These sure are interesting times. We have all been hit tremendously hard. First the realization that we need to transform our companies to ‘work from home’.
Even in this tech town Ottawa, Ontario, ‘work from home’ is not as easy as we thought, and certainly there will be productivity issues resulting.
Now our bodies are catching up to the economic impact resulting from a dramatically different world. We have yet to understand the true impact but thankfully our government is responding rapidly.
In case you haven’t yet heard, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a tremendous financial support package in his press conference held earlier today.
Here’s what you need to know (based on my understanding to date – March 18, 2020):
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We can reduce source deductions by 10% up to a maximum of $1375/employee and a total of $25,000 per organization. This is a subsidy, so not repayable to the government. It is for corporations with net income less than $500k and non-profits or charities.
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We can stop Income Tax instalment payments until after August 31, 2020. This will apply to total income taxes payable (at year end filing time) as well as the instalment payments. Essentially any and all Income Tax payments to CRA should be paused effective immediately.
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There is no mention as of yet regarding HST payments. With that in mind, if you are in a dire cash position then you may want to consider holding off on HST payments until after August 31, 2020. Let’s check in about this when we cross that bridge.
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HST and Income Tax audits are being suspended for 4 weeks. Hit pause until you hear from CRA on any active tax audits.
In addition there is a program identified called the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) that will allow $10B to flow to businesses, but details of how this will work have yet to be released so we’ll just wait and see how it plays out.
You can find more information on these plus plus the programs for individuals in the at this link
If you need additional help navigating the financial impacts of COVID-19 please email us at info@numbercrunch.ca – we’re here to help you strategize and properly plan.
Author: Susan Richards – Managing Partner & Virtual CFO – numbercrunch
