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. 

As a financial advisor, a common query you might encounter is how clients can improve their financial position through charitable donations, particularly from sources like RRSPs/RRIFs or investments.  While there are tax-efficient strategies to encourage gifting from these sources, the suggestion that a donor can end up in a better financial position after making a gift is inherently flawed. Here’s why:

The federal budget will be tabled on April 16 this year.  As at the time of writing the following provinces had released or announced their provincial budget dates.  Stay tuned to Knowledge Bureau Report  for budget highlights and special reports on significant tax and economic news:

It’s important to keep up with breaking tax news and that includes provincial tax changes, to help clients make important lifecycle decisions like whether to start a job or business in another province.  Here’s what’s new from the budget in Quebec, brought down March 12, 2024. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to save on critical professional tax education launching this month – pre-publication specials end March 15! Register now and start anytime in the next two months.

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In this final month of the first quarter of 2024, significant new tax filing milestones arise, but with a twist, because both March 30 and 31 are on a weekend and April 1 is a Monday.  For these reasons it’s important for tax and financial specialists to step up the tax filing conversation on critical issues like any potential RRSP excess contributions and everything related to trusts!  Here are the significant dates to know for March and April: