You can do this! Gather your slips and receipts, enter your information, then review and file your return. Better Tax does the calculations as you go.

1. Gather your documents

If you don't know what you need, the list below is a good place to start. If you have a CRA account, many of these will be imported through Auto-fill My Return.

• Personal information: your social insurance number (SIN), date of birth, current address, and information about your spouse or common-law partner and children, if applicable.
• Tax slips: for example, T4 slips from employers, T4A slips for other income, T4E slips for employment insurance, pension slips, and T3 or T5 investment slips. Check your employer, bank, and school accounts for documents delivered online.
• Receipts and other documents: RRSP contribution receipts, FHSA slips, tuition slips, childcare receipts, donation receipts, medical expenses, and records of rent or property tax you paid.
• Income without a slip: records of tips, freelance work, rental income, and related expenses, plus investment purchase and sale records if you sold investments.
• Last year's information: your most recent notice of assessment or reassessment, and last year's return if you have it. These help with amounts carried forward, such as unused tuition. If this is your first return, you won't have these.

The CRA's guide to preparing to do your taxes explains the documents and where to find them.

2. Start a return for the correct year

Open Better Tax for the year shown on your income slips. Your 2025 return reports income for 2025, even though you normally file it the following year. If you're catching up on several years, work from oldest to newest so you have each year's information ready for the next return.

3. Use Auto-fill My Return if you can

If you have access to your CRA account, use Auto-fill My Return to import your slips and carryforward amounts. Follow the prompts to sign in to the CRA and import your information.

No CRA account? You can skip Auto-fill My Return and enter your information yourself. You don't need a CRA account just to prepare your return or submit it through NETFILE.

Auto-fill My Return does not include your medical expenses, donation receipts, childcare receipts, and other similar expenses. You'll need to add those yourself.

4. Tell us about yourself and your family

Next you'll get to the Prepare section. Answer these questions in order. Check your name, SIN, date of birth, address, marital status, and province or territory of residence to ensure there are no typos! It's important to go through this section slowly and answer the questions accurately—especially if you've had any changes (marital status, residency, etc.).

Add your partner and children where the questions ask for them. If you have a spouse or common-law partner, you each file your own return. Better Tax lets you link your returns to prepare them together and we recommend doing it this way.

5. Add your income, receipts, and expenses

Work through Prepare and use the search box in the left sidebar to find anything you need to add. Search for the name on your document, like "T4", or what you want to report, like "childcare", "donations", or "rent". You don't need to know which tax form or line it belongs on.

For a slip you enter yourself, copy the amounts into the matching numbered boxes. Add each slip separately: if you had two employers, for example, add two T4 slips. Check both the income and the tax already deducted.

Include income that wasn't on a slip, too, such as tips or freelance income. For freelance or business income, search for T2125. For rental income, search for T776.

Next, work through your receipts. Some of these may have come in via Auto-fill My Return and others, like childcare, donations, medical expenses, home renovation expenses, etc. will need to be entered manually.

People love the refund/balance estimator, but do keep in mind this changes as you go. It can change until you have reviewed and optimized your return.

6. Review the whole return

• Errors and suggestions: fix any outstanding errors and review each warning and suggestion. Most of these are self-explanatory and will take you to the relevant section (if necessary).
• Optimizations: if there's anything on your return that can be optimized to get you a higher refund (or even to carry things you don't need to use forward to a future year), we'll implement these changes here. You can use Override to change the suggested amount.
• Summary and Documents: have a look at this section and do a sanity check on your income, deductions, and tax credits. Our checks can catch many problems, but they can't know about income or receipts you haven't entered. If something looks wrong, go fix it in the Prepare section. If everything looks good, save a copy of your PDF.

7. File and check for confirmation

When you're happy with your return, go to File and follow the prompts to submit it to the CRA through NETFILE. Preparing your return, using Auto-fill My Return, or saving a PDF does not file it for you.

When you see a confirmation code, it means the CRA received your return. If you get an error instead, read the message, make the correction, and try again. If you're preparing linked returns, submit each person's return separately.

8. Save your records and take care of any payment

You don't send your slips and receipts with a NETFILE return, but keep them in case the CRA asks for them. The CRA generally requires you to keep tax records for at least six years.

If you owe money, arrange payment to the CRA by the payment deadline. If you can't pay it all, still file on time and contact the CRA about a payment arrangement. The CRA has more detail here.