Time’s Up: CRA’s 100 Day Mandate for Improvement

After years of frustration on the part of tax professionals and taxpayers alike, the Finance Minister ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to clean up its act in 100 days. Specifically, the improvement plan was to run from September 2 through December 11. Finance Minister and Minister of National Revenue, Francoise-Phillippe Champagne instructed CRA to fix “unacceptable wait times and service delays.” Time’s up this week and CRA has released an update on progress. What gets measured, gets done. Let’s see what CRA’s metrics show. 

Paying taxes is a sign of good fortune in Canada. You may be surprised to know that about one third of Canadians do not pay taxes, but of the two thirds that do, an average of 84% of income was left after taxes.

In Coveley v. The Queen the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) had to decide whether certain allowable business investment losses (ABILs) claimed in the 2005 and 2006 taxation years by a couple who owned a business were correct. 

I was so glad to hear from Russ, in response to last week’s blog. He shared that he had read my book; realized he missed claiming moving expenses and then adjusted his prior filed returns. To his delight, he received a $6600 refund – found money!  Good for you Russ!

Andre Yong Tit Kow successfully achieved his DFA-Tax Services Specialist designation from Knowledge Bureau in 2013. We are pleased to have Andre as one of our distinguished grads.

No income? File a tax return anyway. You’ll need to do that to receive income supplements from the government, often paid monthly or quarterly, including federal tax credits like the Canada Child Tax Benefit, GST/HST credit or the Universal Child Care Benefit.

How do I calculate my ideal RRSP contribution?