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Lohn Caulder LLP

2023 T4 Income Tax and CPP Remittance

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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.

CEBA Repayment Deadline Looms

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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 18th, 2024.

The benefits for repaying your CEBA loan by January 18th 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 18th convert into regular debt at their full principal amount without any forgiveness (so, up to $60,000).  Starting on January 19th, 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 18th, 2024.  Even better, we recommend trying to pay it off a few days early, just to avoid a worst-case-scenario bank hiccup.

Deadline Reminder: Underused Housing Tax Returns Due October 31, 2023

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Some of you may remember our newsletter from last March, when we asked all owners of Canadian residential property to pay close attention to a new Federal vacancy tax with an April 30th filing deadline.  This “Underused Housing Tax” (UHT) had created tax filing requirements for far more property owners than many realized.  It also threatened truly severe penalties for anyone failing to file a return: $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for corporations.

After public outcry and lobbying by groups like CPA Canada, our government announced a one-time extension to the UHT filing deadline.  For just the first year (calendar 2022), UHT returns could be filed by October 31, 2023 without incurring late-filing penalties.  Of course, we would have preferred a permanent change, but this was better than nothing.

Fast forward to today, and that grace period is nearly over.  If you are required to file a UHT return, please plan to have it submitted by the end of this month (October 2023)!  

 Going forward, keep in mind this was only a one-time extension.  All subsequent UHT filings remain due on April 30th (i.e., the UHT return for calendar 2023 is due April 30, 2024, and so on).

For those who missed our original newsletter, or for anyone who could use a refresher, please read on!  The following is our original March newsletter, mostly the same as before, but with a few important updates.


 

A New April 30th October 31st Deadline: The Underused Housing Tax 

While vacancy taxes are nothing new for B.C. property owners, a new federal version of the tax is catching many by surprise.  The new “Underused Housing Tax” (UHT) was designed to tax foreign owners of Canadian residential properties deemed to be ‘underused’ or vacant. That said, it is not just foreign owners who need to file a UHT return! And this isn’t a return you want to file late – the penalties are some of the highest we have ever seen.

Excluded Owners – who doesn’t have to file a UHT return?

Thankfully, the UHT filing obligations do exclude some residential property owners.  If you fall into any of the following categories, you are considered an Excluded Owner and do not have to file a UHT return:

  • Individuals who are either permanent residents of Canada or Canadian citizens
  • Citizens and permanent residents who own properties through a REIT, SIFT, or mutual fund trust
  • Public Canadian corporations, with stock listed on a designated stock exchange
  • Registered Canadian charities
  • Coop housing corporations
  • Indigenous governing bodies

Affected Owners – who does have to file a UHT return?

If you were the registered owner (on title) of Canadian residential property in 2022 and don’t fall into one of the excluded categories mentioned above, you are considered an Affected Owner.  All Affected Owners will need to file a UHT return by October 31st, 2023 – even if no tax is owing.  Affected owners include, but are not limited to:

  • Individuals who are not permanent residents of Canada or Canadian citizens
  • Canadian controlled private corporations (CCPCs) * this includes most small business corporations, professional corporations, holding companies, and numbered companies
  • Non-Canadian corporations
  • Anyone who owns residential property as a partner of a partnership or a trustee of a trust (other than a representative of a deceased individual)

Please note that you may own property as a trustee of a trust without realizing it.  Individuals who jointly own residential property for estate planning purposes can sometimes be considered a trust, and therefore an affected owner.  A common example of this is when a parent adds their child’s name to title in an effort to streamline the inheritance process.

Who has to pay the tax?

For those required to file a UHT return, many will be exempt from paying tax.  At last count there were 19 different exemptions available.  These include exemptions for:

  • Properties that are the primary residence of either the owner, their spouse, or their children
  • Properties that are occupied for periods of over one month at a time and for at least 180 days of the calendar year, by tenants for who pay rent at fair market rates (many short-term rentals will not qualify for this exemption)
  • Properties owned through a Canadian trust or Canadian partnership, as long as each trustee or partner is a permanent resident or Canadian Citizen
  • Properties owned by Canadian corporations, as long as no more than 10% of the shares are owned by non-permanent resident or non-Canadian citizens.
  • Properties that are seasonally inaccessible, uninhabitable for a period of at least 60 consecutive days due to disaster, or for a period of at least 120 days due to renovations
  • The first year a property is purchased
  • Properties that still require significant construction before being considered complete
  • Properties in certain areas with lower population (check here: Vacation property designation tool)

How much tax?

