assessment

When the notice of assessment arrives, compare this line with your copy of the return. A different figure means the CRA changed a slip or a deduction. Bring the notice and the slips to the Scarborough office. If that year was already filed, the fix is a T1 adjustment, not a second filing of the same year. Keep the notice with the file. Ask which year the notice belongs to before you pay a balance. The firm quotes a six-year retention period for tax records, counted from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

Work with the Scarborough office

Kennedy Tax & Accounting Inc. prepares the return from its only office in Scarborough, near Kennedy Station. You can visit or send the slips. English, Bengali and Tamil are spoken. A CPA has led the firm since 2010. A simple personal return starts at $49.99 + HST. Other work is quoted first.

The personal return is prepared on the personal income tax page. A corporation uses the T2 service. Books are on the bookkeeping page.