Date: January 25, 2023

Underused Housing Tax: Understanding Your Filing Obligations

The Underused Housing Tax (“UHT”) came into effect on January 1, 2022. If you are not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and own a vacant or “underused” house in Canada, you may be subject to the UHT. Additionally, if you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, but own a residential property in Canada through a corporation, partnership, or trust, you may be subject to the filing requirements under the UHT. This article will discuss the UHT, the tax implications, exemptions available, and the filing obligations.

Date: January 19, 2023

Whistleblower Channel: Common Features and the Importance to Your Organization

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 51% of organizations have uncovered more fraud since the beginning of the pandemic, and 71% expect the level of fraud impacting their organizations to increase over the next year.¹ Fraud could significantly impact the bottom-line of any organization if it is not identified in a timely manner. The good news is that organizations can implement a whistleblower channel, which could reduce their risk of fraud.

Date: December 8, 2022

Vacant Home Tax: Are You Aware of Your Obligation for 2023?

In an effort to alleviate the pressure on Canada’s affordable housing market, the federal, provincial, and municipal governments have all turned their attention to vacancy in residential real estate properties. This includes the new Vacant Home Tax (the “VHT”) implemented by the City of Toronto which came into effect in 2022 with tax payable in 2023. If your property falls under the VHT, the tax owed in 2023 is calculated as 1% of the current value assessment of the property.

Date: November 30, 2022

Does Your Business Have Strong Internal Controls to Avoid Inventory Theft?

Inventory can be a major component of current assets on the balance sheet, but is that number accurate? Inventory opens the gate to employee fraud, making strong internal controls over inventory reporting critical. Other aspects of inventory that should be considered are independent third-party counts, surprise inventory counts, using an inventory management system, and utilizing automation.

Date: November 16, 2022

No Smoking Gun? No Problem.

It is every investigative professional’s dream to uncover a “smoking gun” during an investigation. A “smoking gun” is the one irrefutable piece of evidence, too obvious for the subject of the investigation to deny. However, the vast majority of cases do not reveal a “smoking gun”, making the investigative professional’s job simultaneously more challenging and much more exciting. During an investigation it is vital to hire a knowledgeable forensic accountant who can identify several pieces of evidence and make critical connections between those pieces, building the case despite the absence of a “smoking gun”.

Date: November 2, 2022

Has Your Investment or Real-Estate Portfolio Decreased in Value? It May be Time for an Estate “Re-Freeze”

Over the past few months, we have all experienced a significant decline in our investment portfolios and real estate assets. Although these are tough times for all investors, the silver lining is that with proper planning, the lower market value can reduce the eventual tax upon death and maximize the tax deferred to the next generation by carrying out an estate freeze or re-freeze. This article will discuss estate freezes and re-freezes, as well as how they can be used to achieve significant tax savings.

Date: October 26, 2022

Do Your Financial Statements Speak to Their Users?

As a financial statement preparer, it is vital to keep in mind that not all financial statement users are accountants and as such, may lack the skillset and knowledge to interpret the statements. Financial statement users may shy away from the volume of pages containing regulatory disclosures. While preparing financial statements, it is important to step into the users’ shoes to create meaningful statements while ensuring compliance with reporting disclosure requirements.

Date: October 12, 2022

The Cost of Money Laundering

According to the United Nations, money laundering accounts for approximately $800 billion to $2 trillion (or 2-5% of global GDP) annually.¹ To put the impact of money laundering into perspective, Canada’s GDP was roughly $2 trillion in 2021. Thus, the potential financial impact of money laundering globally is equivalent to the GDP of Canada.

Date: October 5, 2022

Cooling Real Estate Market: A Tax Relief Opportunity for Estates

With the cooling real estate market, an executor of an estate may be left with a property that has decreased in value during the ownership of the estate. During these uncertain times, a question arises – can an estate take advantage of the decrease in market price to reduce taxes on the disposition of a principal residence?

Date: September 28, 2022

Top Accounting Challenges Faced Through Business Expansion

Taking your business from a Start-up to a Scale-up is an incredible milestone. As you focus on building your brand and raising capital to grow, it is vital to simultaneously focus on financial reporting. Having a proper financial reporting structure not only demonstrates success, but it also instills investor confidence in the business, and its management.