T1 General Software for All Canadian Residents
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Taxman 2025
Version 3.0 is Ready!
Version 3.0 has a revised T777, Statement of Employment Expenses (released by CRA on Feb 25). The CCA chart on T777 was changed and data fields had to be added to 25tables.mdb. This means, if you want to use T777 and you're installing over top of an earlier version, you have to replace the 25tables.mdb you already have. If you are not going to use T777 then you don't have to replace 25tables.mdb. See below at Bugs and Versions for how to replace 25tables.mdb.
Version 3.0 also changed a label on the BC Credits form. This is not a significant revision that forces you to upgrade to Version 3.0. Yet if you want to upgrade, remember that if you are not using T777, then you don't have to change 25tables.mdb. See below at Bugs and Versions for more details.
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In the fall CRA makes work for it's employees by harassing taxpayers with audits. They mail out letters demanding to see our receipts within 30 days. Usually a couple of my clients get hit each year, but last year nothing. I believe that's because CRA was twarted by the postal strike. Deadlines don't work if we don't have stable mail delivery. So we owe a big thank you to the striking postal workers for getting CRA off our backs.
No audits doesn't mean CRA employees have nothing to do. According to the Auditor General there's plenty of work to be done.
As the postal workers were showing that they (along with snail mail) does matter, the AG was saying that the same may not be true of CRA empoloyees. The AG audited CRA and released a report in October that found it took way to long to get to talk to a CRA agent, and when you do get to ask a general question about individual income taxes that agent is only likely to be right 17% on the time. Colour me surprised.
The CBC morning radio discussed the topic, but they focused mainly on the long wait-times at CRA call centres. They made it sound that the solution was to hire more staff, that money can solve the problem. But I think there's much more to it than that, and I had a great example which I think proves my case. Killing two birds with one stone, I wrote down my tale and emailed it to the CBC, along with filing a complaint with CRA. Now I'm killing a third bird by making it my essay for this year. See if I'm right, and learn what not to do when mailing something to CRA. Read my essay for this year ...
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Before mailing in that tax return, just to be safe, come back and download the latest upgrade.
You are likely to be warned that Taxman could be dangerous. Your browser or security software will see Taxman as an unknown executable program and it will hide Taxman away so you can't run it. Here we have AI overruling a human because biological creatures don't know what they're doing, can't be trusted, and may hurt themselves. Maybe you've seen this movie before?
So you have to either ignore the warning if you can, or tell the blocking program that Taxman is safe (you may have to hit the "more info" link to find out how), or temporarily turn down your level of security. Show your computer who's the boss!
If you already have the full Taxman program installed on your computer (if not, go back to any past year and download the full program), then you only need:
 Taxman2025 Upgrade Version 3.0 (25upgd30.exe, 2.3 MB)
Revised Mar 5, 2026, see Bugs and Versions for more.
Click the link below and go to pCloud where there is one file listed. Click the little download symbol up at the top-right and the job's done. If a pop-up appears asking you to register just click the 'X' at the top-right of the pop-up (or register if you want to).
Download Upgrade Version 3.0
from pCloud!
Or, clicking the link below takes you to Google Drive where you have to press the 'Download' button. You then go to a page telling you the file can't be scanned for viruses — press 'Download anyway'. Then a pop-up appears and you hit 'Save File'.
Download Upgrade Version 3.0
from Google Drive!
After downloading, just double-click 25upgd20.exe to install. A shortcut to run the program will appear on your Start Menu, your Desktop and in the folder where the program was installed. Your data files are 25tables.mdb and taxbiz.mdb — back'em up! During an install your data files, if they already exist, are never replaced, but an uninstall will delete them forevermore.
If this is this year's first install and you used Taxman in the past, go to 'Tools\Data Transfer' on the menu and press 'Get Basics from past year' to update 25tables.mdb with the unlikely to change stuff in 24tables.mdb. After Get Basics runs you'll be asked if you want to update taxbiz.mdb, say No because the structure of taxbiz.mdb is unchanged so the best bet is to hide the new taxbiz.mdb and then point the program to the old taxbiz.mdb (look up 'Data Transfer' in the Help index for more).
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Otherwise you must get the full program, the El Gordo version:
Taxman2025 Full Version 3.0 (25full30.exe, 7.6 MB)
Revised Mar 5, 2026, see Bugs and Versions for more.
Click the link below and go to pCloud where there is one file listed. Click the link below and go to pCloud where there is one file listed. Click the little download symbol up at the top-right and the job's done. If a pop-up appears asking you to register just click the 'X' at the top-right of the pop-up (or register if you want to).
Download Full Version 3.0
from pCloud!
Or, clicking the link below takes you to Google Drive where you have to press the 'Download' button. You then go to a page telling you the file can't be scanned for viruses — press 'Download anyway'. Then a pop-up appears and you hit 'Save File'.
Download Full Version 3.0
from Google Drive!
