A thorough analysis of today’s financial news—delivered weekly to your inbox or via social media. As part of Knowledge Bureau’s interactive network, the Report covers current issues on the tax and financial services landscape and provides a wide range of professional benefits, including access to peer-to-peer blogs, opinion polls, online lessons, and vital industry information from Canada’s only multi-disciplinary financial educator.
Canadian taxpayers pay substantially higher taxes on personal income, profits & gains, corporate income & gains, payroll taxes and property taxes than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average, based on 2019 statistics. Reflecting the environment prior to the pandemic, Canada’s economy was doing well and unemployment was at 5.7% - the lowest annual level on record at that time, according to Statistics Canada. Women and working boomers seem to have suffered the most fallout from the pandemic, but GenXers were not immune to the economic pain either.
While inflation is characterized by an increase in prices in an economy, a recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth; that is, the inflation-adjusted growth of an overall economy. Higher inflation obviously has a significant impact on this definition. The two concepts are a double-edged sword in today’s economic climate and it will impact the conversations you may be initiating with your concerned clients:
The CRA has at least 2,500 CEWS audits of large Canadian businesses underway. It is anticipated that what they learn from those audits will then be used to audit small and medium-sized businesses across the country over the next decade. There is no audit limitation period, meaning that every business should anticipate having to defend their CEWS claims at some point in time. The September 21 CE Summit, will cover this topic in depth with one of Canada’s leading tax litigators and a tax lawyer with broad experience in resolving audits, David Robertson and Evelyn Tang from EY Law LLP.
Be sure to register by August 31 to take advantage of the early bird conference discounts for DAC, October 16 -18 in beautiful Niagara Falls. You won’t want to miss the incredible line up of topflight speakers who will bring the future of finance to you in spades of insightful thought leadership. It is the only conference for a multi-advisory audience and the one you should not miss if you are a business leader or owner-manager in the tax or financial services. Consider these critical topics:
Like all employer-paid expenses, the concept is that, if the employer is the primary beneficiary of the payment, the payment is not taxable to the employee. But, if the employee is the primary beneficiary, then the benefit is taxable. For cell phones and cell phone service, the same concept applies, but the details can become confusing.