What is Auto-Fill my Return (AFR) and TDF?

With the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)’s Auto-fill my return (AFR) service you can automatically fill-in certain sections of your tax return like your information slips, tuition carryforward amounts on Schedule 11, RRSP contribution limit on Schedule 7, and more.

To use this feature, you must be registered for the CRA’s My Account service. Be sure to have your SIN and your My Account user ID and password handy when you start your return in H&R Block’s tax software - you’ll need these to download your information slips and other tax-related information. Click here to find out what information is available for download through AFR.

Important: If this is your first year filing a tax return, you won’t be able to use AFR; that’s because you must first file a return with the CRA before you can register for My Account.

Note: If you use the AFR feature and discover that the CRA has nothing on file for you, it could be that you’re trying to download your information before the CRA has had a chance to collect it. It’s also possible you simply don’t have any slips or other information available for download. By waiting until the middle of March to download your slips, there’s a greater chance that all of your information will be available.

Need help using the AFR feature? Check out our Using AFR Quick Start Guide!

Yes! Only you or a designated representative can access your personal tax information using the AFR service. Before you import your information into your return, you must first sign into your CRA My Account (which is itself protected by a number of security protocols). Once you’ve signed in, the import process will begin downloading your tax information directly into your return via a secured, encrypted connection.

Like the CRA, Revenu Québec offers a similar service called Téléchargement des données fiscales (TDF) that allows residents of Québec to securely download their RL slips. If you’d like to use Revenu Québec’s TDF service, you’ll need to enter your most recent Notice of Assessment (NOA) number and ensure the following information was entered correctly on the GET STARTED tab of H&R Block’s tax software:

• Social Insurance Number (SIN) and
• Date of birth

*Refer to your most recent Notice of Assessment. Your NOA number can be found in the top right corner of page 1:

Note: If you use the TDF service and discover Revenu Québec has nothing on file for you, it could be that you’re trying to download your information before Revenu Québec has had a chance to collect it. It’s also possible you simply don’t have any slips or other information available for download. By waiting until the middle of March to download your slips, there’s a greater chance that all of your information will be available.

Need help using the TDF feature? Check out our Using TDF Quick Start Guide!

Once you’ve downloaded all of your slips and tax-related information from the appropriate agency, the next step is to enter any tax slips you received that weren’t available through the AFR or TDF services.

To make this step easier, H&R Block’s Quick Slip Entry feature lets you quickly search the tax software for the pages and forms you need to complete. Items that you can search for include:

• Your federal slips (T4, T4A, T2202, etc.)
• Your Québec relevé slips (RL-1, RL-8, RL-24, etc.)
• Your RRSP contributions
• Your unused amounts (like tuition fees)
  
  

Once you’ve finished entering your slips, click the Continue button and head over to the PREPARE section of the tax software. There, you’ll be able to choose the different tax-related situations that apply to you and claim credits, deductions, and enter any receipt information you might have.

You might have downloaded the same slip more than once:

• By accident or
• If the issuer made an error on the original slip and had to re-issue it

In either case, you’ll need to delete the duplicate or incorrect version of the slip. You can do this by clicking the Delete button next to the slip you’d like to remove from your return on the QUICK SLIP page.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) keeps a track of certain amounts and information from year to year for you. Some of this information might download into your return when you use Auto-fill my return (AFR) even if the slip or information field is blank. Here are some scenarios when this might happen:

• Blank RRSP receipt – If you opened a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) account with your bank or financial institution but didn’t make any RRSP contributions, your bank might issue a blank slip to you and the CRA confirming nothing was contributed to this plan.
  
  
• Zero unused RRSP contributions - The CRA tracks your RRSP deduction limit and unused RRSP contributions for each year (if you earn income, have a social insurance number, and have filed a tax return) even if you have never contributed to an RRSP account. If you downloaded a zero amount for your unused RRSP contributions, this is a confirmation that you don’t have any unused RRSP contributions from previous years.
• Capital gains or losses history – If you had investment income in a previous year, you might see your capital gains or losses history in your downloaded information even if you don’t need to claim the capital gains deduction this year. This is because the CRA keeps track of your capital gains and loss from year to year. If you see an amount for a capital loss in your capital gains or losses history, depending on the source of this amount, you can apply the loss to offset capital gains in a future year or to a return for the previous 3 years.
  
  
• Foreign property declared in 2018 – You will download the Owned or held specified foreign property with a cost of more than $100,000 CAD field which will be either a Yes or No depending on what you declared last year. If you declared foreign property with a cost of over $100,000 last year, and the situation still applies to you, you will need to complete the T1135 form again this year.

Note: Remember to double-check the information you downloaded using the CRA’s AFR service to make sure it is accurate. The CRA might not have all your slips and/or tax information on file.

If you’ve decided to let someone prepare and submit your tax return for you, you’ll need to authorize them to be your representative for income tax matters. You can do this in several ways.

• You can designate a representative by signing in to the CRA’s My Account service. Once authorized, your representative will have instant access to your information and online services so that they can easily manage your account.
• Complete and sign the Authorizing a Representative form that your H&R Block Tax Expert provides you.
• Complete and mail-in form T1013: Authorizing or Cancelling a Representative to your local tax centre, to authorize a representative for access by mail or phone.

Remember, you have the right to view, change, or cancel your representative’s authorization at any time.