Canadian tax news

Your source for the latest Canadian tax news and updates on changing tax laws. Working collaboratively with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) we aim to bring clarity on pressing tax questions and tax updates.

Please visit our archive page for content from 2020. There are no posts on this page older than 2020.

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The CRA has recently updated its webpages, Gifts, awards, and long-service awards and Social events and hospitality functions, which include a number of new or revised CRA administrative policies that address the following scenarios:

  • Employer provided in-person (or hybrid) social events for employees 
  • Employer provided virtual social events for employees 
  • Gift cards provided by an employer to employees and, in particular, situations where these cards will not be considered “near cash” gifts

For further information, please see the CRA webpages.

As part of Bill C-32 (Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2022), proposed legislation to implement the new FHSA program was included and there were several revisions from the previous draft legislation released on August 9, 2022.

On November 4, 2022, Bill C-32 (Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2022) was tabled in the House of Commons. This bill implements some of the tax proposals from the 2022 Fall Economic Statement, along with several previously announced tax changes. In one major change, the coming into force date for the trust reporting rules has been postponed by one year. These rules will now apply to trust taxation years that end after December 30, 2023. Otherwise, it appears that the legislation for the trust reporting rules is unchanged. 

We are in the process of reviewing the legislation and will provide more information as it becomes available. 

On November 3, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance released the federal government’s 2022 Fall Economic Statement (FES), which contained several new tax announcements along with an update on previously announced tax measures.

As mentioned in our August 22, 2022 news item, “Update on electronic notices of assessments”, Finance Canada recently proposed legislation that would allow the Minister of National Revenue to provide a notice of assessment (NOA) electronically to an individual who filed their personal income tax return electronically, and has authorized that notices or other communications may be made available in this manner. 

From a recent discussion with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), it is our understanding that there will be no changes in the process for issuing personal NOAs until at least 2024. We will keep you posted as we get additional information.

We received a number of questions regarding the revised version of form T1134, which we passed along to the CRA. The CRA has responded to all our queries and plans to update its T1134 Q&A page as soon as the French translation has been completed. The CRA has asked us to share the English responses with our members as it recognizes the October 31 filing due date for many reporting entities is fast approaching. We will post an update when these responses are on the CRA’s website in both languages.

As a follow up to our September 12, 2022 news item, “Questions on the new Form T2054 – Election for a Capital Dividend Under Subsection 83(2)”, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has responded to our question on whether taxpayers can continue to use the previous version of the T2054 until tax software developers have incorporated the new T2054 into their products.

The CEBA website has been updated to reiterate that the December 31, 2022 forgiveness repayment deadline will be extended to December 31, 2023 for eligible CEBA loan holders in good standing. If CEBA participants are in good standing and qualify for the new extended term, they will be contacted by their financial institution with details regarding the new repayment date. The website also provides more guidance on repayment and forgiveness terms in the FAQ section.

Due to increased concerns with identify theft, Confirm my Representative was introduced by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as a new two-factor authorization process for confirming the representative and preventing client information from being given to unauthorized representatives.

As discussed in prior news items and tax blog, the federal government has announced proposals that will require additional reporting for “reportable transactions” and “notifiable transactions.”

Trust reporting rules are changing for 2022 returns due in 2023. Under this new regime, trusts will be required to file a T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Return annually for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2022, including trusts that have never filed before. Our latest tax blog on trust reporting outlines the expanded reporting requirements for trusts set out in the August 9, 2022 draft legislation.

The Canada Revenue Agency is escalating their scrutiny of personal services businesses. In a recent stakeholder email, the CRA announced its newest educational campaign focusing on potential PSB arrangements. In response to this campaign, our newest tax blog presents an overview of the PSB rules and sets out some leading practices to consider for taxpayers that deliver services through a corporation.

As we have previously reported, the government announced in the 2021 federal budget, followed by draft legislation released on February 4, 2022, that it would be providing the CRA with the ability to send certain Notices of Assessments (“NOAs”) electronically without the taxpayer having to authorize the CRA to do so (“NOA proposal”).

On August 9, 2022, the federal Department of Finance (Finance Canada) released a large package of draft legislation covering several tax measures from the 2022 federal budget and previous announcements.

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