July 27, 2020

Your CFA Update on COVID-19

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ADVOCACY EFFORTS ON COVID-19

Government extends 2019 tax payment deadline to September

Today the CRA announced that it was extending the payment deadline and applying relief to interest on existing debt.

Payment deadline extension

The CRA is extending the payment due date for current year individual, corporate, and trust income tax returns, including instalment payments, from September 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020. Penalties and interest will not be charged if payments are made by the extended deadline of September 30, 2020. This includes the late-filing penalty as long as the return is filed by September 30, 2020.

Interest on Existing Tax Debt

The CRA is also waiving interest on existing tax debts related to individual, corporate, and trust income tax returns from April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020 and from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020, for goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) returns. While this measure for existing tax debts does not cancel penalties and interest already assessed on a taxpayer’s account prior to this period, it ensures that a taxpayer’s existing tax debt does not continue to grow through interest charges during this difficult time. This measure provides immediate relief to impacted taxpayers.

Filing returns

The previously extended filing due dates for individual, corporate, and trust income tax returns remain unchanged. However, recognizing the difficult circumstances faced by Canadians, the CRA will not impose late-filing penalties where a current year individual, corporation, or trust return is filed late provided that it is filed by September 30, 2020.

For those receiving credits and benefits such as the Canada Child Benefit

The CRA temporarily suspended interruptions for those who were unable to file their income tax and benefit return by the June 1 deadline. Currently, if a 2019 individual tax return has not been assessed, the CRA is calculating benefits and/or credits for the July to September 2020 payments based on information from 2018 tax returns. However, if 2019 individual tax returns are not received and assessed by early September 2020, estimated benefits and/or credits will stop in October 2020 and individuals may have to repay the amounts that were issued as of July 2020. The CRA has helpful information and a step-by-step guide to help Canadians complete their taxes. The CRA tax processing system is fully operational and returns are being processed quickly to support Canadians in getting their refunds and ensuring continuity of their benefits.

GetintheLoop is helping CFA members on the road to recovery!

We are hoping that we can contribute to getting your brand back to driving significant revenue. To help on the road to recovery, we are offering CFA members to join the platform for no cost, with no. obligation, for 3 months. 

RBC – COVID Consumer Spending Tracker

Spending stabilizes – solidifying early recovery

• Consumers seem to have hit their stride into July, with card volumes holding relatively steady since the end of June. Spending is hovering near year-ago levels, as many parts of the country continue to slowly re-open.

•In most categories, spending stuck close to the levels cited in our last report, strengthening a rebound several weeks in the making.

Online spending holds strong, as Canadians avoid the mall

• Online purchasing remained robust, with some categories seeing a lasting shift toward more frequent virtual purchases.

• Canadians continued to embrace remote buying, particularly in categories where delivery and curbside pick-up have been broadly accepted.

• Even as stores reopened to customers, online and remote spending remained stronger for clothing retailers, restaurants, and grocery stores as consumers avoided crowds.

• In-person entertainment and health spending bounced back to pre-pandemic levels quickly, especially as things with few online alternatives reopened (e.g., golf courses, hair salons).

Montreal's Crescent Street to be car-free for rest of summer

Montreal's Crescent Street is going to be closed to cars until Sept. 30 as part of the city's effort to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today, the street is closed to traffic between de Maisonneuve Boulevard and Ste-Catherine Street. Steve Siozios of the Crescent Street Merchants Association said the association requested the closure to allow people  more room to spread out during the pandemic.

N.L.'s projected deficit soars to $2.1B

Newfoundland and Labrador's deficit is expected to hit $2.1 billion for the current fiscal year, an increase of $1.35 billion, as new numbers paint a grim fiscal portrait of the province. The ballooning deficit is the result of increasing expenses combined with plunging revenues since the start of this fiscal year in April, two weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown gripped the province.

The province is reporting an expected increase in expenses of $720 million for the year, with health care costs and the province's pandemic response contributing heavily to that figure.

