Fall Federal Budget: Will Spending Be Cut?

Canada has historically presented an annual budget since Confederation in 1867, even through periods like World Wars and the Great Depression, but we have recently experienced the longest period without a full federal budget in our history. By the time the next one is brought down, expected in October 2025, it will have been 18 months since the controversial April 2024 budget which introduced the doomed capital gains inclusion rate hikes. What can we expect?

Budget 2013 included an announcement that the government would be looking into measures to improve the integrity of Canada’s tax system relating to testamentary trusts.

Bill C-60 proposes to implement certain provisions of the March 21, 2013 federal budget; among these, proposed legislative amendments that pertain to the audit process in the Income Tax Act, and provisions in the Tax Court of Canada Rules. Discussed below in the last of a four-part series are changes to the Expert Witness rules.

Last week we launched our five-part Disability Awareness series discussing tax relief for those who have become disabled and their caregivers. In this second part, we talk about income supports that are available. These articles are excerpted from Jacks on Tax, by Evelyn Jacks.

According to Statistics Canada there were 2.3 million businesses in Canada as of June 2009, with 57% of all business establishments located in Ontario and Quebec. 

Since 1988, 1,125 files have been referred to the GAAR Committee, according to recent statistics from CRA; CRA presented this and other statistics as it went through the GAAR process at the CRA & Professionals Breakfast Seminar in Toronto on June 6. 

South of the border, our American friends have proposed new legislation aimed at imposing sales tax on customers shopping at large online retail websites.