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. 

Investors need to quickly sharpen their tax and financial skills to meet more challenging times ahead, and a good way to start is to find the right advisor says Knowledge Bureau Founder and President Evelyn Jacks, best-selling tax financial author and award-winning educator.  That’s someone who is prepared to work with you holistically and with a multi-stakeholder approach to building sustainable family wealth – after taxes, inflation and fees. 

The World Economic Forum, which wraps up this week, signaled more gloomy economic news for 2023, more interest rate hikes to come, and a mild recession.  For worried investors, retirees and employees, particularly in the tech industry, shoring up new learning opportunities is a good idea.  Knowledge Bureau can help with a new series of Specialized Credentials and micro-courses that begins with a solid understanding of a key wealth eroder: TAX.

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Cryptocurrency can't stay out of the headlines - just last week (on their first joint statement on crypto) the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said they had concerns with the safety and soundness of bank business models that are highly concentrated in crypto. No government wants any 2022 problems sneaking up - a truly notorious year for cryptocurrency with the collapse of FTX.

Both the CPP and EI contributions – which are mandatory – have risen. This will reduce take-home pay for employees. However, for those who are self-employed and must pay both the employer’s and employee’s portion of the CPP, things are about to get much more expensive and that could start to crowd out critical TFSA and RRSP investments for their futures.  

The 31st Actuarial Report on the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)[1] was released to the Finance Minister on November 14 and tabled in Parliament on December 14, 2022, as required by law, every three years. It is an important and comprehensive overview of Canada’s vital economic statistics from which to project the sustainability of the CPP.  What’s interesting about this report is how the uncertainties ahead may affect our rate structure and what a wealth of economic news it brings.