For Affected Users who don’t qualify for an exemption, taxes are 1% of the property value.  UHT considers your property value to be the higher of either:

  • The assessed value on your most recent (2022) property tax notice, or
  • If the property was sold in 2022, the sales price

I qualify for an exemption – why should I file this?

Penalties for not filing a return by the extended October 31, 2023 due date are very steep, even when no taxes are payable.  An owner who fails to file a return by October 31, 2023 can be charged a minimum penalty of:

  • $5,000 for property owners who are individuals
  • $10,000 for property owners who are corporations

In addition to this, property owners who still haven’t filed a return by December 30th can have their exemptions denied.  This would leave an otherwise tax-exempt owner stuck with the penalty listed above PLUS a UHT tax bill of 1% of their property value.

The Takeaway

If you own Canadian residential property and do not fall into one of the excluded categories listed above, please plan on filing an Underused Housing Tax return (one for each property) by no later than October 31, 2023 (and then April 30th of each year going forward).  The penalties for missing the filing deadline are significant!  If you do not have a Canadian tax ID number, you will need to get started on your return ASAP, since you will need to register for an ID.

Resources

The T1 Deadline Looms!

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We’ve noticed that many clients have yet to send in their personal tax material.

Please help us out by getting your material in to us as quickly as possible – even if one or two items are missing. Send us what you have now, so we can at least get a preparer assigned to the job.

This year’s filing deadline is Monday, May 1st. If we do not receive your information by April 15th, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to complete the required filings by the filing deadline.

Please send your information to us electronically and use our Portal, if possible.  If you need to drop off information you can do that too and we will scan your information for you.

Refer to checklist and other information available on our website: https://www.lohncaulder.com/checklists/

Feel free to contact your Lohn Caulder representative if you have any questions or concerns.

Cheers!

The Lohn Caulder T1 Team

A New April 30th Deadline: The Underused Housing Tax

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While vacancy taxes are nothing new for B.C. property owners, a new federal version of the tax is catching many by surprise.  The new “Underused Housing Tax” (UHT) was designed to tax foreign owners of Canadian residential properties deemed to be ‘underused’ or vacant.  That said, it is not just foreign owners who need to file a UHT return!  And this isn’t a return you want to file late – the penalties are some of the highest we have ever seen.

Excluded Owners – who doesn’t have to file a UHT return?

Thankfully, the UHT filing obligations do exclude some residential property owners.  If you fall into any of the following categories, you are considered an Excluded Owner and do not have to file a UHT return:

  • Individuals who are either permanent residents of Canada or Canadian citizens
  • Citizens and permanent residents who own properties through a REIT, SIFT, or mutual fund trust
  • Public Canadian corporations, with stock listed on a designated stock exchange
  • Registered Canadian charities
  • Coop housing corporations
  • Indigenous governing bodies

Affected Owners – who does have to file a UHT return?

If you were the registered owner (on title) of Canadian residential property in 2022 and don’t fall into one of the excluded categories mentioned above, you are considered an Affected Owner.  All Affected Owners will need to file a UHT return by April 30th, 2023 – even if no tax is owing.  Affected owners include, but are not limited to:

  • Individuals who are not permanent residents of Canada or Canadian citizens
  • Canadian controlled private corporations (CCPCs) * this includes most small business corporations, professional corporations, holding companies, and numbered companies
  • Non-Canadian corporations
  • Anyone who owns residential property as a partner of a partnership or a trustee of a trust (other than a representative of a deceased individual)

Who has to pay the tax?