After downloading, double-click 25full20.exe to install. The first time you install Taxman, if asked, do not replace any newer files that you already have on your computer. Only replace files if Taxman fails to work. Save the file 25full20.exe, it may not always be on the internet. A shortcut to run the program will appear on your Start Menu, your Desktop and in the folder where the program was installed. Your data files are 25tables.mdb and taxbiz.mdb — back'em up! During an install your data files, if they already exist, are never replaced, but an uninstall will delete them forevermore.
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 New for 2025
AB has joined ON, BC and NU asking for your consent to be emailed by the organ donor registry.
SK back in 2022 had a Schedule 12, the home renovation credit, and now it's back again.
Otherwise there are no significant tax changes for 2025, except that the lowest tax rate dropped from 15% to 14.5%. This also means your non-refundable credits are worth half a percent less. There's a top-up credit to give you back that lost half a percent, but it only kicks in when your credits exceed $57,375 and that never happens. The program automatically calculates the top-up credit.
Amazingly, though the CPP rates stayed the same, how the CPP was calculated changed. This leads me to believe that we were doing it all wrong before. The CPP form RC381, for people who work in and out of Quebec, was released in mid-December. On January 7 it was revised in a major way. New lines were added and many other lines now became based on the new lines. That means that at the last minute CRA was still fumbling with the fundamentals. I can see them grabbing for the phone: "Ottawa, we have a problem." It would have made for a panic over Christmas and New Year's. Hopefully, they got it right now. But I can't say for certain because the form has 21 pages and is totally convoluted. It was a panic for me just to turn the form's revisions into code.
CRA is no longer automatically mailing out forms to paper-filing people. You need to read the guides and forms because my program doesn't have all the detailed instructions that they have. CRA says they "will continue to support you if you choose to file on paper" — which is mighty magnanimous of them, because deep down inside they want to get rid of us paper filers. What they should be doing is putting out their own free online tax program and that would put me out of my misery.
You can get forms and an envelope by using CRA's automatic phone line, 1-855-330-3305, or, more easily, by going online to canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/before-you-begin.html. To get the guide (5000-g-25e.pdf) or any missing schedules go to canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms.html.
 Bugs and Version History
- In Version 1.0, the controls weren't working like mini-calculators and I had no idea why. I couldn't find anything wrong and I figured I was toast. I finally realized my only hope was to empty a bug-free 2024 program and then filled it with everything from the corrupt 2025 program. Hopefully along the way the bugaboo would reveal itself. And, by the grace of God, that miracle happened. In the corrupt database the federal tuition control was adding up a field that was deleted and it was not showing an error. That was somehow screwing up how all the other controls were handling errors. If you type in "1+1" that will generate an error and there's code that stops the error and does the math. That's how the mini-calculator works, and in the corrupt database that wasn't happening.
Version 2.0 squashes the above mentioned bug, and Albertans are now warned if they haven't filled in the consent to be emailed by the organ donor registry. There are no other significant changes, but Version 1.0 is corrupt so you have to replace it.
- Version 3.0 revises the CCA chart on the Statement of Employment Expenses (T777) to handle RIIP assets. Data fields were added to 25tables.mdb, your main data file. This means, if you want to use T777 and you're installing over top of an earlier version, you have to replace the 25tables.mdb you already have. But if you already have 25tables.mdb on your computer the installation program won't install a new 25tables.mdb. You have to first hide your 25tables.mdb so the install program will install a new 25tables.mdb.
The way to hide 25tables.mdb is to find it with Windows File Explorer (usually the path is similar to C:\Program Files(x86)\Taxman\Taxman2025) and rename it. (You can also save a copy on a USB drive, just to be safe.) Then install Version 3.0 and you will receive a new empty 25tables.mdb. When you first open your new Version 3.0, on the menu use 'Tools\Data Transfer\Get All' to copy in all the data already in the old renamed 25tables.mdb. Then you're back in the game.
The only other thing that Version 3.0 changes is a label on the BC Credits form. The form was calculating the numbers correctly, but a label in the renter's section had the 2024 limit and Version 3.0 has the 2025 limit. This is not a significant revision that forces you to upgrade to Version 3.0 — because we're just adjusting a label at a line that isn't even a data-entry point. Yet if you want the revised label, get Version 3.0 and remember that if you are not using T777, then you don't have to change 25tables.mdb.
Liam, a 5-year-old wearing a toque with long white rabbit ears and carrying his Spider-Man backpack, was snatched on his way home from school and tossed in a Texas concentration camp. The poor little creature must have constantly been on the verge of tears. He has lost all his toys, and his mother, and he doesn't want to be stuck in that cage.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country was treated with a 1h 44m documentary about the struggles of a trophy wife. The rich and powerful blow $75M on a vanity film, oblivious of how the rest of us are getting by. There's no one in charge here. We have no morals guiding us.
Fred Biery, the judge who let Liam go home, eloquently points out: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency." Mighty highfalutin words considering we're dealing with a little kid whose mother dresses him up with long white rabbit ears.
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