October 1 - Important Changes Coming to VDP

Effective October 1, 2025, important changes will be made to the Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP) at the CRA in order to make it easier for taxpayers to correct unintentional filing errors or omissions. The details on how the changes will affect your clients are being discussed in the CE Summit held September 17 and this course is now available for online enrolment and CE accreditation, after the virtual event. Here are some highlights of the changes.

This year, Tax Freedom Day for Canadians fell on June 17, 2022, which is four days later than last year, and almost a full two months later than the US hit the same milestone on April  18. That means when you add tax and inflation together, Canadians have a more compelling financial issue than our neighbours to the South. For those reasons, working with tax and financial advisors is critical as there are many opportunities to save money on taxes and benefit from generous tax credits here in Canada. Professionals can make sure Canadians don’t miss out in these expensive times.

The Canada Job Grant is a collaborative program between the federal and provincial governments designed to assist employers and employees in developing skills for success. The program is available in most provinces, and Manitoba just announced that intake 1 for the 2023-2024 Canada-Manitoba Job Grant is now open! Eligible training dates include training that began on or after April 1, 2023 and ends on or before March 31, 2024.

Designates – it’s almost time to relicense your specialized credentials! Check out verifiable and non-verifiable options at special tuition prices until June 30 to earn CE and use your exclusive VIP Designate tuition rates you can use to enrol yourself or train your team.

Proprietors – unincorporated self employed people – must file their personal tax returns by midnight June 15 to avoid paying late filing penalties.  Unfortunately, those who owe will already be incurring high interest charges.   What does post-tax season planning mean for those who owe and those who received their refund?  You can provide guidance – some ideas follow:

A new study reports that Millennials have been dealt a raw hand recent economic changes, that have landed them under water with high student loan debt, credit card debt, demand loan debt and the CERB repayment, which has pushed many over the edge into insolvency. 

The divorce rate has dropped by one third in Canada since 2016, in a surprising statistical table published by Statistics Canada this week. This is contrary to the reports by some divorce lawyers who saw a spike in inquiries during the pandemic. Was this new family harmony an anomaly or was there a pandemic blip in the numbers?