Tag: Canada

Provincial and Federal Student Loans: Resources and Information to help you Navigate the System

You have taken out a student loan to assist you while you go to school. Keep in mind that whether you complete school, or drop out, you still have to pay back that loan, and not doing so can have considerable consequences.

In my early 20’s, I had taken a part-time job working for Equifax who at that time collected student loans. I recall a conversation with a girl in Kanata, Ontario who owed $40,000 on her loan and was paying $10/month.

Rather than yelling and her and demanding payment, I asked her what she intended on doing with the loan. She was quite sincere when she said that she was making the $10/month payments to appease the collection agency and that she felt she didn’t actually owe the loan.

I felt bad.

When I asked her why she didn’t owe it, she said simply because she didn’t go to school, thus didn’t need the loan for school.

“So, what did you do with the money you got from the government?”, I asked.

“Oh, I bought a car, a huge TV, and some new clothes… But I didn’t use it for school.”

“Oh”, was all I could think of… “but you took out a loan, and still need to pay the money back.” I spent the next 15-20 minutes answering questions and providing information.

2 days later she filed for bankruptcy.

She should have used that money and gone to school!

Regardless, there is a lot of information regarding student loans and how to get out of them. Rather than looking at it solely from that way, let’s look at them right from the begging through to the completion of the loan.

Beginning with, once you get a loan:

Make a plan to repay your student debt

1. Who you need to repay

You may have loans or lines of credit that you need to repay to the government and/or your financial institution. In some provinces and territories, Canada Student Loans are issued separately by the federal and provincial or territorial governments, which means, you could have more than one loan to pay back.

Verify your contracts to determine where your debt comes from and where you need to repay it.

2. How much you need to repay

Verify your loan or line of credit contract to figure out the following:

  • Total amount owing
  • Interest rate applied to the debt
  • How to repay the debt
  • How much to pay
  • How long it will take to pay back the debt

Contact the organization that provided your student loan or line of credit if you don’t have the information listed above.

3. When you need to start paying

Different repayment rules may apply depending on your type of student loan.

Canada Student Loans (CSL)

CSL’s have a 6-month non-repayment period after graduation and during that period, payments do not have to be made and interest will not be charged on the loan. This period begins after one of the following;

  • Finish your final school term
  • Transfer from full-time to part-time studies
  • Leave school or
  • Take time off school

Before the 6-month period ends, you’ll have to log in to your National Student Loan Service Centre account to find out your repayment schedule.

Note: You can and should still make payments at any time after receiving your loan. You don’t have to wait until after the 6-month period ends to start repaying. Paying it early and often reduces the amount of principle owing which reduces the amount of interest charged.

Find out more about the repayment schedule and options for your Canada Student Loan.

Click here to: Log in to your National Student Loan Service Centre account

Provincial student loans

The repayment rules of provincial student loans vary depending on the province or territory where you applied for your loan.

Find out about repayment rules and schedule for student loan programs in your province.

Student Lines of Credit (SLOC)

If you have a SLOC through your financial institution, you’ll have to pay the interest on the amount of money you borrow while you’re still in school.

After graduation, many financial institutions provide a 4 to 12-month grace period during which only interest payments are required to be made. This benefits the institution because they’re getting your interest payments and you are not reducing the amount of principle owing. Once the grace period ends, you’re back to paying the debt through a repayment schedule agreed upon with that institution.

Contact your financial institution to get information about paying back your student line of credit.

Having trouble paying

If you need help with repaying your CSL, you may qualify for the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).

Find out more about the Repayment Assistance Plan for your Canada Student Loan.

If you’re having trouble repaying a provincial student loan, contact your student aid office. For repayment assistance with a loan or LOC provided by your financial institution, contact your branch to determine what your options are.

Understand that by making your payments smaller, it will take you longer to pay back your loan. You’ll end up paying more interest on your loan.

Find the student aid office in your province or territory.

How student debt affects your credit score

Student loans and lines of credit form part of your credit history which means if you miss, or are late with, your payments, it can affect your credit score.

Your credit score shows future lenders how risky it can be for them to lend you money. A poor credit score makes it difficult to borrow money from a bank, get a credit card, and can impact your ability to get a job, or rent an apartment.

Bankruptcy

Understand that if you file for bankruptcy within seven years of finishing your studies, your Canada Student Loan won’t be discharged. You’ll have to continue paying back your loan.

