Woodstock subcontractor fined for failing to file tax returns

Woodstock, Ontario, January 23, 2013 … The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that on January 17, 2013, Steven C. Wilson, of Woodstock, pleaded guilty at the Ontario Court of Justice in Woodstock, Ontario, to seven counts of failing to file personal income tax returns. Wilson was fined a total of $7,000. He has 18 months to pay the fine. All outstanding returns have been filed.

Mr. Wilson is employed as a framing subcontractor in the construction industry operating under the trade name Mat‑Con Construction. He failed to file his 2004 to 2010 personal income tax returns. The CRA made several requests for the missing returns before serving Mr. Wilson with notices demanding that the returns be filed. Failure to comply with these notices resulted in charges being laid.

The preceding information was obtained from the court records.

In addition to the fines imposed by the courts, individuals or corporations convicted of failing to file tax returns are still obligated to file the tax returns and pay the full amount of taxes owing, plus interest, as well as any civil penalties that may be assessed by the CRA.

Taxpayers who have not filed returns for previous years, or who have not reported all of their income, can still voluntarily correct their tax affairs. They may not be penalized or prosecuted if they make a valid disclosure before they become aware of any compliance action being initiated by the CRA against them. These taxpayers may only have to pay the taxes owing, plus interest. More information on the Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP) can be found on the CRA's Web site at www.cra.gc.ca/voluntarydisclosures.

Further information on convictions can also be found in the Media Room on the CRA website at www.cra.gc.ca/convictions.

How to Filter QuickBooks Reports for the Data You Want

It’s a great feeling (in a nerdy kind of way) when you run a report in QuickBooks and you get exactly the information you are looking for.

Sometimes the key to that is using the right filter.

Filters in QuickBooks simply restrict the data that appears on your report. This enables you to fine-tune your reporting results, getting to the crux of what you are looking for much faster.

To add or change a filter in a report, you run the report, then click the Customize Report button. Select the Filters tab. Here is the filter control for Transaction List by Customer:

You will see the report’s current filters in the right pane of the dialog box. You can change or delete those if you wish.

If you want to add a new filter, pick the field you want to filter in the drop-down filter list on the left. Commonly used filters are date (a specific date, or a range), name, account, transaction type, class, job, and paid status, but there are many more filterable fields you can pick from.

Once you pick the filter field you want, QuickBooks is pretty smart about how you specify your choice of information from there. For example, if you specify Transaction Type, it will offer you a drop-down list of all the transaction types. You can specify one Transaction type, or you can click “Multiple Transaction Types” and click away on the types you want to see in the report.

If at any point you want to go back to the report’s default filters, just click the Revert button.

When you are ready to apply your filter to the report, click the OK button. QuickBooks will apply your filter to the report results and refresh the screen.

Using filters is great for finding a needle in a haystack…when you know just one or two bits of information about what you are looking for, and don’t want to wade through pages and pages of detail to find it.

Filters are also great to find anomalies in your data…transactions with amounts, dates, or numbers that are outside the normal ranges.

Source: QuickBooks and Your Business Blog 2012

What Are Internal Accounting Controls?

CRA Revokes Trinity Divine Outreach Ministries as a Charity

Ottawa, Ontario, January 11, 2013... The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will revoke the registration of Trinity Divine Outreach Ministries, a Scarborough-based charity. The notice of revocation will be published in the Canada Gazette with an effective date of January 12, 2013.

On November 30, 2012, and in accordance with subsection 168(1) of the Income Tax Act, the CRA issued a notice of intention to revoke the registration of Trinity Divine Outreach Ministries as a charity. The letter stated, in part, that:

The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) audit has revealed that the Organization has not complied with the requirements of the Income Tax Act through its participation in a donation arrangement promoted by Innovative Gifting Inc. As a direct result, the Organization issued 40 donation receipts for a total exceeding $1.1 million for shares purportedly traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is the view of the CRA that the shares for which the tax receipts were issued did not legally qualify as gifts; that the Organization failed to demonstrate that it had actually received the tax-receipted shares; and that the Organization failed to report the fair market value of the shares purportedly gifted.

A copy of the notice of intention to revoke and other letters relating to the grounds for revocation are available to the public on request, in the language they were originally written, by calling 1‑800‑267‑2384.

An organization that has had its registration revoked can no longer issue donation receipts for income tax purposes and is no longer a qualified donee under the Income Tax Act. The organization is no longer exempt from income tax, unless it qualifies as a non-profit organization, and it may be subject to a tax equal to the full value of its remaining assets.

Registered charities perform valuable work in our communities, and Canadians support this work in many ways. The CRA regulates these organizations through the Income Tax Act and is committed to ensuring that they operate in compliance with the law. When a registered charity is found not to comply with its legal obligations, the CRA may revoke its registration under the Income Tax Act.

The CRA is reviewing all tax shelter-related donation arrangements (for example, schemes that typically promise donors a tax receipt worth more than the actual amount of the donation), and it plans to audit every participating charity, promoter, and investor. For more information about tax shelters, go to the CRA’s Tax alert Web page at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/alert.

For more information about the registration of Canadian charities, go to the CRA’s Charities and Giving Web page at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/charities.

Source: Canada Revenue Agency, January 2013

January 4, 2013...We are pleased to announce that Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) has been established under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, effective January 1, 2013. As Canada’s newest national accounting body, CPA Canada will support provincial accounting bodies that have unified, and all those that will unify, under the banner of Chartered Professional Accountant.

The 16-member Board of Directors for the new organization has been established under co-chairs Shelley Brown, FCA and Cassandra Dorrington, FCMA. The membership of the board reflects a cross section of perspectives based on regional representation, representation of the legacy designations participating in unification and public input. The Board of Directors will hold its first meeting on January 15, 2013.

One of the first priorities for CPA Canada is the development of the new CPA certification program that will be in place for delivery in parts of Canada by fall 2013, with the first CPA exams offered in the fall of 2015. Another top priority is the integration of CICA and CMA Canada’s operations and employees into CPA Canada.

While CICA and CMA Canada are the two initial members of CPA Canada, they will be joined by provincial bodies (and their members) as they complete their process to become a CPA body and submit applications to join CPA Canada.

Currently, accounting bodies representing over 80% of Canada’s professional accountants are committed to unification of the profession or have already merged under the CPA. Unification has been complete in Quebec for some time and in November 2012, all CAs in Ontario were also issued the CPA designation. As a result, an estimated two of every five professional accountants in Canada are now CPAs.

CPA Canada will work to serve its members by establishing the CPA designation as the pre-eminent, internationally recognized Canadian accounting designation and business credential that best protects and serves the public interest.

The Society of Management Accountants of Canada