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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.
July 2025 Poll
Do you believe Canada’s tax system based, on self-assessment, has suffered under recent changes at CRA and by Finance Canada? If so, what is the one wish you have for tax reform?
Knowledge Bureau and Advocis Partner to Offer MFA-P™ Designation to Members
September 3, 2020. Knowledge Bureau, a pre-eminent national financial education institute and Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, are pleased to announce their collaboration in offering specialized financial education to Advocis Members. The first program to be offered, effective September 3, 2020 is the MFA-P™ Designation.
Special Report: The End of the CERB
Canada is transitioning away from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and towards two new pillars of support to ease the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Pillar 1 includes three pared-down “recovery” benefits and Pillar 2 focuses on a new “Simplified” Employment Insurance regime. The CERB has been extended by another four weeks but will end on September 26.
CERB to EI: The Stakes are High
The final CERB payment period will end on August 29, leaving millions of people at risk of receiving nothing more and wondering what will happen next. Now that Parliament has been prorogued to September 23, a very uncertain fall lies ahead of many of them. However, government sources confirm that more information is forth coming before the end of this month on on how the CERB program will transition to EI. Tax, bookkeeping and financial advisors can identify clients at financial risk to have more proactive discussions about their options, especially as tax bills come due on September 30 for the 2019 tax year. But how do you do so?
Applications Open for CEWS Period 5
Despite a hack at CRA, which shut down its site for applicants of various pandemic relief programs, Period 5 Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) applications can now be accessed. This newly extended program also marks the beginning of new eligibility requirements. There is now a sliding revenue test, eliminating the requirement for a minimum 30% drop. In addition, a special top-up subsidy is available to some employers. Following are details to consider:
Mini Tax Filing Rush Coming: 1.8 Million T1s Still Outstanding
Close to 2 million people still need to file their tax returns for 2019 before September 30 to avoid late filing penalties if they owe. That means there is still an “end of tax season” rush coming for busy tax professionals. CRA released tax filing and processing statistics on August 10 which also show the numbers for average refunds and balances due for the 2019 tax year. That the average refund for 2019 was $1840 and the average balance due is $6,070.