For those required to file a UHT return, many will be exempt from paying tax.  At last count there were 19 different exemptions available.  These include exemptions for:

  • Properties that are the primary residence of either the owner, their spouse, or their children
  • Properties that are occupied for periods of over one month at a time and for at least 180 days of the calendar year, by tenants for who pay rent at fair market rates (many short-term rentals will not qualify for this exemption)
  • Properties owned through a Canadian trust or Canadian partnership, as long as each trustee or partner is a permanent resident or Canadian Citizen
  • Properties owned by Canadian corporations, as long as no more than 10% of the shares are owned by non-permanent resident or non-Canadian citizens.
  • Properties that are seasonally inaccessible, uninhabitable for a period of at least 60 consecutive days due to disaster, or for a period of at least 120 days due to renovations
  • The first year a property is purchased
  • Properties that still require significant construction before being considered complete
  • Properties in certain areas with lower population (check here: Vacation property designation tool)

How much tax?

For Affected Users who don’t qualify for an exemption, taxes are 1% of the property value.  UHT considers your property value to be the higher of either:

  • The assessed value on your most recent (2022) property tax notice, or
  • If the property was sold in 2022, the sales price

I qualify for an exemption – why should I file this?

Penalties for not filing a return by the April 30th due date are very steep, even when no taxes are payable.  An owner who fails to file a return by April 30th can be charged a minimum penalty of:

  • $5,000 for property owners who are individuals
  • $10,000 for property owners who are corporations

In addition to this, property owners who still haven’t filed a return by December 30th can have their exemptions denied.  This would leave an otherwise tax-exempt owner stuck with the penalty listed above PLUS a UHT tax bill of 1% of their property value.

The takeaway

If you own Canadian residential property and do not fall into one of the excluded categories listed above, please plan on filing an Underused Housing Tax return (one for each property) by no later than April 30thThe penalties for missing the filing deadline are significant!  If you do not have a Canadian tax ID number, you will need to get started on your return ASAP, since you will need to register for an ID.

Resources

Welcome to the 2022 Personal Tax Filing Season!

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It’s time again to file your personal tax returns. This year, 2022 tax returns must be in the hands of the Canada Revenue Agency by no later than Monday, May 1, 2023.

We’d like to deliver the finished product as quickly and efficiently as possible – and we’re sure that many clients will, as of today, already possess all the information that’s needed. So, we’d like to encourage everyone to consider the “practical” deadline as really being early April  – there’s little reason for any later than that!

This issue of the newsletter includes the following:

1. (Very Important): Our T1 engagement letter which must be included with the material you send us;

2. Our abbreviated, ‘Simplified’ T1 checklist;

3. Our more Comprehensive T1 Checklist, including explanatory information.

Extra copies of these checklists can be obtained at our website – www.lohncaulder.com/checklists

Submitting information to us through Portal

Clients will, by now, be familiar with our system of document submission, which uses our portal.  Based on prior years’ trends, we expect that at least 85% of our clients will use this system.  It’s popular because it’s easy to use, it’s secure, and is not restricted as to file size, which is generally a problem with e-mail attachments these days.

To access the service, you need an account set up.  You can get that by contacting portal@lohncaulder.com.

We look forward to speaking with you in the near future.

The Lohn Caulder Team

Congratulations Graham Caulder!

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Lohn Caulder LLP is excited to announce Graham G. Caulder, CPA, CA as our new Partner at the firm. Congratulations Graham!

 

Graham obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in 2009.  Subsequently, having earned a Diploma in Accounting from the Sauder School of Business, he joined Deloitte LLP as an articling student in 2011, receiving his Chartered Accountant designation in 2014.  Since joining Lohn Caulder in 2015, Graham has specialized in both personal and corporate tax planning and compliance.  As a graduate of the In-Depth Taxation Program and BKR Leadership Institute, he has used his expertise to help owner-managed businesses grow and thrive.

2022 T4 Income Tax and CPP Remittance

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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.

What’s New with Trusts in 2022?

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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 31st, 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!

Let’s Chat!

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Lohn Caulder would like to invite you to a coffee date!

Are you interested in a successful career in accounting? Do you wonder if you’re a good fit for a mid-sized firm? Are you curious about life at Lohn Caulder? We want to give you answers!

We will be setting up short one-on-one virtual meetings between July 19th – 20th, 2022 to answer your questions and get to know you. If you are interested in this opportunity please fill out a sign up sheet by clicking here and submit it via e-mail to tlee@lohncaulder.com.