Changes to Paper Filing Disempowering

Last tax season, only 7% of all Canadian tax filers filed on paper. The CRA is pushing for zero. It continues to steer the holdouts to digitized filing by adding lots of obstacles. Most recently, it is removing almost all the schedules from the tax return package it mails. This seems unfair to people who paper file because they can’t afford a computer and internet, distrust the security of online filing and those who are neither tax or computer literate. Here’s what they are up against:

"Despite the fact that Canada didn’t have a 'homegrown' financial crisis, economic recovery has been painful," said Timothy Lane, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada last month at Carleton University. That pain may remain with us for some time yet.

A Knowledge Bureau opinion poll on wealth and wealth inequality has touched a nerve.

Birth, marriage, death, separation or divorce, university entrance, sale of business, unemployment, illness, career change, self-employment, inheritances, even certain birthdays — all of these life events can have tax consequences.

Family business succession is the topic at the November Distinguished Advisor Workshop – and it’s an important one – as by the end of this decade it is estimated that over 350,000 business owners will be over the age of 55, and within ten years over half a million business owners will exit their businesses, according to a report in 2013 by CIBC World Markets.  

Very few people have any training to help them be the best Powers of Attorney of they can be. Now advisors and their clients can learn how in a half day session hosted by top lawyers in this field.

SURREY, BC. Knowledge Bureau, a national financial educator and Kwantlen Polytechnic University have partnered to offer essential business skills to new and graduate students in the lower mainland of BC this fall.