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.

On April 12, 2013, Andrew Treusch, the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) wrote a letter to Mr. Hubert Lacroix, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), in regards to the international tax non-compliance information leaks that the KBR described last week.

On April 10, 2013, the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, announced that new measures were being implemented to protect banking customers in Canada and the new rules will come into force soon: on September 2, 2013.

In Canada, we have a tax system based on self-assessment and voluntary compliance. It works extremely well, considering how complex the topic is, with the overwhelming majority of individuals and corporations meeting their obligations on time.

The March 21, 2013 Budget is proposing major changes to the taxation of trusts in Canada, which will have significant family succession planning implications. Here in the first of two articles, Greer Jacks reviews existing rules, which every tax and financial professional may wish to be aware of before the rules are changed in order to participate in fruitful consultations on the matter.

Riding the bus or subway? Remind all family members to keep receipts because you may be able to make a claim on your tax return for the costs. 

As a result of reverting from the HST back to the GST and PST system in BC, the provincial HST Credit has been abolished.