The CRA’s news releases sometimes read like a reminder from your mother to brush your teeth every day. The latest release reminds taxpayers that “the income you earn online is taxable.” But the CRA is a scary mom, the kind…
Donation shelters—the plot thickens
The Toronto Star is reporting that the CRA has reassessed or will reassess more than 100,000 taxpayers for about $1.4 billion in taxes, interest and penalties because they participated in donation tax shelters. I posted previously about another story in…
Fairness
Making an application for fairness—or “taxpayer relief” as it is now called—is often a frustrating process for a tax professional. One wonders, sometimes, whether the CRA agent responsible even reads the application. The CRA has issued Information Circular IC07-1 about…
Warnings
Those who have had the misfortune to participate in tax shelters gone wrong some times complain that the CRA did not do enough to warn the public about the pitfalls associated with them. The CRA appears to be trying to remedy the deficiency with a rather stern warning about participating in a gifting arrangement.
Eligible Dividend Trouble
The CRA issued a notice on July 10, which included the following paragraph about difficulties with its GRIP calculation schedule:
Rights and an Ombudsman
A CRA press release just announced a “new” Taxpayer Bill of Rights (isn’t that old news?) and the creation of a Taxpayers’ Ombudsman. I can just imagine the paper piling up at the latter’s office within about 15 seconds of…
Voluntary disclosure update
The CRA has posted an update on its no-names voluntary disclosure program.
Complexity
I couldn’t help snickering a little at the following news release: The Minister of National Revenue announced the Canada Revenue Agency’s Action Task Force on Small Business Issues Report: Helping Small Businesses by Reducing the Compliance Burden But of course…
Badges
Dobbs: “If you’re the police, where are your badges?” Gold Hat the Bandit: “Badges!? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!!” —The Treasure of the Sierra Madre That…
CRA service update
The CRA’s latest press release on its service problems can be found here.