Learn how bankruptcy affects your CSL debts.

Tips to repay your student debt faster

1. Make lump-sum payments

Making lump-sum payments at any time will help you pay down your loan faster. Lump-sum payments will go toward interest first and then to the principal of your loan. Paying down the principal reduces the total amount you owe, which means you pay less interest.

If you make lump-sum payments while you’re in school or during the 6-month non-repayment period, the payments go towards the principal of your loan.

Find out about making lump-sum payments on your Canada Student Loan.

2. Increase the amount of your payments

The amount you pay over and above your minimum payment goes toward the principal of your loan, which decreases the total amount you owe, and the amount of interest you have to pay.

3. Budget your payments

Build your student debt payments into your budget and make payments that are larger than the minimum payments. You can also speak with your financial institution about setting up automatic payments.

When planning your budget and automatic payments, make sure you know when your payments are due. Remember that if you have more than one loan or line of credit, you may have more than one payment due date.

Loans in Default

Rehabilitate Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans in Default

As of January 1st, 2020, borrowers will have a new option to rehabilitate Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans in default. The option is to add interest to the principal of your loan (capitalize the interest) and make two payments to rehabilitate your loan.

Repayment assistance

Missed loan payments? Can’t make payments? The Government of Canada has repayment assistance options that may be able to help. Contact the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) and your provincial or territorial student financial aid office to discuss repayment options.

Canada Student Loans

If you have a Canada Student Loan, one of the following measures may be right for you:

Repayment assistance

Getting your loan out of collection

If you have missed 9 months of payments, your federal student loan will be sent to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for collection.

Once in collection, you are no longer able to get student aid. To be able to get student aid again, you must bring your loan up to date.

  • Contact the CRA to make a payment arrangement and bring your loan up to date.

For the provincial or territorial part of your student loan, you will need to contact your province of permanent residence.

For borrowers from Saskatchewan you may contact the CRA for both federal and provincial parts of your student loan.

Rehabilitate your Canada Student Loan

If your loan is in collection, you may be eligible to bring your Canada Student Loan up to date. To do so, contact the CRA to see if you are eligible to rehabilitate your federal student loan. Make payments equal to two regular monthly payments and choose one of the following options:

  1. Pay off all outstanding interest on your loan, or
  2. Add all unpaid interest to the balance of your loan. You will receive a new payment schedule for the new balance.

Note: The option to add the unpaid interest to the balance of your loan can only be done once.

Once you make your payments, call the NSLSC and ask to speak with a Canada Student Loans Program agent. You should receive a new repayment plan within one month.

Bankruptcy doesn’t erase student loans during the first 7 years

Be aware: if you file for bankruptcy within seven years of finishing your studies, your Canada Student Loan won’t be cancelled. You will have to continue paying back your Canada Student Loan.

Industry Canada provides a helpful resource to learn how Bankruptcy affects your Canada Student Loan debts

CRA Snitch Line Accepting Tips on COVID Fraud

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have announced that they are opening up their Informant Leads (snitch) line to information regarding COVID-19 benefit program fraud.

Amid reports that people are double dipping or taking the benefits when there are not entitled to, the CRA are intent on not waiting for 2021 when people file their tax returns, but are asking for Canadians to come forward and provide information regarding the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).

The Snitch Line accepts information of tax cheating such as not declaring all income, accepting “under the table” cash payments or setting up a fake business to claim losses and thus reduce taxes. The information reported goes right to an audit group, who compare the information they receive with the information the CRA already has on that individual and business, and if the amount to recover is significant, will act to seek recovery.

The CRA said it is looking for information regarding people who are receiving either CERB or CESB who were ineligible, or businesses or charities who are “misusing” the wage subsidy program.

The decision to go after cheaters marks a significant turning point in the Trudeau government’s desire to take on fraud of COVID-19 emergency aid programs. In mid-April, a CRA spokesperson dissuaded Canadians from snitching on potentially ineligible CERB recipients because, at that time, the CRA said their focus was on “getting crucial (CERB) payments to those who urgently need it now.”

The CRA stated that those who received a payment to which they weren’t entitled will be required to repay the amount in due course.

Due course meant with the filing of the 2021 personal income tax return for many who applied for and received the credit, only to learn that their income did not dip below the amounts making them eligible to receive the funds. With so many Canadians providing direct deposit information to the CRA, means that with direct access to your bank account, the CRA can take those funds when they want. It also means if there are not sufficient funds in your bank account that the CRA can freeze you bank account and send a garnishment to your employer, if warranted.

