Covid - 19
What You Need To Know
Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Update
Burgess Kilpatrick continues to remain apprised on the latest information regarding the COVID - 19 pandemic situation and we are closely monitoring updates provided by federal, provincial and municipal authorities to remain in compliance with directives handed down to us. As Canadians are now in the midst of a busy tax season, our office is aware of the challenges existing and the organizational efforts required to assist our staff, clients and community at this time.
On March 25, 2020, the House of Commons passed an emergency COVID-19 aid bill worth $107 Billion to help Canadians struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. voted to financial emergency response package for Canadian taxpayers and businesses. The package includes $52 Billion in direct support payments and another $55 Billion to help business liquidity through tax deferrals. This bill passed the bill without amendments and received Royal Assent. We’ve summarized the main details below:
- If you are in imposed quarantine of have been tested positive for COVID-19, the one-week waiting period for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits is waived.
- The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB): offers up to 16 weeks to those who lose pay because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Enhanced GST/HST tax credit payments for low- and modest-income families
- Proposed increase to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB)
- Deferral to after August 31, 2020 the payment of all income tax amounts that become owing on or after today and before September 2020.
Updates on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)
| DAYS TO APPLY FOR THE CANADA EMERGENCY RESPONSE BENEFIT | ||
| If You Were Born In | Apply for | Your Best Day |
| The Month Of | CERB on | to apply |
| January, February, | ||
| or March | Mondays | April 6 |
| April, May, or June | Tuesdays | April 7 |
| July, August, or | ||
| September | Wednesdays | April 8 |
| October, November, | ||
| or December | Thursdays | April 9 |
| Any month | Friday, Saturdays, | |
| and Sundays | ||
Am I eligible for CERB benefits?
- To qualify for CERB benefits, applicants must (a) be a resident of Canada, (b) be 15 years or older, and (c) have had a total income of at least $5,000 (combined) in 2019 or in the 12 months immediately preceding the application, from any of the following sources;
- Employment income,
- Self-employment income, and
- Maternity or parental leave benefits.
- Additionally, to be eligible for the CERB benefit, a worker must receive no income for 14 consecutive days in a 4-week period for which they apply for benefits. This means no income from:
- Employment or self-employment;
- Employment Insurance;
- Any allowances/money/benefits in respect of pregnancy or parental leave, including adoption; or
- Any other income prescribed by regulation, no regulations have been passed to date.
The CERB is a taxable benefit, but the Government has announced that tax recovery will be deferred. Further details are unavailable at this time.
Support for Businesses
- The government is proposing to provide eligible small employers a temporary wage subsidy for a period of 3 months. This subsidy is equal to 75% of remuneration paid during that period up to a maximum of $847 per week per employee earning up to $58,700 per year. Those that do not meet the 30% criteria are still eligible for the previously announced 10% wage subsidy.
- Deferral to after August 31, 2020 the payment of all corporate income tax amounts that become owing on or after today and before September 2020. This applies to both amounts owing and installment amounts; no interest or penalties will accumulate on those amounts during this period.
- If your business is going through an audit on any of it’s program accounts, these audits will be suspended.
- Expansion of business credit by more than $10 Billion offered through the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC).
- Also on March 27, 2020, the Bank of Canada reduced the interest rate available to banks to .25% as a proactive measure in light of the negative shocks to Canada’s economy arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
GST/HST Remittance Deferral
The GST/HST applies to sales of most goods and services in Canada and at each stage of the supply chain. Vendors must collect the GST/HST and remit it (net of input tax credits) with their GST/HST return for each reporting period.
Vendors with annual sales of more than $6 million remit and report monthly, and those with annual sales of $1.5 million to $6 million are able to remit and report on a quarterly basis (or monthly if they choose to). Small vendors can report annually.
The GST/HST amounts collected are generally due by the end of the month following the vendor’s reporting period: e.g., for a monthly filer, the GST/HST amounts collected on its February sales are due by the end of March.
To support Canadian businesses in the current extraordinary circumstances, the Minister of National Revenue will extend until June 30, 2020 the time that:
- Monthly filers have to remit amounts collected for the February, March and April 2020 reporting periods;
- Quarterly filers have to remit amounts collected for the January 1, 2020 through March 31, 2020 reporting period; and
- Annual filers, whose GST/HST return or instalment are due in March, April or May 2020, have to remit amounts collected and owing for their previous fiscal year and instalments of GST/HST in respect of the filer’s current fiscal year.
Businesses in need of information about their particular obligations may contact the Canada Revenue Agency or refer to its website.
Deferral of Customs Duty and Sales Tax for Importers
Imported goods by businesses are generally subject to the GST, at a rate of 5 per cent, as well as applicable customs duties, which vary by product and country of origin. While the vast majority of imports enter Canada duty-free, some tariffs remain, especially on consumer goods.
The Customs Act, for which the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is responsible and which is administered by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), governs the levying and payment of customs duties in Canada.
Typically, payments owing for customs duties and the GST on imports are due before the first day of the month following the month in which the Statements of Accounts are issued.
Section 33.7(1) of the Customs Act allows the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness or an officer designated by the President of the CBSA to extend, in writing, the timeline for accounting or payment of amounts owing.
