Help & Contact: 1 866 953 4769
Financial Issues & Answers for Everyone
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.
August 2025 Poll
A public consultation on whether the CDIC’s deposit insurance limit should be raised to $150,000 per deposit category is underway. Do you agree?
Become a Bookkeeper of Tomorrow, Today
Now is the right time to consider a career in professional bookkeeping, as small business owners in Canada need your help to navigate the repercussions of the pandemic and its fallout. Meet the high demand for qualified practitioners to take the burden of bookkeeping and CRA remittances off their shoulders. Become a credentialled bookkeeping services specialist.
Tax Quagmire: Tough to Comply with a Moving Target
The federal government has changed its mind: at least some of the self-employed people who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) based on erroneous instructions from CRA no longer have to repay the benefits. But the heavy audit response following the pandemic emergency provisions has resulted in a tax quagmire for many. Tax specialists can help.
CRA Announces Tax Debt Relief
Kudos to the CRA. They may just have heard your feedback on our January poll where the vast majority of advisors suggested that the CRA should cut people some slack. Yesterday they did, with the announcement that interest relief would be available for taxpayers who made under $75,000 and received pandemic support benefits in 2020. There is more good news, too, for refundable tax credit recipients.
Home Workspace “Simplification” Costs: $260 Million
It appears that $2 a day adds up to millions of dollars in tax costs for the government. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released the costs of the new simplified home workspace expenses on February 4, now estimated at $260 million. The costing provides some interesting insight on expense filing by employees.
Tip Sheet: New Criteria for Employees Claiming Home Office Expenses
The CRA has introduced several new rules for filing employment expenses in 2020 which in reality, have complicated rather than simplified, employment deduction claims. Four employment filing profiles have emerged, as well as a new little-known calculation for home office space common area use. Details and a tip sheet follow.