With this significant change in direction, it should be noted that any business or individual who are caught receiving money they we not entitled to, will be ordered to reimburse it and it could be quite costly. In the case of the wage subsidy, a business which falsified documents, in order to claim the benefit can face penalties up to 225% of the amount received through the program.

The CRA and Service Canada have records of all individuals who’ve received payments for the CERB and CESB. What has changed is that the CRA have brought in their audit staff – presently not working on audits due to COVID – to verify payments were correctly allocated.

How to Snitch

In order to successfully provide information to the CRA through their Informant Leads line, there is information that the CRA requires.  Remember, all information provided to the CRA is anonymous.

Depending on the program they may have falsely claimed, the CRA would require details on the suspect’s work situation (CERB and CESB), their schooling situation (CESB) or their employer’s number of employees and total payroll (CEWS).

In many cases, people brag to their friends and neighbours about how stupid the government is, by providing them with benefit payments when they are not entitled, and that information is usually enough for the CRA to investigate.

The link to the CRA’s Informant Leads Program information, is here.

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA)

What is the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (CECRA), and how does it work?

The CECRA program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50% of three (3) monthly rent payments that are payable by eligible small business tenants who are experiencing financial hardship during April, May, and June.

The Program

The loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the small business tenants’ rent by at least 75% under a rent forgiveness agreement, which will include a term not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25% of the rent.

Who Qualifies as a Small Business Tenant?

Impacted small business tenants are businesses who;

  • Pay no more than $50,000 in monthly gross rent per location (as defined by a valid and enforceable lease agreement),
  • Generate no more than $20 million in gross annual revenues, calculated on a consolidated basis (at the ultimate parent level), and
  • Have temporarily ceased operations (i.e. generating no revenues), or has experienced at least a 70% decline in pre-COVID-19 revenues.

Property Owners

CECRA for small businesses is applicable to commercial property owners with:

  • Eligible small business tenants
  • Eligible small business subtenants
  • Residential components and multi-unit residential properties with commercial tenants (i.e. mixed usage)

 

To qualify, property owners must meet the following requirements:

  • You own property that generates rental revenue from commercial real property located in Canada.
  • You are the property owner of the commercial real property where the impacted small business tenants are located.
  • You have a mortgage loan secured by the commercial real property, occupied by one or more small business tenants.
  • You have entered OR will enter into a rent reduction agreement for the period of April, May, and June 2020, that will reduce impacted small business tenant’s rent by at least 75%.
  • Your rent reduction agreement with impacted tenants includes a moratorium on eviction for the period of April, May and June 2020.
  • You have declared rental income on your tax return (personal or corporate) for tax years 2018 and/or 2019.

 

How Does it Work?

While it is expected that CECRA will be operational by mid-May, commercial landlords are expected to either enter into the agreement, reducing rent immediately, or, once the program details have arrived, enter into the agreement and refund the monies to the tenant.

 

What Will CRA be looking for?

In order to support the credit, the CRA will be checking to ensure revenue loss. Small businesses can compare revenues in April, May and June of 2020 to that of the same month of 2019. They can also use an average of their revenues earned in January and February of 2020. If these figures do not justify a revenue loss of at least 75%, the credit will need to be paid back to the CRA.

 

What will CMHC be looking for?

CECRA for small businesses loans will be forgiven if the property owner complies with all applicable program terms and conditions including to not seek to recover rent abatement amounts after the program is over.

 

Administering the Program

CMHC will administer the program on behalf of the Government of Canada, provincial and territorial partners.

 

The program offers assistance for the months of April, May and June, 2020.

  • It can be applied retroactively.
  • Property owners may still apply for assistance once the 3-month period has ended if they can prove eligibility during those months.
  • Property owners must refund amounts paid by the small business tenant for the period.

 

If rent has been collected at the time of approval, a credit to the tenant for a future month’s rent (i.e. July for April) is acceptable if agreed upon by both the property owner and the tenant. This can be a flexible 3-month period.

 

The deadline to apply is August 31, 2020.

 

Program Summary Details

CMHC will provide forgivable loans to eligible commercial property owners.

