This spring is bringing a tax season more complicated than usual, with pandemic benefits and payments adding to the usual paperwork.
But for Alina Bukatova, it might never be as complicated as 2018, when all the money in her bank accounts was seized after the Canada Revenue Agency thought she owed more than $8 million in taxes.
That’s despite an income Bukatova described as about $17,000 from working at a coffee shop.
It was a situation the 17-year-old student in Victoria ignored at first, thinking it was an attempt to defraud her.
Bukatova had used a branch of a well-known national tax preparation chain to do her 2018 taxes. She trusted what went through and didn’t see anything that appeared incorrect. So when her notice of assessment showed an income of more than $17 million dollars — and the associated $8 million in unpaid taxes — she assumed it was a fake, along with automated phone calls claiming she owed money to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Alina Bukatova’s notice of assessment had numbers so outlandish — such as an income of over $8 million — she was sure it was a scam. It wasn’t. (Submitted by Phil Hogan)
“The numbers were just so ridiculous that everyone looked at that piece of paper and saw that $8 million there and was like, wow, these guys aren’t even trying to pull off an elaborate scam,” said Bukatova. A friend who is also a lawyer checked over the document and agreed with that assessment.
While Bukatova’s seemingly outlandish tax bill was an error — and later corrected — it’s a reminder to check details carefully on your tax return, especially for tax year 2020 which is more complicated for many.
Phone calls weren’t a scam
Among the notifications Bukatova initially ignored were phone calls from an automated system saying it was calling from the Canada Revenue Agency about her taxes.
Many Canadians are familiar with what has colloquially been called a “CRA phone scam,” where phone calls claiming to be from the Canada Revenue Agency insist the recipient owes taxes and must pay immediately.
At the time, Bukatova was a teenager and brushed off the calls as fake or fraudulent, until she tried to use her debit card a few months later in mid-2018.
“I wanted to get myself some lunch and then it just wouldn’t go through,” she said in an interview with CBC Radio’s The Cost of Living.
“At that point, I actually checked my bank account and it was at negative $16,” said Bukatova.
There had been less than $6000 in her account, so that still meant the Canada Revenue Agency was looking for, say, $8,329,413.06, according to documents provided to CBC Radio.
“This was such an obvious error,” he told The Cost of Living.
Neither Bukatova, her family members or Hogan knew where the error occurred in the original tax return. Even several years later, Bukatova remains unclear on what went wrong as she couldn’t locate the error in the records she retained.
The Cost of Living ❤s money — how it makes (or breaks) us. We also repeat the following Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in most provinces. Catch us Sundays on CBC Radio One at 12:00 p.m. (12:30 p.m. NT).
The Canada Revenue Agency told The Cost of Living it could not comment on the specifics of this situation due to taxpayer confidentiality
Regardless, it was clear based on her notice of assessment that the CRA believed her income exceeded $17 million, rather than $17,000.
After accountant Phil Hogan intervened, the CRA re-assessed Bukatova’s income to a more reasonable amount for a 17-year-old coffee shop barista. (Submitted by Phil Hogan)
After obtaining permission and authorization to view Bukatova’s account, Hogan was able to speak to a CRA agent, explain the situation, and put forward an adjustment.
“I think they kind of ran it up the chain because the numbers were so significant,” said Hogan, who had not filed the initial tax return for Bukatova.
“I think it would have been quite challenging if the taxpayer got on the phone [with the CRA] and tried to work through it. Because once something hits collection, they tend not to like to bounce it back.”
Not all CRA calls are scam calls
The Revenue Agency encourages Canadians to be cautious if they receive suspicious phone calls claiming to be from the CRA.
However, it does make legitimate phone calls.
“The CRA may genuinely need to call you, for example, if you owe tax or other amounts to a government program,” said CRA spokesperson TJ Madigan in an emailed statement.
The CRA encourages Canadians to confirm any communication from the agency using their online CRA My Account portal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
The CRA’s website provides tips on how to determine if a phone call from them is legitimate. For example, you can log into the Revenue Agency’s online portal to confirm if the numbers you are seeing in a letter or hearing on the phone match your actual tax assessments — even if they are into the millions of dollars.
2020 is a more complicated tax year
The pandemic has meant a flood of new or different financial situations for many Canadians, along with a flood of unfamiliar acronyms such as CERB, CRB, or T2200A.
This will mean that there are more numbers to enter for millions of Canadians on top of their standard-issue T4 form, because the CRA expects COVID-19 emergency and recovery benefits to be reported on tax returns.
That includes the:
Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
Canada Emergency Student Benefit.
Canada Recovery Benefit.
Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit.
Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.
“If you received [those benefits] you will have to enter the total of the amounts you received as income on your return,” said CRA representative Madigan. Tax slips with the required information have been issued by mail, and can also be viewed online by people who have signed up for a CRA My Account.
Double-check your work and don’t miss deadlines
While tax-return software has made it easier than ever for Canadians to file their taxes from home, don’t leave everything up to automated systems without double checking, say accountants.
The responsibility for any error, whether via pen and paper or digital, remains on the taxpayer.
“The tax system is complicated and it’s not getting simpler,” said accountant Phil Hogan.
“2020 is a good example of that. We have a whole new slew of rules that the agents and professionals [at the CRA] have to learn. So they’re honestly probably doing their best,” said Hogan.
If your communications from the CRA seem off in any way, whether it’s by $8 or $8 million, make sure you communicate with the Agency by the deadline they provide in letters or on their online portal.
If you don’t, the agency could take action based on whatever information they’ve got, even if it turns out to be an error.
In the end, Bukatova did get her money back and her taxes were retroactively corrected a few months after her money was seized.
Written and produced by Anis Heydari. Click “listen” at the top of the page to hear this segment, or download the Cost of Livingpodcast.
The Cost of Living airs every week on CBC Radio One, Sundays at 12:00 p.m. (12:30 NT).
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
