Finance Canada: No More Spring Budgets

Finance Canada announced on October 7 that Canada’s federal budgets will be brought down in the fall starting with the November 4, 2025 event; a significant departure from the spring schedule (February, March or April) that has been the cycle for several decades. This is going to affect many other events as we know them, and in the annual government spending approval cycle. There will also be a new budget process for capital vs. operational expenses. Here’s what you need to know:

Do you want to learn a whole new way of thinking about your business so you can be at least 100 times more excited about your future? Bill Bishop, CEO of Bishop Communication Inc. and publisher of Disrupter Magazine, will explain how in his must-hear session at the Distinguished Advisor Conference 2016.  Final registrations are open now to September 30.

Whatever you want in life, other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it. Diane Sawyer

The refundable tax credits replacing the Family Tax Cut, Universal Child Care Benefit arrive this week.  What to expect?  Tax and financial advisors could be very busy tending to questions about the whether the size of the cheques is right, and filing 2015 tax returns for delinquent filers.

Leaked documents from CRA have been reported in China, indicating that 50 tax auditors and 35 additional staff have been deployed to crackdown on real estate tax cheats in Vancouver.  CRA confirmed to the CBC that indeed 339 audits have reaped $14 million in tax recoveries in 2015/2016.   Here’s how to stay out of trouble.

A just-released synopsis of the FINRA National Financial Capabilities survey of close to 30,000 Americans from June to October 2015 showed a stunning lack of financial understanding there; at a time when wealth and income inequality is at an extreme not seen since World War II. But Canadians did not do much better.

It’s been a month of turmoil in France, Turkey, the US and even Brazil.  In such times people consider alternative investments, such as gold (traditionally) and bitcoins (non-traditionally), as safe havens.