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. 

A reassessment following an audit from the CRA is deemed valid and binding subject to being proved incorrect by the taxpayer on a balance of probabilities (above 50%). In order to prove that the reassessment is inaccurate, the taxpayer may have to disclose confidential or otherwise privileged corporate documentation at trial. However, these documents can be accessed by corporate competitors by searching the Court Registry at the Tax Court of Canada.

A financial plan matters, a lot.  Yet, close to 50% of Canadians don’t even have a budget. Further, only about 30% of Canadians knew what a financial plan is and how it could help them. That means there is a lot of potential for collaboration to get better financial results and achieve more financial goals.

As tax season picks up speed, there are some important dates and deadlines coming up to make note of and discuss with your clients.

Privacy of confidential financial data is an important issue to your clients and no wonder: Statistics Canada says that about 57% of Canadians online reported experiencing a security incident in 2018.  Do you know how to avoid privacy risks that may arise in your business?  A new online certificate course, Privacy Principles in Business addresses many of the security issues that concern business owners these days, and now you can earn 10 compliance credits from IIROC by completing this cutting-edge course.

There is an important deadline coming up for those who received a reprieve on their 2020 outstanding balances: interest will accrue on that balance starting May 1, 2022. Who does this deadline apply to?

Last summer, the government announced a new temporary supplement for families with children under the age of 6 entitled to the CCB: The Canada Child Benefit Young Child Supplement. Those who have not tapped into this program and had eligible children in 2021 still have until the end of 2023 to become eligible for the CCBYCS payments. That means that they must have applied for the Canada Child Benefit and filed their 2019 and 2020 return by that deadline.