  • The loans will cover 50% of the gross rent owed by impacted small business tenants during the 3-month period of April, May and June 2020.
  • The property owner will be responsible for no less than half of the remaining 50% of the gross rent payments (paying no less than 25% of the total).
  • The small business tenant will be responsible for no more than half of the remaining 50% of the gross rent payments (paying no more than 25% of the total).

 

 

Tax Deductions for Canadian Professional Athletes

We’ve been working on a list of tax deductions for Canadian professional athletes, and in doing so, have compiled this list.

As of the date of posting this, this list is believed to accurate, although may or may not be inclusive of every possible deduction. In addition, there is no supporting legislation linked to these deductions – that will be coming. This list, is therefore not meant to be taken as fact, it’s always prudent to check and double check eligible deductions, to ensure that all possible deductions have been claimed and that none are missed.

Tax deductions unique to professional athletes.

1. Meals and Incidental Travel Expenses – According to tax law, a taxpayer who travels for business purposes can deduct “ordinary and necessary” travel expenses including meals, tips, local travel (such as taxi fare, rental cars, and other modes of transportation), as well as other miscellaneous expenses. Taxpayers have the option of either documenting their actual expenses or deducting a per diem amount per tax law.
2. Temporary Housing – Temporary living expenses may be deductible under certain circumstances. Law provides for deduction of these expenses if they stay in a location is temporary in nature (generally less than one year) and at the convenience of your employer. A lot of times minor league players fall into this category. In most cases, the living expenses of a player competing at the major league level will not be deductible given the indefinite nature of the stay.
3. Clubhouse Dues – Clubhouse dues are deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses. It is best to pay these dues by check so there is acceptable documentation to support the payment was made. If you cannot pay by check, ask for a receipt from the clubhouse manager to save for your records.
4. Health Club and Training Expenses – Most or all of the conditioning and training expenses incurred by professional athletes are deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction.
5. Equipment – Most or all equipment purchased by a professional athlete used in competition or training is either wholly deductible or able to be deducted by taking a depreciation deduction over a number of years.
6. Union Dues – Union dues paid to a Players Association are deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction.
7. Agent and Management Fees – Fees paid to an agent or to a manager are tax-deductible, as are fees paid for account and tax preparations and consulting.
8. Charitable Giving and Planning – Charitable planning can play a significant role in the career and life of a professional athlete. If a plan is structured properly, the athlete can marry the goals of supporting causes that are meaningful to their family and him/her both during his playing days and long after they have retired.

This can be achieved while maximizing his/her charitable income deductions during his high income/high tax bracket years. Philanthropic athletes who don’t consider a formalized plan to integrate their desire to help others with a well thought out tax strategy would be doing themselves a grave disservice.

Owing Taxes to the CRA: Real options to consider

The Canadian Tax Filing deadlines for regular filers and for filers with self-employment income are rapidly approaching.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has pushed out the tax filing deadline for regular tax filers from April 30th, 2020, to June 1st, 2020.  Canadians with self-employment income were due to file by June 15th, 2020, and that date has remained the same.

Any payments for the current tax year are due by September 1st, 2020, which applies to balances and instalments under Part 1 of the Income Tax Act due on or after March 18th and before September 1st, 2020.

If you earned significant self-employment income, for the first time, you might be in for an unexpected surprise when you file your tax return, because there will likely be a balance owing to the CRA. This balance owing is a result of having to pay the amounts that an employer would have normally deducted from your pay, including both portions of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

If you haven’t made other provisions to cover your tax debt at the end of the year, you could have a problem.

If this were not a pandemic year and the CRA was fully operational, I would warn that tax debt is serious and should be dealt with immediately.

As we are all aware, the collections staff at the CRA have considerable “power” to find and collect money that are owing to the Crown.

With the amount of government benefits being offered up this year, Canadians have been providing their banking information to the CRA in record numbers, and it is that banking information which the CRA can, and will, use to recover the taxes owing to them, likely in record time.

In effort to deter Canadians from not paying the CRA, they charge penalties and interest (which compounds daily) on your overdue taxes.

They can withhold payment of your Child Tax Credit and GST rebate. They can take money from your bank account or garnishee your wages.

If those methods do not result in full payment of taxes, the CRA will then check to see if you own real estate, as they can register a lien against your property.

When a lien is registered against your property it can prohibit you from refinancing or selling your property until the outstanding debt is paid in full.

You may also find that if you are non-compliant (not filed up to date with the CRA), you may not be able to secure mortgage financing to purchase a home, buy a cottage, get a loan, or access equity in your property.

