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Autumn and Changes

From the movie “Shrek” comes one of the quotes I like to remind myself when I am facing and struggling with change “Change is good Donkey”

In my September blog, I wrote about the “5 Lessons Learned Thus Far in 2017” http://smartcpa.ca/blog these were lessons gleaned from an unplanned and really, unwelcomed change with staffing and the upset of the static strategic plan.  I did often have to remind myself that this unplanned change could be good and overall and with reflection it was.

However, some changes are questionable and possibly harmful.  Bill Morneau’s proposed tax reforms announced on July 18, 2017 has the potential to cause a lot of damage to small business owners and the economy.  Many tax specialists, tax lawyers and tax payers pushed back strongly during the 75 day consulting period.  During this period I had the opportunity to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speak at UBCO, attended the CPA Roundtable: Tax Planning Using Private Corporations, taken two day Video Tax News Seminar and discussed with several of my colleagues on the implications of these proposed tax changes.  It was good to see some of the strong feedback from many across Canada influenced the Liberal government to amend some of the harsher proposed changes.  Some of proposed changes to income sprinkling and passive income are to take place January 1, 2018 and some are on hold.  The uncertainty has not been a welcomed change agent this past summer.  Will this impact local businesses: absolutely!  In trying to make life as a tax payer “fair” it adds another layer of costly complexity that is usually felt by the small business owner.  It is a challenge to confidently do tax planning when the tax rules can be so abruptly changed without due process.

One of the new changes that SMART & ASSOCIATES is implementing is the use of Mail Chimp to be able to communicate directly with clients.  The nice thing about Mail Chimp is that you can simply un-subscribe if you do not want to receive this form of communication.  The goal is to provide regulars blogs/communication via Mail Chimp, www.smartcpa.ca/blog and also www.facebook.com/smartcpa.  Some of the communication will be more of a personal level as I did in last month’s blog and other times it will be more technical – such as what is recommended to prepare for the 2017 tax season.