Under this authority, payment deadlines for statements of accounts for March, April, and May are being deferred to June 30, 2020.
Businesses in need of information about their particular accounting and payment obligations on imported goods may contact the Canada Border Services Agency for more details.
All of these proposals have received Royal Assent We will continue to update this portion of our website for further information on how to access these benefits as well as the procedural details on how to receive your benefits.
In an effort to reduce to necessity of taxpayers and tax preparers to meet in person, the CRA is now accepting electronic signatures as having met signature requirements under the Income Tax Act. This provision applies to forms T183 and T183CORP authorizations for filing personal and corporate income tax returns.
Other Updates:
- The filing deadline for individual personal income tax returns has been extended to June 1.
- The filing deadline for trusts with a December 31 year-end has been extended to May 1.
Get the full summary of the benefits provided by the Government of Canada here.
Preventative Action
The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority lists the following procedures related to the COVID-19 Pandemic:
Prevention: Wash your hands, cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, and stay home when you're sick.
Symptoms: Reported signs and symptoms include: fever, coughing, and/or difficulty breathing.
Experiencing symptoms: If you think you have the symptoms of COVID-19, please stay at home and call 8-1-1. If you think you have the symptoms of COVID-19, please stay home. Patients with mild respiratory symptoms (including cold symptoms) should not be tested. COVID-19 presents as a mild illness in the majority of patients. Seek medical assessment if respiratory symptoms worsen.
Travelling outside of Canada: The Government of B.C. recommends against all non-essential travel outside of Canada, including to the United States. Anyone who chooses to travel outside of Canada will be asked to stay away from work or school for 14 days upon their return.
Health questions: If you have health concerns, call HealthLink BC at 8-1-1. Please be patient as they are experiencing high call volume
For Our Clients
We encourage our clients to utilize our e-courier document transfer portal. This allows you to easily and safely upload all your tax documents to us so that we can complete your tax return. Just type in your email address and upload your tax documents from your device to us and we can complete your tax return. If we have any questions, we will contact you either by phone or by email.
In an effort to facilitate social distancing protocols recommended by Health Canada, we recommend that our clients do their best to remain in their homes and avoid travelling to our office. By doing this, we all will do our part to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in our community and will hopefully "keep the curve down". We suggest the following steps in order to complete your 2019 tax return filing:
- Upload your tax documents using our e-courier portal.
- If we have questions regarding your tax return, we will contact you either by phone or email.
- When your tax return is complete, we will contact you either by phone or email and will send your tax returns and documents for signing by email.
- We can review your tax return with you over the phone using the tax return sent to you by email.
- Please print off the documents sent to you for signing and then sign where marked.
- Return the signed documents to us by scanning them with your computer or taking a picture of the signed document with your cell phone and emailing the pictures to us. Please email to Lucia our office administrator at lucial@burgesskilpatrick.com for electronic filing.
Paying invoices
We have various ways that you can pay your invoice:
- Mail in a cheque to our office
- Call our office and provide your credit card number over the phone. We accept Visa and Mastercard
- E-transfer. During this this unprecedented time, payment by e-transfer is the safest way to pay your invoice. Please use payments@burgesskilpatrick.com as the email address to e-transfer your payment to.
If you prefer to bring your documents to our office
As a precautionary measure, our staff have been asked to work from home until further advisement from federal, provincial, and municipal authorities. We will be maintaining a reduced staff in order to administer essential services during this tax season.
If you would like to bring your documents to our office, our procedure for accepting documents in person is as follows:
- Please enter our office, drop off your documents, and enclose them in an envelope provided on the front table. Then please place the envelope in the box provided at the front reception area with contact information provided.
- If you have issues to discuss, please contact us by phone or by email. If we have questions regarding your tax return, we will contact you either by phone or email.
- When your tax return is complete, we will contact you either by phone or email and will send your tax returns and documents for signing by email, mail or fax. Alternatively you can pick up your return at our front desk.
- We can review your tax return with you over the phone using the tax return sent to you.
- Please sign the documents sent to you for singing and then sign where marked.
- Return the signed documents to us by scanning them with your computer or taking a picture of the signed document with your cell phone and emailing the pictures to us. Please email to Lucia our office administrator at lucial@burgesskilpatrick.com for electronic filing.
For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, or until municipal, provincial and federal governments collectively agree that the threat of COVID-19 no longer exists, our office will be maintaining a reduced staff on site.
The following are helpful websites that we all can refer to for current information regarding the COVID-19 virus and efforts to minimize its' effects so that daily living can hopefully soon be restored to normal. We encourage our staff and clients to monitor these websites for updated information during this unprecedented time:
Vancouver Coastal Health Providing daily updates on COVID-19
BC Centre for Disease Control for information regarding whether or not to be tested for COVID-19, where to go if you meet the testing criteria, and the phone number for BC's new COVID-19 information line.
World Health Organization (WHO) for technical guidance regarding COVID-19.
We thank you in advance for doing your part to keep our communities safe and for assisting in helping to minimize the effect of COVID-19.
Sincerely,
Burgess Kilpatrick, CPA's