Many Canadian banks and credit unions will not provide an unsecured loan for the payment of income tax debt and they generally cannot refinance an existing mortgage to cover the debt either. When they learn of a lien, they deem you a credit risk and are more comfortable walking away from you as a customer then take a risk lending you funds that you either cannot pay or that the CRA will end up taking.

 

What Can You Do

Normally, you would contact the CRA immediately – but these are COVID times – and the CRAès collections division is presently not taking collection actions or weighing in on payment arrangements.

Pay what you can, as much as you can.  Because paying anything less than the balance owing is going to result in interest accumulating.

There is no need to pay more to the CRA, unless you absolutely have to.

If these were normal times, you might be able to negotiate a re-payment arrangement covering 3-6 months, but the interest continues to accrue.

 

What NOT to do

This is important to note – filing for bankruptcy, or filing a consumer proposal, does not discharge a lien against your property. If you go bankrupt on your CRA debt, the lien remains and – even worse – accrues interest over time. Even after your discharge from bankruptcy, the lien remains in force, until you eventually sell your home. Transferring a tax problem for a credit problem is not always the best option.

Do not transfer any assets, or your property, to another person. That will not solve your problems, but rather cause other ones.

Removing assets from the reach of the CRA will result in the raising of a Section 160 (325), non-armsè length assessment, which takes your tax debt and makes it jointly and severally liable with the person who now owns your property.

Do not ignore it. Far too often, Canadians ignore the requirement to file and pay their taxes. This means a balance owing to the CRA continues to grow and grow. When the balance gets to be too high, people feel they have very few options, and consider bankruptcy or insolvency to be one of them. Worse that this scenario, is when one of the parties with a large tax debt falls ill, passes away, or becomes separated from the other, and now the ability to resolve the tax matter becomes that much more difficult.

 

A Better Solution

If you are a homeowner then having an experienced mortgage broker working for you can save you both time and money when seeking a solution to your CRA problem. If you simply can’t pay the full amount of your back taxes, consider refinancing your mortgage and using the equity in your home to consolidate all of your debts, including credit card debts, at a rate which might even be better than the rate you are currently paying.

Mortgage brokers have access to lenders that will allow a refinance of your existing mortgage or second mortgage options to pay off outstanding CRA debt.

If you have tax debt, or are going to be facing some tax arrears, do not worry. Contact inTAXicating and let us provide you with the truth around your tax options and help you find the best solution for you.

info@intaxicating.ca

intaxicatingtaxservices@gmail.com

 

Best and Worst Major Cities for Business Tax Burdens: C.D. Howe Institute

On April 23rd, 2020, the C.D. Howe Institute released a report which identifies the best and worst major Canadian cities for business investment as measured by overall tax burdens.

The link to the reports is here; “Business Tax Burdens in Canada’s Major Cities: The 2019 Report Card.”  Authors Adam Found and Peter Tomlinson compared business tax burdens in 10 Canadian municipalities, the largest in each province.

“Municipalities and provinces would do well to pay attention to business tax burdens, particularly those imposed by business property taxes, since they impede investment and businesses’ ability to survive and invest after the present pandemic,” says Found.

Before a business decides to locate or expand in a given jurisdiction, it must consider the tax implications of such an investment.

Heavy tax burdens reduce potential returns, driving investment away to other jurisdictions and, with it, the associated economic benefits.

Found and Tomlinson estimate the 2019 Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) for the largest municipality in each province by aggregating corporate income taxes, retail sales taxes, land transfer taxes and business property taxes. Their findings measure the tax burden on a hypothetical investment that has the same net-of-tax return regardless of where in Canada it is located.

What Did They Find?

That municipal business tax burdens are highest in Montreal, Halifax and St. John’s, while near the group average in Calgary, Charlottetown and Moncton.

The most competitive municipal business tax environments were found in Vancouver, followed by Saskatoon, Toronto and Winnipeg.

I’d be curious to see if there was any consideration given to the associated costs which impact businesses in these markets, such as the cost and availability of parking and ability of the general public to access these businesses. Certainly, an expensive parking rate which is heavily enforced by the parking police would deter customers in certain parts of these cities.

Then again, so does bad signage…

Nonetheless, the bottom line is this. If the cost of investing in a Canadian jurisdiction is higher than the cost of investing elsewhere, then that jurisdiction’s capital stock will be smaller than it otherwise would be, because businesses go where the costs are cheaper so they can try to make more money.

