Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get all the week’s stories. Click here to sign up.
TORONTO, May 1, 2022 – With the 2022 tax season coming to an end tomorrow (April 30 being a weekend date), it seems reasonable to reflect on what was a reasonably quiet tax season, at least compared to years past. With cybersecurity breaches and pandemic-related chaos at the Canada Revenue Agency in 2020 and 2021, this year’s problems were limited largely to farmers and teachers (tax credit issue), and a group of seniors affected by a federal error.
Now is the time to breathe a sigh of relief and move on to the odds and ends from the past week in Canadian accounting.
CRA multinational auditors need counselling
Something strange is going on at the Canada Revenue Agency. According to the Globe and Mail, there is a case before the Federal Court in relation to workplace harassment complaints at the division responsible for multinational tax enforcement, which includes a psychological survey of workers. (The story appears to have been broken first by Blacklock’s Reporter which has a paywall.)
Allegations of a toxic workplace, bullying and low morale, coupled with employees feeling like their division is ineffective at its job. That’s not the first time we’ve hear that CRA tax employees aren’t happy with the general state of affairs. The Globe obtained lightly redacted versions from the Federal Court before they were removed.
Ontario regulatory oversight for financial advisors, planners
There’s a heck of a lot of chartered professional accountants in the financial advisory and planning industry — oops, we meant profession — because under Ontario’s messy effort to define ‘financial advisor’ and ‘financial planner,’ new protected titles and credentials may be created under the authority of the Financial Professionals Title Protection Act.
Now comes news that securities regulators are considering policy actions of their own in this area and critics question approval of Ontario group to certify financial advisers, planners. As we know from the history of the accounting profession around the world, who gets to police the profession, and the balance between advocacy and regulation are critical considerations. This will undoubtedly affect the careers of the many CPAs working in the financial planning, estate planning, and life insurance industries.