‘Very stressed out’: Toronto family blames tax software glitch for $14,000 CRA reassessment

Some people say they had to have their taxes reassessed due to a problem with childcare credits. Pat Foran reports for Consumer Alert.

A popular program that many Canadians use to file their taxes is being accused of having a glitch that allegedly led to some users getting reassessed and owing thousands of dollars to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), but it’s a claim the company is disputing.

Jessica Medrano of Toronto has been using TurboTax for more than a decade and was surprised when the CRA recently reassessed her family’s taxes for the years of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

She was told she received money for child-care expenses that she wasn’t entitled to.

“I was first shocked and then very stressed out. It’s a significant amount of money that we are being asked to pay back immediately,” said Medrano.

The issue appears to be with how the Ontario Child Tax Care Credit was calculated. It’s a relatively new program brought in during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the Medrano family - who have three young children - was audited, they were told they owe the CRA just over $14,000.

Medrano told CTV News Toronto she is careful when filing her taxes and that’s when she noticed hundreds of others complaining on Reddit, Facebook, and the TurboTax website, saying they had also been audited for the same mistake.

“That’s when it came to my attention that a number of other families have received the exact same issue for the exact same notice of assessment,” said Medrano.

The issue involves form ON479-A. When preparing their joint tax returns, some TurboTax users claim a glitch incorrectly calculated child-care expenses based on the income of only the lower-earning spouse.

“Then, when you click ‘continue,’ the system itself - not you - the system, unchecked one of the boxes,” said Andrea Aveiro of Bolton, Ont.

“I want TurboTax to take accountability for the error.”

Aveiro’s family also had their taxes reassessed for the same reason as Medrano. Aveiro said she must now pay the CRA back $10,000.

“I’m angry that a program I trusted to do our taxes that was supported by the government got us into this mess. $10,000 is a lot of money.”

CTV News reached out to TurboTax and a spokesperson said the company stands by its tax software and that tax information must be entered correctly.

“There is no glitch,” said Stefania Mancini, general manager of TurboTax Canada.“On this specific issue, I can tell you that we have a guided experience that we take customers through and that guided experience really works to ensure that customers put in the information that they need in order to tax file appropriately. However, when you step outside of that experience, sometimes errors can happen,” said Mancini.

“We do offer a guarantee around accuracy of our calculations, so if there are calculation errors, we would 100 per cent take responsibility for that.”

“What we have offered to customers is a refund if they were unhappy (with the software) or the opportunity to speak to one of our tax experts to see if there’s any opportunities for them to have a better outcome based on any errors that may have occurred,” Mancini added.

Some users CTV News spoke with still feel they should be compensated.“They market this product as 100 per cent guaranteed. It says ‘your taxes done with confidence’,” said Medrano.