Time’s Up: CRA’s 100 Day Mandate for Improvement

After years of frustration on the part of tax professionals and taxpayers alike, the Finance Minister ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to clean up its act in 100 days. Specifically, the improvement plan was to run from September 2 through December 11. Finance Minister and Minister of National Revenue, Francoise-Phillippe Champagne instructed CRA to fix “unacceptable wait times and service delays.” Time’s up this week and CRA has released an update on progress. What gets measured, gets done. Let’s see what CRA’s metrics show. 

The latest tax season filing statistics from CRA show that tax refunds have risen even higher now that more Canadians have filed. Out of the 27.1 million filed, 15,345, 235 refunds were issued, averaging $1,994. That’s a lot of taxpayer money being held onto by the CRA, and an important opportunity for tax professionals to focus on tax-efficiency to reduce these withholdings now!  Further, only 7% of returns are now being filed on paper.  Here are more interesting tax facts:

The 2022 Federal Budget announced that, beginning in 2022, eligible workers will be able to deduct up to $4,000 per year for eligible expenses.  This provision is part of the April 7, 2022 Federal Budget Bill C-19, tabled on April 28.   Are you speaking to your clients about saving their receipts now?  Here are details you need to share:

Finally – it’s live and in person – Canada’s Top Edutainment Event!  Virtual DAC has been fun, but we’re so excited to be seeing you again October 16-18 in Niagara Falls for this year’s DAC Acuity Conference! Past attendees know that DAC is an edutainment experience like no other, so we’re kicking it off early.  Join us for the weekend for wine tasting tours, golf and world class dining amongst other great events before the conference starts.  Sign up now for best registration, flight and hotel rates and then experience one of the Seven Wonders of the World -  all of Niagara’s hidden gems together with new networking opportunities with your peers.  Here’s how:

You don’t want to miss the Ottawa Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail, Mr. Robert Fife at the DAC Conference October 16-18 in Niagara Falls. Robert will be speaking to the topic: “Help Wanted – Transformative Leadership for Canada”. Enrol by May 31 for early-bird tuition savings, to experience the thought leadership of Robert Fife and more  - live and in person!

Did you miss the May 18 Virtual CE Summit? You can still sign up for the Advanced Retirement & Estate Planning Update Course and access the live speaker recordings from the event plus save $200 until May 31.  Plus, don’t miss our next CE Summits this fall. Get the best pricing of the year: tuition pricing as low as $295 per event when you enrol to attend 4 events!  Get low rates on Team Member enrollments too! 

Inflation, interest rates and bankruptcies are all going up. Wealth taxes on the horizon, are too. Savvy tax and financial advisors will want to understand these trends and be sure to discuss them now with their most financially vulnerable clients, and that includes high net worth clients.  It’s one of the most important insights attendees at this week’s Advanced Retirement and Estate Planning course learned at the CE Summits.  We share some of those insights with you now.