The higher the METR (tax rates), the greater the investment loss and overall economic harm.

Tax dollars are important for budgeting purposes because jurisdictions use those dollars to support expenditures. When the tax base erodes, either taxes are increased, expenditures cut, or debts and deficits increased.

Calgary’s experience with depreciating property values was also discussed in this report, because in that city, as the assessed values of downtown office buildings depreciated rapidly, that caused unmanageable tax shifts onto other businesses in the city, to make up the shortfall.

“Calgary is a cautionary tale for cities across the country,” says Tomlinson. “With the current cash crunch for businesses, provincial property tax cuts – like those just announced in British Columbia – could be key to businesses’ survival.”

Read Full Report

The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. Widely considered to be Canada’s most influential think tank, the Institute is a trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review.

Be Careful Who You Use for Tax Preparation: Ontario tax preparer sentenced to 4-years in jail

George Nkoke Nnane of Richmond Hill, Ontario, was sentenced in the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto to 4-years in jail for filing fraudulent tax returns, the CRA has reported.

A CRA investigation found that Nnane, the chief executive officer of Golden Capital Management Inc., a tax preparation business, prepared individual tax returns for the firm’s clients with false charitable donations credits, as well as fictitious business and rental losses.
The false claims enabled the firm’s clients to evade nearly $2 million in federal tax for the years 2009 to 2013, the release said.
The investigation also revealed that Golden Capital Management failed to report net income totaling about $500,000 on its corporate income tax returns for the same taxation years.
The firm failed to remit Goods and Services Tax (GST) / Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) totaling about $53,000 for the quarterly filing periods from 2009 to 2013.
Unfortunately, the view from the CRA is that each and every client of this tax preparer knew that their returns were being faked and thus are a willful accomplice to this fraud and thus will be re-assessed as a result.
Those re-assessments are likely (if not certainly) to include a 50% Gross Negligence penalty which is equal to 50% of the tax evaded, plus be accountable for the tax evaded. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
In its release, the CRA noted that taxpayers convicted of tax evasion face fines ranging from 50% to 200% of the evaded taxes and up to five years’ imprisonment.
If a taxpayer is convicted of fraud under Section 380 of the Criminal Code, an individual can face up to 14 years in jail, the release said.
For the five-year period from April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2019, the courts have convicted 25 tax preparers/promoters for tax evasion, resulting in a total of $2.5 million in fines and 38 years of jail time, the CRA said.

Introducing Personal Banker – Finding Tax Credits for you, and more

In effort to provide you, the reader, with the truth about your tax arrears and dealings with the Canada Revenue Agency, it would be a disservice if I did not provide information about companies who can help in addition to companies who can harm.

Companies who can harm you include companies who want your dollars right away in order to maybe, possibly, provide you with a service, or who might instead take your money – tell you there is nothing they can do – and then suggest that you speak to a trustee.

That approach does not sit well with me. Never has. Never will.

What works for me if looking at a tax debt, or tax problem from all angles, and consider all approaches.

For example, some debts can be resolved through re-financing. I don’t do that. I do, however, work with a couple of mortgage brokers who take care of that service.

Other tax debts can be resolved through a filing, or re-filing of tax returns. Again, I do not do that, but I work with a couple of accountants who take care of that for you.

I don’t recommend bankruptcy or consumer proposals right away, however should the situation really warrant one, then I have a couple of firms that I could recommend.

In the process of helping someone with their tax matters, I always look at it in depth so that I can suggest the best plan of action for resolving it, and then let the Taxpayer decide the path they want to take. I don’t tell them. I suggest the options, and provide the steps for them to take in each scenario.

Recently, a firm called Personal Banker came onto my radar, so I met with the owners and absolutely love what they do and how they do it. They, like myself and my network, put the interests of the Taxpayer first and foremost and provide a service far more valuable that one could imagine.

Again, that’s my opinion.

What I like about Personal Banker is that they perform a function which I strongly recommend in the majority of the tax debt cases, and that is to have their previous 10-years worth of tax returns reviewed to ensure that all the eligible credits have been taken.

This is the best way to reduce a tax debt – if there are missing credits – because the experts at Personal Banker apply the credits, for a percentage of the findings, and you can either apply them to your tax debt, or take the money and run.

It’s brilliant.

