Lohn Caulder LLP

In the course of preparing the 2023 financial statements for your organization, you may recall that it was necessary to declare management salaries in addition to any salaries or wages you may have paid to regular employees.

If you have not made any payroll remittances for 2023 for your management salaries, please contact Ryan Lore or Marnina Nattrass at the email addresses or phone numbers listed below.  If required, we recommend a nominal payment be made to The Receiver General of Canada by January 10, 2024. The remittances should be made to your company’s payroll “RP” account.  They will be incorporated into your 2023 T4 slips.

If you plan to remit only a nominal amount of income tax, you should be aware that CRA now places a heightened emphasis on assessing interest on the difference between the tax actually paid and the theoretical amount to be remitted according to the Canada Revenue Agency’s published withholding guides.  Consequently, in today’s tax environment, it is preferable to make regular monthly remittances throughout the year, rather than a single payment once a year (whether nominal or otherwise).  Please contact us if you require further assistance on this matter.

Please note that there is one change that will affect the 2023 T4 filing. As part of the federal budget for 2023, the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) was developed to provide coverage for uninsured Canadians. To help with eligibility, employers and payors must report on the dental coverage they offer to their employees as of December 31, 2023. This will be reflected on the tax slips as one of five codes, dependent on the type of coverage available to individuals, regardless of which option is selected. We will require confirmation of what type of coverage is available as a part of the payroll information provided to us. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding dental codes.

In order for Lohn Caulder LLP to prepare your 2023 T4s, we will require the necessary information by no later than the end of January 2024.  This information would include a summary of your calendar-year payroll records.  The filing deadline for T4s is February 29, 2024 and it is your responsibility to ensure that this filing deadline is met to avoid penalties.

Electronic filing of T4s is now mandatory. Therefore, once we have received and processed your information, we will electronically file the T4 Information Returns to the CRA. The copies which you later receive from us will be strictly for your own files, and your employees if applicable.

There is also a change for the 2024 payroll year onwards to be made aware of with regards to the Canada Pension Plan. A CPP enhancement was introduced which adds an additional maximum pensionable earnings amount above the original limit, and a second withholding rate and requirement in between the two limits. We encourage you to educate yourself further on this matter and are happy to answer any questions.

Mr. Ryan Lore and Ms. Marnina Nattrass of our office are in charge of T4s – please contact them if you have any questions.  Ryan’s email is rlore@lohncaulder.com, and his direct dial telephone is 604-408-3079. Marnina’s email is mnattrass@lohncaulder.com, and her direct dial telephone is 604-408-3013.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and co-operation.

It’s time to talk CEBA, folks.

The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans that so many of us qualified for back in the heart of the pandemic are all about to come due.  They must be paid back, in full, by January 18^th, 2024.

The benefits for repaying your CEBA loan by January 18^th are immense.  You really don’t want to miss it.

• CEBA loans repaid by the due date are eligible for loan forgiveness of up to $20,000

• • For those who borrowed in the first wave, loan forgiveness is 25% of the principal borrowed.  For example, if you borrowed the maximum of $40,000, you would only have to repay $30,000.
  • For those that borrowed in the second wave, loan forgiveness of 50% was available.  For example, if you borrowed the maximum of $20,000, you would only have to repay $10,000.
  • If you borrowed the maximum in both waves ($60,000 total), you would only have to repay $40,000.
• CEBA loans not paid off by January 18^th convert into regular debt at their full principal amount without any forgiveness (so, up to $60,000).  Starting on January 19^th, 2024, interest charges will begin at a rate of 5% annually.

There isn’t much more to say about CEBA loans.  It was a great subsidy IF repaid by the deadline.

If you have an unpaid CEBA loan, please make sure you have it paid off, in full, before January 18^th, 2024.  Even better, we recommend trying to pay it off a few days early, just to avoid a worst-case-scenario bank hiccup.

In the course of preparing the 2022 financial statements for your organization, you may recall that it was necessary to declare management salaries in addition to any salaries or wages you may have paid to regular employees.

If you have not made any payroll remittances for 2022 for your management salaries, please contact Marnina Nattrass or Ryan Lore at the email addresses or phone numbers listed below.  If required, we recommend a nominal payment be made to The Receiver General of Canada by January 10, 2023. The remittances should be made to your company’s payroll “RP” account.  They will be incorporated into your 2022 T4 slips.

