So the wonk bureaucrats at CRA are back at it again. Trying to drum up support for T4A reporting of fees paid to suppliers/contractors. For most small businesses this will be a bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions and will accomplish absolutely nothing except wasting massive amounts of time and energy.
Please make your feelings know to the bureaucrats there that this is an unwelcome and unwanted burden if you feel that way.
(Because we all know who’s going to bear the brunt of this…don’t we?)
They wonder if accountants know about the RFS - yes we know about it but won’t get too involved in it until they give us some useful information. So far, I suppose most of us have been ignoring it hoping it will go away.
But if we did everything they are asking for, we could charge our customers so much more money - T3s, UHT, RFS.
Indeed. What are we going to do with small business corporations that don’t have December year-ends and which we see only once a year?
Do we now have to do their bookkeeping all in February when we are swamped with T4’s? This is ridiculous.
That survey doesn’t let you say much, other than whether or not you support the system (i.e. T4A slips). They should be asking for suggestions how to improve it, or make it so that people WANT their T4A slips. Like T4 slips - if employees don’t get their T4, they can’t file their taxes and get their refund and other benefits. So, they demand that of their employer (or at least expect it). If there was some benefit or need to get a T4A slip from the payor, everybody would be begging for them.
Then, that would create a need for someone to invent a device or app that automatically facilitates the secure exchange of information (name, SIN, amount paid) for every service transaction of any kind between any two people or businesses, and compiles the data for annual T4A prep. But, then there would be people gaming/defrauding the system to gain whatever benefit the government devises as an incentive for people to report their fees for service.
So…yeah. Any way you look at it, it’s a nightmare.