What’s more brilliant is that this company operates Canada-wide, and are growing on a daily basis. There is a significant need for their services, and they’re doing this at rates far below the rates that I have seen in the industry.

Don’t believe me? Check it out.

If you think that there might be tax credits that you have not claimed, visit their website, sign up and let them do the rest.

If you’ve used them before, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments, or emailed to me at info@intaxicating.ca

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Lien Questions Answered

There are many questions around writs and liens – each situation can be very different – but there are some commonly asked questions which pop-up when someone realizes that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has registered a lien against their property.

Commonly asked questions:

  1. When does a lien have to be dealt with. A:When the property needs to be sold or refinanced. Unfortunately, many Canadians realize that the CRA has actually registered a lien when the property owner is attempting to sell or refinance their property, which is also the worst time to attempt to get the CRA to work with you.

2. Can I negotiate with the CRA? A: No, the CRA will not / does not negotiate tax debts. You can negotiate a payment arrangement under certain circumstances, and you can “negotiate” penalties and interest by applying to the CRA’s Taxpayer Relief program, but no other negotiations exist outside of bankruptcy.

3. Will the CRA remove a lien if I file for bankruptcy? A: No, liens survive bankruptcy.

4. Once I pay the lien amount, my debts to the CRA are done, finished, over? A: No, actually, the lien amount represents an amount owing in your account at the time the lien was registered. There is still interest accumulating on the debt (possibly other assessments too). Once the lien is resolved, there is the additional amount(s) which must be cleared up.

5. How can I get a lien removed? A: Great question! You can, provided you are doing so for a reason. If you need the lien removed in order to refinance because that re-financing will result in the CRA getting paid, then you might be able to have the CRA temporarily lift the lien to allow for that transaction to proceed.

6. Can I transfer the property out of my name / remove myself from title? A: NO, NO, NO!!! This is very dangerous because if you transfer an asset from your name into another person’s name when you have a debt to the CRA, or may have a debt to the CRA, and that transfer is for less than the fair market value, then the person who received that asset can be held liable for your tax debts.

7. Is the CRA going to act on the lien and kick me out of my house? A: No. If there was a lien on a secondary property such as a cottage for example, then the CRA might be prompted to take action and force a sale, but for a principal residence, no they are not.

8. If I leave it long enough, will it go away? A: Unfortunately no, unless you knew something about the way the CRA operates and there were specific criteria which applied to you and your financial situation.

Email Example

To help clear up some of the confusion around this topic, here is an email we received recently regarding a CRA lien. This email contains some common questions, along with some common misinformation.

Hopefully this example will help Taxpayers who have liens registered against them by the CRA.

Lien email.

Question: “When the CRA puts a lien on a property, we are advised to contact a lawyer. Why is that? Can we not get written confirmation from the CRA ourselves, that after the lien amount is paid, the lien will be removed within a set period of time?  If they agree to do it, do they just delay anyway or check whether they want anything else from you first?  Is this all true?”

Answer: There is a lot here, but let’s break it down into manageable pieces.

When the CRA registers a lien against a property – which is a regular CRA collections technique in order for the CRA to secure their debt – they know what the outcome will be.  As a result, while it might be a huge inconvenience, it’s usually not a concern unless the property is going to be sold, or if it needs to be re-financed.  In that case, the lien needs to be addressed.  Otherwise, the amount the CRA registers the lien for is the amount owing on the day the lien was registered and interest and possibly debt continues to accrue on the account.

The CRA cannot and will not provide confirmation that once a lien is paid that the lien will be removed because there might be additional debts which the CRA is going to need to register a lien for.  They prefer not to put things in writing which could come back to cause them problems collecting tax debts.

If, however, there is a just a tax debt, and the collector registers a lien and that lien is satisfied (paid) – that means the balance was paid in full through re-financing or selling the property.

The major problem that occurs here is that once a tax account is paid, that account is automatically removed from the inventory of accounts that the collector has – often without them knowing. This means they do not have the opportunity to remove the lien from the property and need to be reminded there is a lien in place so they can finish it up, remove the lien and close the account.

Otherwise, it can be very difficult to get a lien removed after the fact because there is no one assigned to it, and no one wants to take responsibility for working an account which is not assigned to them.

So if there is a lien registered and you pay it, make sure to follow up in a timely manner to ensure it’s been taken off.

