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?

Knowledge Bureau has released its marginal tax rate calculations for 2013 now that all federal and provincial budgets have been released.

CRA’s push to get Canadians to file their tax returns electronically has been extremely successful this year, driving a million more tax filers to use EFILING services with a professional and a million more to use NETFILING. 

On May 1, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that two corporations and the director of one plead guilty to tax evasion charges in the Provincial Court of Manitoba. The fines totaled a hefty $731,986.

Comedian Ray Romano once said, "Having children is a lot like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.”  But aside from being highly amusing calamities at times, families are also powerful economic unions which are subject to fairly complicated tax rules.

Recently, the federal and several provincial governments have announced their intention of introducing Social Impact Bonds.

On May 9, the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of National Revenue, released a statement that the US, Australia, and the UK announced they are in possession of tax-related information involving numerous trusts and companies holding assets on behalf of residents in jurisdictions around the world.