A thorough analysis of today’s financial news—delivered weekly to your inbox or via social media. As part of Knowledge Bureau’s interactive network, the Report covers current issues on the tax and financial services landscape and provides a wide range of professional benefits, including access to peer-to-peer blogs, opinion polls, online lessons, and vital industry information from Canada’s only multi-disciplinary financial educator.
"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
This week the government released the T4A form for 2020. This is the first indication of how the various government assistance programs for 2020 will be reported on the tax return.
It’s a controversial subject that’s clearly lead to some divided results on our October poll. We asked: “Are government plans to introduce automatic free tax filing for the 12% of adults who don’t file tax returns to get benefits a good idea?” The results are in with 42% saying “yes” and 58% who shared some insightful thoughts and strong opinions with their “no’s”.
Back on July 17, the government announced that it would provide a one-time tax-free payment of $600 to more Canadians with disabilities. These individuals will finally see payment of that amount beginning this week. But there are more opportunities that qualified tax practitioners can help with before year end.
Knowledge Bureau’s Income Tax Estimator, a sophisticated software tool used in teaching our certificate personal tax filing and planning courses, incorporates the most recent changes to tax brackets and known provisions including the calculation of the Canada Recovery Benefits. We have now calculated the 2021 tax brackets based on CPI figures released last week to enable students and Knowledge Bureau Calculator subscribers to prepare projections for 2021 taxes payable as part of year-end tax planning activities.