When CRA officially opened the electronic floodgates on tax filing season on February 23 this year, it was with a number of pieces of news. Did you know, for example, that the GST/HST Credit has now been officially renamed the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB)? You get it by filing a tax return and interacting with CRA’s new digital services, which unfortunately still refer to the old name – the GST/HST Credit. It’s just one of those “game changers” that make Real Tax News with Evelyn Jacks and Friends, starting this week for its second season, so valuable to Canadians.
The financial industry is truly at a crossroads of change. We feel pressure from disrupting forces like fintech and advisor-bots. Our clients need us more than ever, but they have concerns about our professionalism following the financial crisis of 2008. And we put pressure on ourselves to stay competitive and knowledgeable. But these are the kinds of challenges that we as entrepreneurs live for. They’re what make us survivors.
We hope that you’ve been enjoying the summer while you’ve been working away on your next designation, diploma or certificate. It’s our turn now to take a short break and get out into the sun!
Now that the rush of tax season is over, how did your clients do? Were they faced with a big tax bill or did they receive a refund? Perhaps they feel as if they’ve had a less than stellar fiscal year, but they shouldn’t feel discouraged. As you know, mid-year is a great time to review financial goals and to make necessary changes now to ensure a better outcome next year.
This year’s Distinguished Advisor Conference marks the fourteenth year of DAC. It’s become a great tradition in the world of financial education, and there has never been a better time than now to attend. At this year’s conference in Kelowna, B.C., our speakers will be presenting information and solutions that are relevant to today’s issues.
Here’s a true-to-life case study: Let’s suppose that you, as a bookkeeping services professional, have a client named George, who is the owner-manager of a family-run restaurant. Working with George is his wife, brother, sister-in-law, a couple cousins and his teenaged daughter. While the business is going well, his marriage isn’t.
Imagine you have a client who is five or six years away from retirement, manages a small yet successful consulting firm with ten employees, and is married with two grown-up kids. He’s thought about retirement and the idea of finding a successor for his business, but overall, he’s been pretty non-committal.