Canada Revenue Agency at it again!

[Mellow Yellow]

I just learned from another accountant that CRA is after people using their cars for business.

He has a client who owns a corporation and uses his personal car for business. He gets a reimbursement from the corporation for mileage used at CRA rates. Sounds reasonable....not!

CRA is now saying because he is the owner of the corporation, he made the decision to go to his customer, instead of having his customer come to him. Therefore this is now considered a personal decision and now a personal trip!

Are they out of their fucking minds????

This will get appealed, of course, but it is indicative of the direction the government is taking to make sure no one owns a small business.


Even in my own case, I work out of my house about 35 minutes from the city, I always go to my clients office as it is more convenient, the data is there and I can take what I need after looking at the situation. I also have clients come to the house and have had CRA auditors sitting at my dining room table. They don't want me to write off any of my house and are looking at my mileage claim also.

God I'm glad I'm close to retirement and my weed business is about to take off!

[WTF]

just a guess here

the CRA bastards get reimbursed for their mileage?

[03svt]

This isn’t anything new, I was harassed by CRA twice over a my wife’s lease, we finally said F-it, not
Worth the b.s, it’s not like it was 1000-1500 a month lease, it was a 500$ Toyota Venza haha.

The problem if they can’t get you on one thing they will find something else, and I’d rather have as little as possible to do with them as possible.

[92redragtop]

what i don't get is that CRA folks, insurance company folks denying claims, or pick any other nasty minded unforgiving representative of these agencies are regular people too. They would feel just as fucked over if on the receiving end and are just as fallible as the rest of us yet they take off their "humanity hat" when they show up to work and happily screw over the little guy.

this is the root of "I was just following orders" comes from.

They have recovery/reduction targets and quotas in their performance reviews. Of course if they are unionized they won't get fired for not meeting expectations if they don't recover/reduce at or above target.

[Laffs]

I just learned from another accountant that CRA is after people using their cars for business.

He has a client who owns a corporation and uses his personal car for business. He gets a reimbursement from the corporation for mileage used at CRA rates. Sounds reasonable....not!

CRA is now saying because he is the owner of the corporation, he made the decision to go to his customer, instead of having his customer come to him. Therefore this is now considered a personal decision and now a personal trip!

Are they out of their fucking minds????

This will get appealed, of course, but it is indicative of the direction the government is taking to make sure no one owns a small business.


Even in my own case, I work out of my house about 35 minutes from the city, I always go to my clients office as it is more convenient, the data is there and I can take what I need after looking at the situation. I also have clients come to the house and have had CRA auditors sitting at my dining room table. They don't want me to write off any of my house and are looking at my mileage claim also.

God I'm glad I'm close to retirement and my weed business is about to take off!

The logic here makes no fucking sense. It's a client meeting, not like he was going to crack a beer at the guys place and watch the game. Also on what planet does forcing a client to come to you when you can provide the service to go to them constitute sound business sense. Of course were he to buy any halfway decent vehicle under the corporation for business use you know they'd have that under the electron microscope of so called justice.

Honestly sadly this doesn't shock me, if i see you around this summer Kevin I have some stories about auditors in the Windsor offices you'll get a kick out of. Honestly if I was started a new company I'd be going Stateside and making the biggest stink I could that it's our governments nonsensical anti-business behavior as to why I refuse to attempt to do business in Ontario.

[Mellow Yellow]

They have recovery/reduction targets and quotas in their performance reviews. Of course if they are unionized they won't get fired for not meeting expectations if they don't recover/reduce at or above target.

I didn't believe this at first, but in an HST case we are appealing we hired a retired CRA worker.....the information he provided on what they are required to do and how the "merit" system works is mind boggling.

They do in fact have a sort of quota system, trying to get a certain amount for each hour they spend on the audit.
Here's the kicker, they can be 100% wrong on their audit results; even if you appeal, it does NOT go against their merit! In other words they don't care if you appeal and win....not their issue.

[Mellow Yellow]

The logic here makes no fucking sense. It's a client meeting, not like he was going to crack a beer at the guys place and watch the game. Also on what planet does forcing a client to come to you when you can provide the service to go to them constitute sound business sense. Of course were he to buy any halfway decent vehicle under the corporation for business use you know they'd have that under the electron microscope of so called justice.

Honestly sadly this doesn't shock me, if i see you around this summer Kevin I have some stories about auditors in the Windsor offices you'll get a kick out of. Honestly if I was started a new company I'd be going Stateside and making the biggest stink I could that it's our governments nonsensical anti-business behavior as to why I refuse to attempt to do business in Ontario.

