Tax & Trade Blog

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AMENDMENTS TO INDIRECT TAX RULES INCOMING

BILL C-31 NOW BEFORE FINANCE STANDING COMMITTEE & NEAR ENACTMENT

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As a follow up to our previous report on Canada’s Budget 2025 (the “Budget”), certain indirect tax measures proposed in the Budget are now being considered by Parliament, as the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 2 (“Bill C-31”) received its second reading on June 3, 2026, and is currently at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for consideration.

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CRA REFUNDS: WHERE DID MY MONEY GO?

CRA EXPLAINS WHY TAX CREDITS ARE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED

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Many taxpayers expect that once the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) determines that they are entitled to a GST/HST or income tax refund, that the refund will simply be paid. Unfortunately, that is often not the case (!) with the CRA explaining its “set-off” rights in a recent industry roundtable, confirming that where refunds are due, those amounts can often be automatically transferred to satisfy outstanding balances in other CRA tax accounts.

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CRA AUDIT SETTLEMENTS: IS THAT A REAL THING?

CRA EXPLAINS HOW AUDITS CAN BE SETTLED & WHO REALLY MAKES THE DECISION

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Many taxpayers assume that once a CRA auditor starts an Audit, the Audit needs to be completed, with no opportunity to reach an early settlement on contentious issues. To the contrary, CRA has recently confirmed that many Audits can, in fact, be settled – albeit only after being subject to additional internal review before becoming final.

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BC HEADING BACK TOWARDS HARMONIZATION?

EXPANSION OF BC’S PROVINCIAL SALES TAX NARROWS THE GAP WITH THE HST

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As we previously blogged on here, British Columbia (“BC”) recently announced a further expansion of its Provincial Sales Tax (“PST”) base to certain goods and services including new professional services like accounting, architectural, and real estate services.

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CRA BUSINESS ACCOUNT: AUTHORIZATION TRAPS

WHO CAN ACCESS WHAT?

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Most Canadian businesses assume that once an employee or professional advisor has been authorized to deal with the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”), that individual has the immediate ability to access and update all of the business’s online CRA information. As the CRA recently confirmed at an industry roundtable, that assumption is incorrect, with different authorization levels permitting different activities and access to one CRA Account not necessarily providing access to others.