Guest blog by Jacqueline Kovacs If you've been scrambling to get your 2014 income taxes ready and submitted to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) by April 30, 2015, you can relax -- a little. On Friday, the CRA mistakenly sent to tax preparers an incorrect notice announcing Canadians had till May 5 to file their personal income taxes, explains Gabe Hayos, vice-president, tax, at the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) in Toronto, ON. "Thinking they had more time, tax preparers gave staff time off and adjusted schedules accordingly," says Hayos. Meanwhile, the CRA discovered the error. But rather than issue a correction and enforce the traditional end-of-April deadline, Hayos says the agency stood by the mistaken announcement. "You’ve got to give the CRA credit for that policy of standing by what they say," says Hayos, who points out that last year, the Heartbleed software bug caused a similar delay and extension. The bottom line? Both the time-pressed and the tax-form-fearing have five more days to get the professional help they need to get this annual task done. "Get it done as soon as possible," says Hayos. "Each day people wait delays their own tax return." Happy filing! More tax info

• Not sure how to start? Here's the CRA's page on getting ready to file your tax return.
• June 15 is the deadline for self-employed workers and their spouses or common-law partners
• If you're already late for prior years' deadlines (no shame, no blame!) you can access past years' tax packages online here.

  Photo courtesy of www.efile.com