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. 

Year-end is charitable giving time, but remembering to verify the tax status of any organization that you intend to donate a considerable sum to is very important as not all benevolent oriented organizations will allow a tax credit under the Income Tax Act. Last month, a hopeless appeal was lost in the Tax Court of Canada, for example.  

If a surviving spouse or common-law partner is designated as a successor holder of the TFSA either in the TFSA contract or in the deceased taxpayer’s will, the successor becomes the owner of the TFSA.

With the Senate scandal dominating the news, the issue of what is a principal residence for tax purposes seems an appropriate question.

Where a taxpayer has disposed of a capital property and a portion of the proceeds is receivable after the end of the taxation year, the taxpayer may claim a reasonable capital gain reserve for the funds not yet received.

For the experienced professional, get started on the Fast-Track toward designation by enrolling in November’s Corporate Tax Bootcamp.

Knowledge Bureau is pleased to welcome Founder and CEO of Trilogy Software, Cameron Peters, as our special guest on our November Corporate Tax Bootcamp tour.