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. 

Electronic filing is all the rage in Canada, as close to 750,000 more people chose to file their returns electronically in the 2016 tax filing season, for the 2015 T1 returns. One compelling reason: the average tax refund of $1678 hits your bank account sooner when professionals use EFILE or individuals use NETFILE. Close to 10 million people had those cheques electronically deposited.

In case you missed it, Finance Canada released draft legislation for consultation on July 29, the Friday of the August long weekend. Responses must be received by September 27. Of particular interest to investors: the implementation date for new taxation on switches in corporate-class mutual funds appears to be pushed back to January 1, 2017. And there’s much more than that to be aware of.

There are several tax credits that students, their parents and teachers should be sure to claim on their 2016 tax returns. Here’s a synopsis of them; the trick is to keep documentation for the claims now.

In the end, it was a philosophical battle that tested who is best responsible for the future of retirement savings in Canada: only 18.6% of respondants to Knowledge Bureau’s July poll question answered yes when asked, “In your opinion, is the enhanced CPP a better retirement savings plan than putting the equivalent amount of premiums into a TFSA?” The remaining 81.4% voted no—in favor of the tax-paid contributions to a tax-exempt savings vehicle over mandatory, partially deductible contributions to a taxable fund.

Knowledge Bureau is pleased to welcome Portfolio Strategies as the Exclusive Sponsor of the Distinguished Master Financial Advisor Graduation Luncheon at the Distinguished Advisor Conference, November 6-9 in San Diego. Portfolio Strategies’ President, Mark Kent, will be on hand at this prestigious event to congratulate graduates and present them with their designation pins and special gifts.

Bookkeeping is the cornerstone of any small business. In fact, keeping track of cash flows is a key stressor more many.  That’s where a highly qualified professional bookkeeper comes in:  to help steer the business into calm waters before any waves come aboard.  If you want to be that professional, Knowledge Bureau’s Advanced Bookkeeping for Multiple Business course is the best choice to up your game.