CRA’s Callback Service for Tax Pros Pilot

Are you a tax professional with years of experience? Have you ever felt frustrated after calling the CRA, having spent hours on hold, wasting your client’s or employer’s time, only to speak to CRA agents who aren’t qualified to answer your questions? The Auditor General of Canada was equally displeased in a scathing report last fall on wait times and accuracy levels at the CRA. Now a new CRA callback service may come to the rescue this tax season. Here is my experience with the pilot project so far:

Whether you live in a conjugal relationship is an important tax issue, as it affects many provisions on the return. Failure to report your status properly can, in fact, lead to expensive penalties. So, if your relationship status changed in 2016, consider discussing the following checklist with your advisor. It’s a “baker’s dozen plus one,” chocked full of potential tax filing provisions for couples that can save you time and money, especially on a tax audit:

There are a number of omissions that can occur in the rush at the end of tax season. One of them is missing the reporting of income benefits received by families in 2016. It’s important to remember that for the first six months of 2016 the UCCB (Universal Child Care Benefits) were received and they are taxable. That’s a double whammy for many upper-middle-income families who also lost the family income-splitting provisions. There are now no child tax supports at all for them.

Filing a 2016 tax return for a deceased taxpayer? Then be aware that as of January 1, 2016, new rules apply to charitable donations made by will.

At a time when governments are more closely monitoring changes in global GDP growth, the effects of protectionism, currency fluctuations, tax changes and sluggish business investment on the long-term financial well-being of Canadians, wealth advisors need to better understand new strategies for making tax-efficient investment recommendations to the families they work with.

It’s high time for unincorporated business owners to get their books and taxes done for the May 1st deadline. You could, in fact, procrastinate until the final June 15 filing deadline, but interest will be charged on balances due after midnight, May 1. For that reason alone, don’t delay; get those books done now. Here are seven tips to make it easier:

Unincorporated small business returns are increasingly in demand as an aging demographic moves from full-time employment to self-employment as a way to leverage time and money.