Small business compliance for Canadian businesses means meeting your business’s tax obligations by complying with the tax rules and regulations that the Canada tax department has implemented. While most business owners have no problems accepting their tax responsibilities they are often challenged with the complexity surrounding the tax laws. As a result they can end up making costly mistakes that may mean they are reassessed and end up paying penalties and interest. Or they spend hours trying to decipher what is applicable to their business.
The CRA has been putting a real push on lately to somewhat simplify the tax system and recently the Harper Government issued a news release outlining their latest attempt to help small businesses meet their small business compliance responsibilities by following a new 3 point plan. The whole idea of this is to make tax responsibilities easier to meet, and save time and money by doing so.
This new plan focuses more on the business cycles, and allows for easier access to the information that companies may need in a more timely matter. Plus the CRA plans to basically focus their attention on areas where non-compliance is more at risk.
Liaison:
The CRA is hoping to provide support through a liaison officer which allows for direct contact to glean information during the business cycle at its most important time so potential mistakes can be avoid.
Registered Tax Preparers Program (RTPP):
This is an interesting approach. It may be beneficial for business tax payers who have relied on less than efficient tax preparers in the past. All too often business tax returns are prepared inaccurately which results in a lot of time and money being wasted both on the business owner’s part and the government in trying to rectify mistakes. Now with the RTPP program the CRA hopes to be able to address the most common mistakes made by these tax preparers.
High Risk:
It is evident with this new program that the CRA is going to step up its efforts on scrutinizing what they consider as high risk tax payers by user better business investigations and better trained audit teams, as well as other measures.
This information certainly supports the importance of using quality tax preparers who are trained and experienced. Here at Toronto Accountant,Sam Seidman certainly fits this criteria and more. Why have to worry about your tax matters not being handled correctly when you can take advantage of my skills and let me get the job done right for you the first time, just like the CRA is encouraging.
