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. 

Set up a proper double entry bookkeeping system for a small business, analyze and report transactions within the accounting cycle to the business owner, and prepare financial statements ready for tax preparation and review by the accountant. Enrol in Basic Bookkeeping for Small Businesses by December 11 and save $200 on tax deductible tuition fees.

Cash flow and income are two different things; but it may be all the same to your clients — how much do I have to spend each month? Help your clients understand their after-tax cash flow with our Cash Flow Calculator — Try a free demo today!

December is just around the corner and it’s high time to finalize the estimation of 2013 taxes payable income in order to determine the correct amount of the final tax instalments (December 15 for all taxpayers except farmers, who must submit one instalment on December 31).

The Supporting Small Businesses Act recently passed a second reading in the Ontario Legislature. Also known as Bill 105, the object of the legislation is to provide relief from the Employer Health Tax to small businesses, charities and not-for-profit entities.

On October 31, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced changes to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) claim form, which incorporates changes announced in the 2012 and 2013 budgets.

With all the political shenanigans of late (both federal and local), the respect – or lack thereof – of the taxpayers’ dollars emerges on front page news daily. If this is particularly irksome to you, you might be interested in a little history of taxation in Canada.