Lien / Writ / Certificate Help

If you, or someone you know has a lien registered on a property that they own and are looking for suggestions, recommendations or solutions to resolve this, then look no further than inTAXicating Tax Services.

We can be reached via email at info@intaxicating.ca, to get the ball rolling.

Our services will cost you much less than you expected, and your results will be far greater than you could have imagined.

Ottawa estimates corporations dodged up to $11.4 billion in 2014 tax payments

Very interesting article published on June 18th, 2019 via the Canadian Press, regarding what appears to be Canadian Corporations avoiding the payment of $11.4 billion dollars in taxes owing to the CRA.

My initial reaction to that headline was likely similar to what others who saw this headline probably felt – that corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes, that corporations get all these tax breaks and that the government allows corporations to not pay taxes.

But before I would be able to properly comment on this, I would have to read the article a few times to figure out what the actual story is.

According to the article, the issues are these;
“Corporations avoided paying Ottawa between $9.4 billion and $11.4 billion in taxes in 2014″, according to a new federal report created by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which estimated these figures.

The report estimates the “tax gap”, or the difference between what is owed to the government and what was collected by the CRA — for small and medium enterprises is between $2.7 billion and $3.5 billion and for large corporations, between $6.7 billion and $7.9 billion.

“The corporate figures bring the total estimated 2014 tax gap from a series of studies by a dedicated CRA unit to between $21.8 billion and $26 billion — or 10.6% to 12.6% of revenues — not including funds recovered or lost due to audits.”

By not including funds recovered or lost during audits, and not going into detail as to what “audit” specifically means, it could represent the amount of taxes assessed during an audit (where the CRA found additional taxes owing), or lost (where the CRA had assessed a corporation, only to find out during an audit that the assessment was inaccurate or invalid, and thus reversed, revised or reduced).

Taking a closer look at the figures, might be a huge shock to anyone who feels that corporations get it easy in Canada.

In 2014, Corporate tax filers reported approximately $298 billion in taxable income and $40.9 billion in total federal tax payable. Even though they made up only about 1% of the 2.1 million corporate tax filers, large corporations reported about 52% of the total corporate taxable income and contributed about 54% of the federal tax.

More than half the taxes collected in this country come from large corporations!

After being fed data which explained that the corporate tax gap for 2014 was between $9.4 billion and $11.4 billion, then the government goes on to mention that the “total” estimated 2014 tax gap is $21.8 billion and $26 billion, meaning between $12.4 billion and $14.6 billion is taxes owed by individuals who are not paying their taxes…

Then the government explains that after the audits, which were left out of the equation, are finalized, the corporate tax gap will actually be reduced by between 31-40% for small enterprises and between 64-75% for large corporations, which means overall, the corporate tax gap for 2014 is actually somewhere between $3.3 billion and $5.3 billion and not $9.4 billion to $11.4 billion.

Clear, right?

So that means the actual tax gap, taking into consideration the post-audit figures that the CRA anticipates, is actually between $15.7 billion to $19.9 billion, and of those taxes owing, most of it is owing from individual Canadians who are not paying.

Meanwhile, large corporations pay 54% of the total taxes paid to this country to fund services, roads, healthcare, and the many benefits that we have all come to appreciate.

Why is this article geared towards corporations? Shouldn’t it be thanking the corporations and pointing fingers at the Canadians who are not paying their fair share? Why was it positioned this way?

Since that answer could be anything, ranging from inaccurate reporting to political manoeuvring, then the only question that remains from this article surrounds what constitutes “taxes owing”? Is that figure based on amounts reported by Canadians who just never paid the taxes, or does that figure include assessed amounts owing that the CRA created, and which may or may not be owing? If it’s the latter then it’s highly likely that the tax gap is even smaller.

NOTE

Ask me one day to tell the story about the notional assessments that I raised while working at the CRA at the request of my team leader to “get the attention” of the business… It got the attention of more than the business! It got the attention of the Minister of Finance. Lesson learned.

So, to conclude, there is a tax gap. There will always be a tax gap because not every Canadian has the ability to pay their taxes in full and on time, each and every year. As well, not every Canadian files their taxes on time, or are required to file on time, which means the full picture will never be forthcoming because of all the moving parts.

The timing and content of this article leads me to believe that the Federal government and the CRA going to come after corporations.  They shouldn’t, based on the actual figures, but corporations do not vote in elections – people do.

What the true intent of this article is, however, is very unclear to me.