January 17, 2013 - 11:10 AM
OTTAWA - The Canada Revenue Agency is pushing more people toward filing their tax returns online.
The agency has discontinued its free Telefile service that allowed people with basic returns to file by entering their tax information using the telephone.
The change is expected to affect about 300,000 people across the country and require fewer tax information packages to be mailed out.
The government says fewer people were using Telefile and almost two-thirds of Canadians now file their returns online using services such as Netfile.
Canada Revenue has also stopped mailing people who use Netfile an individual access code and wants people to use their social insurance number and birth date instead.
The agency says these changes will be safe, make filing tax returns easier and improve service.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013