Health care costs alone are projected to increase by $261 million, $90 million of which is directly related to the pandemic, with PPE costs cited as the bulk of that cash. The rest, said Osborne, involves pressures on the health care system overall, like the rising cost of goods.

The province's $200-million contingency fund, approved by the House of Assembly in March, also contributes to the rising expenses, of which $118 million has been spent so far, pending reimbursements from the federal government. That money has gone toward items like paying for daycare spaces and daycare workers, a home construction rebate package, the tourism sector, and compensating people who had to self-isolate due to travel restrictions.

This year's projected $2.1 billion debt is shy of the worst deficit ever, the $2.2 billion figure that came in 2015-16. 

The province's projected revenue is expected to decrease by $631 million, the lion's share of that — $560 million — from declining offshore royalties. The province had previously budgeted in 2019 for oil revenues based upon $68 USD a barrel. Currently, oil is commanding half that, at $34 USD a barrel, which is itself an improvement from past months as a global price war waged, with oil markets crashing a result.

Another unexpected revenue loss came from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Although the province did not provide a dollar figure, the closure of its retail outlets and VLTs due to public health restrictions has meant less money coming in.

Friday's numbers mean the province now projects a net debt of $16.7 billion. That figure had previously stood at $14.6 billion. The province will need to borrow $3 billion to see it through, although Osborne didn't anticipate having trouble being able to secure that cash, citing positive market response so far. Early on in the pandemic as Newfoundland and Labrador looked for money, lenders had questioned Newfoundland and Labrador's ability to pay, and the Bank of Canada stepped in to assist.

Sherrard Kuzz LLP Legal Support Program
To help navigate the recovery of COVID-19, CFA members have the opportunity to contact Sherrard Kuzz LLP for one free phone-consultation, once per calendar year, to a maximum of 15 minutes. A member may use their 15 minutes to seek information about any employment, labour or human resources issue related to the User (subject to Sherrard Kuzz LLP successfully completing a conflict check to ensure it may advise on the matter).

HOW TO ACCESS THESE SAVINGS:
To take advantage of this CFA member benefit, contact Michael Sherrard at msherrard@sherrardkuzz.com or 416-603-6240.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

JULY 28, 2020
AT 2:00 PM ET

Navigating the digital world and digitizing your business
 50 CFE PARTICIPATION  CREDITS  

Join this panel discussion for an in-depth conversation about business in the digital world including: digital payments and cyber security, managing the customer experience in a digital world, choosing the right solution(s) for your business and where to find them, moving business processes online (e.g. accounting, payroll, etc.), and managing your data.

AUGUST 4, 2020
AT 11:00 AM ET

Update on Government Programs: Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy

 50 CFE PARTICIPATION  CREDITS  

Recently the federal government announced it was extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) until December 19, 2020. The extension is great news for franchised businesses but it also is significantly more complicated. The extended CEWS:

• Expands the program to more employers by eliminating the 30% business decline in qualifying threshold
• Changes the maximum wage subsidy that some businesses were receiving
• Enhances the wage subsidy for employers with more than a 50% business decline

Join experts from BDO Canada to learn about the recent changes to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and understand how they will affect your business as you recover.

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Feedback from our Members

“My husband, Jim and I would like to thank everyone at the CFA who has worked so hard and tirelessly to provide us with updated information on the Covid-19 crisis, for the webinars, lobbying for change and for all of the support you provide to members on a regular basis. We are sincerely grateful. To everyone at the CFA, take care and stay healthy.”

 - Nadine Cartman, CEO, Chicken Delight of Canada Ltd

COVID-19's impact on the world is creating waves across all sectors and industries.

Every member of the CFA community is dealing with an issue that is affecting the world, our industries, our communities, our businesses, and our people.

We would like to hear from you if you have any topics, issues or questions to navigate turbulent times in order to support you further: 

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