News Room

The CRA TSlip Saga: An Update

This tax season has been particularly challenging for both taxpayers and tax professionals. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) provides tax information slips—such as T3, T4, T5, and their variations—through secure online portals: My Account and Represent a Client (RAC). This year, there were lots of problems with these portals, and now, it appears, CRA is not being quite transparent about when the slips were actually visible to clients and that doesn’t seem fair. Here’s an update on where we stand now.

Deal With Debt

Soaring debt loads are a problem for many Canadians and particularly troublesome for those who are about to retire. Knowledge Bureau’s Debt Reductions Solutions Calculator is a tool to help advisors assist their clients with making a plan to get out of debt. 

Time to Lock in Spousal Loans

Drawing up inter-spousal investment loans are a legitimate way for the higher-income spouse to transfer taxable investment income to their lower-income spouse to reduce the family tax bill. For several years now, the prescribed rate for spousal loans has been set at 1% but that may be changing shortly.

Government of Canada Sells General Motor Shares

On September 13, the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, confirmed reports that the Canada GEN Investment Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation, sold 30 million common stock General Motors (GM) shares to BofA Merill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets in an unregistered block trade. 

Students Pay More for Education

Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs paid 3.3% more on average in tuition fees for the 2013/2014 academic year this fall than they did a year earlier.

Evelyn Jacks:  Invest in Careers that Count

It’s expensive to get an education, so investing in careers that “count” both financially and for your lifestyle in the future is important.

Tax Court: Graduate Student Can be an Employee Under the EI Act

The Tax Court of Canada (TCC) recently considered whether a graduate student performing research at the University of British Columbia was an employee for the purposes of subsection 5(1) of the Employment Insurance Act.
 
 
 
Knowledge Bureau Poll Question

Are your clients owed money by CRA? As of March 31, 2025, the CRA holds about 10.2 million uncashed cheques totalling $1.7 billion. In your view, why is this happening?

  • Yes
    12 votes
    60%
  • No
    8 votes
    40%