Laffs, agree with you 100%.

Sounds like an afternoon of beers is in order!

- - - Updated - - -


just a guess here

the CRA bastards get reimbursed for their mileage?


$0.56per km for first 5,000 kms

[Laffs]

my statement was more about human nature

how is it good people go to work and do nasty things?

I worked a part time job for a while with a lot of interaction with the public. I took the job to be more social. The corporate culture was one of excessive friendliness and helpfullnes, which was exhibited with the customers. In the lunch room the staff were just as petty, judgmental as everyone else.

The point being that when employees show up for work they assume the corporate culture like a uniform. Good generous people can become pricks and pricks can become good generous people depending.

Self preservation, ignorance, and jealousy seem to be mandate among many public sector employees. Essentially any business owner or successful person who is doing well must be a crook and heaven forbid they have any nice vehicle, home or vacation to come to after a 100hr + weeks of trying to do anything in this province.

[Mellow Yellow]

Continuing their logic... if you have a client in Vancouver and you "decide" to visit the client for a business meeting, can you deduct the airfare or because it was your personal decision to go and not have the client fly east it is now a personal expense?

[Laffs]

Do they still cap CCA on vehicles costing $30k or more?

[Mellow Yellow]

Do they still cap CCA on vehicles costing $30k or more?

yep!

Even though vehicle prices are climbing that threshold hasn't changed since 2001!

What can you get for $30,000 these days other than sub compacts.

[5.4MarkVIII]

what i don't get is that CRA folks, insurance company folks denying claims, or pick any other nasty minded unforgiving representative of these agencies are regular people too. They would feel just as fucked over if on the receiving end and are just as fallible as the rest of us yet they take off their "humanity hat" when they show up to work and happily screw over the little guy.

this is the root of "I was just following orders" comes from.

I used to be good friends with an insurance adjuster. he is a narcissistic ass hole who thinks he is above everyone around him. So screwing people over for a living was a perfect fit

[92redragtop]

my statement was more about human nature

how is it good people go to work and do nasty things?

I worked a part time job for a while with a lot of interaction with the public. I took the job to be more social. The corporate culture was one of excessive friendliness and helpfullnes, which was exhibited with the customers. In the lunch room the staff were just as petty, judgmental as everyone else.

The point being that when employees show up for work they assume the corporate culture like a uniform. Good generous people can become pricks and pricks can become good generous people depending.

Stanford Prison Experiment?

[92redragtop]

I didn't believe this at first, but in an HST case we are appealing we hired a retired CRA worker.....the information he provided on what they are required to do and how the "merit" system works is mind boggling.

They do in fact have a sort of quota system, trying to get a certain amount for each hour they spend on the audit.
Here's the kicker, they can be 100% wrong on their audit results; even if you appeal, it does NOT go against their merit! In other words they don't care if you appeal and win....not their issue.

They are pretty open about how they measure them - they pretty much work like collection officers (or parking enforcement or police issuing tickets) and are expected to "pay for themselves" with the "revenue" they book - they are incentivised to deliver positive (ie. revenue) audit results which is completely detached from the appeals process, not unlike the cops who give you tickets for stupid stuff (like the licence plate bulb ticket I got in late 2016 and had a JP cancel it once I showed him a receipt for a $2 bulb six months later after I helped spend Toronto taxpayer money - no money out of my pocket except for the bulb) only so you can challenge it afterwards in a separate process that doesn't go against their record.

When they hired extra auditors after the Panama Papers leak (originated in Luxembourg) they admitted this in the media interviews. Even at the Provincial level, the 100 or so employment standards officers Wynne hired/is hiring (45 already) have targets to issue fines against businesses after this whole minimum wage/Tim Hortons thing.

[stangstevers]

So I can’t claim my coyote swap expenses because I can get to my clients faster?

[Quicksilver]

In 1995 we were audited by the CRA. It was, they said, a routine audit, but they were really looking to see if we were doing any business under the table. (we weren't). They had 2 men for 6 weeks looking at everything. We set up an office for them, at their request. for 2 weeks in there, they had an additional 2 assistants (why I have no idea).
At the end of it all, we were charged a $250 penalty for claiming expenses for my wife's van. At the time the van had our name on it and was routinely used to pick up stuff such as glass panels that could not go in a pickup truck. Not allowed, apparently.
they did allow, however, the $200 that my crew chiefs spent to hire a stripper (am I allowed to mention her gender?) to come to my office for my 40th birthday.

I wonder how much the CRA spent on that audit?