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:

Hard to believe, but it’s back to school time and parents and students are already busy preparing for fall classes. Thank goodness there is tax relief for the expensive tuition fees and textbooks. But some of them will soon be lost, starting as soon as January 1, 2017. Are you up to speed on the changes?

The big economic news published this month by Stats Canada was that for the period from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016, Canada’s job vacancy rate (the share of unfilled jobs over all jobs) declined in nine provinces and two territories. Yet by July of 2016, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 % to 6.9%. So what’s the connection with lemonade?

Executors take note: CRA has issued an update of Form T2075, Election To Defer Payment Of Income Tax, Under Subsection 159(5) Of The Income Tax Act By A Deceased Taxpayer’s Legal Representative Or Trustee.

Is there a new disability in the family for someone under the age of 49? Astute tax and financial advisors will want to introduce the RDSP (Registered Disability Savings Plan) as a savings option to shore up support for the future. But, who is eligible and what can be contributed? A primer on this very lucrative plan should be discussed with your clients.

It’s time to put your professional education plan in place and to map out how you will achieve your CE/CPD credits this fall.

Are the proposed costs of the new CPP increasingly unsustainable? Are they the answer to retirement security for Canadians?