Changes to Paper Filing Disempowering

Last tax season, only 7% of all Canadian tax filers filed on paper. The CRA is pushing for zero. It continues to steer the holdouts to digitized filing by adding lots of obstacles. Most recently, it is removing almost all the schedules from the tax return package it mails. This seems unfair to people who paper file because they can’t afford a computer and internet, distrust the security of online filing and those who are neither tax or computer literate. Here’s what they are up against:

More than one million small businesses in Canada contribute somewhere between 25% and 41% to Canada’s GDP. These small enterprises also account for almost 78% of all private jobs created in Canada and about 70% of the total labor force1.  This market is a sweet spot for advisors in the tax and financial services industry who are ready to provide education on recent tax changes and new planning opportunities.

Sometimes executors fail to execute the duties of their positions with sufficient attention or integrity. In Estate of Forbes McTavish Campbell, the BC Supreme Court removed one of three executors in a rare exercise of that power. The executor was also required to pay special costs of the proceeding- a higher amount of costs reserved for parties who act especially reprehensively. 

For the seventh quarter in a row, the prescribed interest rates remain unchanged. 

The 2015 Distinguished Advisor Conference agenda is coming together nicely. Come think strategically with hundreds of top advisors from across Canada who strive to embrace the challenge of building on client relationships from afar.

Seniors will see an increase in their monthly OAS cheques in July, but they’ll have to resort to the 99-cent menu to buy anything with the extra pension.

Royal Assent was given on June 24, 2015, for the measures announced in the April 21 federal budget, thereby officially legislating the Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No.1.