If you plan to remit only a nominal amount of income tax, you should be aware that CRA now places a heightened emphasis on assessing interest on the difference between the tax actually paid and the theoretical amount to be remitted according to the Canada Revenue Agency’s published withholding guides.  Consequently, in today’s tax environment, it is preferable to make regular monthly remittances throughout the year, rather than a single payment once a year (whether nominal or otherwise).  Please contact us if you require further assistance on this matter.

In order for Lohn Caulder LLP to prepare your 2022 T4s, we will require the necessary information by no later than the end of January 2023.  This information would include a summary of your calendar-year payroll records.  The filing deadline for T4s is February 28, 2023 and it is your responsibility to ensure that this filing deadline is met to avoid penalties.

Electronic filing of T4s is now mandatory. Therefore, once we have received and processed your information, we will electronically file the T4 Information Returns to the CRA. The copies which you later receive from us will be strictly for your own files, and your employees if applicable.

Ms. Marnina Nattrass and Mr. Ryan Lore of our office are in charge of T4s – please contact them if you have any questions.  Marnina’s email is mnattrass@lohncaulder.com, and her direct dial telephone is 604-408-3013. Ryan’s email is rlore@lohncaulder.com, and his direct dial telephone is 604-408-3079.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and co-operation.

For 2022 and subsequent tax years, Budget 2018 proposed a new reporting obligation that requires express trusts to report the identity of all trustees, beneficiaries, and settlors of the trust. These changes are being made to improve the collection of ownership information to help Canada Revenue Agency assess the tax liability for trusts and its beneficiaries.

As a consequence, clients with existing trusts must fill out a form to submit this information to Canada Revenue Agency. We have created a Trust Disclosure Form to help summarize the information needed. This disclosure form can be downloaded at: http://www.lohncaulder.com/checklists. Completed forms should be sent to Andy Li at ali@lohncaulder.com. If you have already provided this information or if we prepare the individual tax returns of all the trustees, beneficiaries, and settlors of the trust, then you do not need to complete this form.

2022 T3 Trust Tax Returns

We are writing to remind you that it will soon be time to file your family trust tax return for 2022.  All family trusts must report their income and disbursement activity for the 2022 calendar year by no later than March 31^st, 2023.

This deadline is applicable to all family trusts, and there are penalties for failing to file on time.

For family trusts that hold private corporation shares, the practical deadline is actually much earlier: February 28, 2023.  This is because corporations must report any dividends paid on such shares on T5 slips, and these T5s must be filed by the end of February.  Quite often, the cash-flow through trusts “drives” the quantum of dividends that the corporation has to report, and there is sometimes a bit of bookkeeping involved.

With a deadline this tight, we need your help!

To get so much done in such a short period of time, while keeping your accounting fees to a minimum, we ask that you please summarize the following for us:

1. The amount of cash paid into the trust for each month of calendar 2022, and
2. The amount of cash paid out from the trust to each of the beneficiaries for those months

To assist you in reporting such information to us, we have prepared a transaction summary form for you to fill in and send back to us.

The transaction summary can be downloaded at: http://www.lohncaulder.com/checklists

An Excel spreadsheet version is provided, which allows you to enter data, and have the sums automatically done for you. Alternatively, a PDF version is available if you would like to fill out the form manually.

Once completed, you can return the form to us by one of the following options:

1. Return e-mail (please send to ali@lohncaulder.com);
2. Over the Internet, to our secure web portal. Please go to the ‘Portal’ link on the front page of our website lohncaulder.com, or contact portal@lohncaulder.com for invitation access to Portal;
3. Fax (604-688-7228); or
4. Mail

If you are unable to prepare the transaction summary, please send us your January-to-December 2022 trust bank statements and cancelled cheques, so that we can prepare the summary for you.  For these situations, it will also be necessary to identify for us the particular beneficiary for whom a payment to a third party was made.

We will compare your transaction summary to the information in your corporate records, and will optimize the allocation of the income of the trust into one of two categories:

1. New 2022 calendar dividends or other payments, and, if applicable,
2. Tax-free distribution of capital from previous years.

Andy Li of our office is in charge of T5s and T3s—please contact him if you have any questions. Andy’s email is ali@lohncaulder.com, and his direct dial telephone is 604-408-3077.

Thank you in advance for your help!