To our loyal clients,

We know these are unprecedented times with the COVID-19 disrupting our daily lives and work environments. The Federal Government and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced several new financial support measures for individuals and businesses. CRA is consistently updating the information they are releasing to the public and we will try to relay this information to you and how it pertains to your business and operations.

Based on the current information available:

Support for Individuals

• CRA has delayed the 2019 personal tax filing deadline to June 1st, 2020 (still June 15th, 2020 for self-employed)
• Amounts owing for 2019 personal taxes, payment is not due until September 1st, 2020
• No penalties or interest shall accrue on tax balances due or instalments due until after August 31st, 2020
• Please file as soon as possible to ensure you get your Canada Child Benefit, GST credits or refunds
• Additional $300 per child for Canada Child Benefit starting in May, no application needed
• Special GST credit for low/modest income individuals and families starting April 9, $400-600 average additional credit
• Mortgage support can be obtained by contacting your bank to defer payments
• For people facing lay-off or unable to work and not eligible for EI, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit will provide $2,000 per month for 4 months to eligible workers who lost their income to Covid-19.

o   Applications start April 6 https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html

• For those ill or laid off, please consider employment insurance benefits: for regular EI https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-regular-benefit/apply.html  or EI Sickness Benefits https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-sickness/apply.html
• To assist seniors with registered retirement income funds (RRIF), CRA has reduced the minimum withdrawal requirement by 25% in 2020.
• Student loans do not need to be paid for a period of 6 months and no interest will accrue for a period of 6 months from March 30

Support for Businesses

• Corporate tax filing deadlines from March 18 to June 1, 2020 have been delayed to June 1st, 2020
• Any corporate Part 1 tax owing between March 18 and September 1 has been delayed to September 1, 2020
• T3, T5013, NR4 slips and forms filing due date has been pushed to May 1, 2020 and all other information returns to June 1st, 2020
• GST/HST return remittances deferred to June 30th, 2020 for amounts owing on or after March 27, 2020:

o   June 30th, 2020 for monthly filers for months of February, March, April

o   June 30th, 2020 for quarterly filers for the 1st Q (January to March, 2020)

o   June 30th, 2020 for annual filers for the 2019 balance owing and 1st Q instalment

• PST, Employer Health Tax and Logging Taxes have been deferred to September 30th, 2020
• To keep workers employed, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy proposed would cover 75% of salaries for qualifying businesses (revenue must be down 30%) for up to 3 months retroactive to March 15, 2020 which covers businesses of all sizes other than public sector entities.  The benefit would be up to a maximum of $847 per week.  More details: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/economic-response-plan/wage-subsidy.html
• If the business does not qualify for the above subsidy there is also the Temporary Wage Subsidy (for a period of 3 months) equal to 10% of wages paid during this period to a maximum of $1,375 per employee and $25,000 per organization https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/covid-19-update/frequently-asked-questions-wage-subsidy-small-businesses.html
• Business Credit Availability Program - $40B provided to BDC to provide federal loan guarantees and co-lending of up to $6.25M of operating and cash flow term loans to small and medium size enterprises.  The program and funding should be available at the end of April.  Please contact BDC directly for more details as they become available.
• The new Canada Emergency Business Account will provide interest-free loans of up to $40,000 to small businesses and not-for-profits, to help cover their operating costs during a period where their revenues have been temporarily reduced.  $10,000 of the loan will be conditionally forgiven if the loan is repaid by December 31, 2022. To qualify, these organizations will need to demonstrate they paid between $50,000 to $1 million in total payroll in 2019.  Please contact your existing bank for the delivery of this program.  It should be available by the end of April.
• If your business has been forced or decided to close temporarily during this time, employees will be laid off and issued a Record of Employment (ROE)
• Laid off employees may be applicable for Employment Insurance sickness benefits or the new Emergency Care Benefit

Registered Charities

• Filing of the T3010 Registered Charity Information return has been delayed to December 31st, 2020

Once the application process is available for any of the above programs, we will be happy to assist client determine whether or not they qualify or if they need assistance in applying.

Please do not hesitate to contact us (preferably by email) and we will do our best to answer all questions and concerns with the information currently available