The Department of Finance generally gives tax practitioners a little something—obscure draft legislation usually—to chew on between Christmas and New Year’s. I was beginning to worry that the Department had forgotten about us this year, but I should have known better: last night it released draft legislation to implement the new distribution tax on flow-through entities.
The following mentions tax, and so I think it is legitimate content for this blog.
May I say that we lawyers deserve the satire aimed at us by this poem. (more…)
Our firm is in the process of rolling out several new blogs. One of them is about trusts and estates. Cathy Olsiak and I have just posted an article to the blog about donating securities through a will.
You have all read that the Ontario government plans to turn over the administration of its corporate income tax regime to the CRA. The government introduced draft legislation today to make that a reality. Now, when will the government muster the courage to harmonize its retail sales tax with the GST?
Some time ago, I complained about the CRA’s decision to close its mail rooms to the public in the name of cost-cutting. Many of you echoed my complaints in subsequent conversations and emails. It appears the CRA has changed its mind:
In recognition of the value that some taxpayers and tax practitioners place on date stamping, the CRA will implement uniform date stamping on demand in all local offices. The service will consist of placing a stamp on envelopes received at local office counters for deposit in drop-boxes.
The CRA’s Appeals branch, according to P148 (”Resolving Your Dispute: Objection and Appeal Rights Under the Income Tax Act”), exists “to resolve disputes arising from decisions made under legislation administered by the [CRA] by conducting fair and impartial reviews.” In fact, Appeals sometimes ends up acting as if the objection process were a second chance to audit the taxpayer: sometimes officers of the branch appear to spend more time trying to repair deficiencies in the CRA’s case against the taxpayer than they do considering the taxpayer’s submissions. When this happens, is relief available to the taxpayer? (more…)
