Sunday News Roundup 22.04.24: Come-from-away taxes, truck taxes, and more

Wrapping up the odds and ends from the past week in Canadian accounting news

Apr 24, 2022 Author: Canadian Accountant

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TORONTO, April 24, 2022 – The most controversial tax news during the past week was the Non-Resident Deed Transfer Tax and Property Tax by Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservative government. Basically, it’s a special property tax on non-residents, or “come-from-aways” as they say in the Maritimes. So let’s call it the CFA Tax for fun.

To be specific, the CFA Tax will add a surcharge of five per cent to the price tag of a property if it is sold to someone who is not a full-time resident of Nova Scotia, and add the equivalent of two per cent of a property’s value to the municipal taxes out-of-province homeowners already pay. In other words, kiss that second home or cheap vacation goodbye.

Noah Richler, who owns a property in Sandy Cove, is leading the opposition charge in the Globe and Mail and the Saltwire network, William Watson in the Financial Post, with both municipalities and the business sector calling the come-from-away tax “bad for business.” And now, on to the rest of the news from the past week in the Canadian accounting profession.

Freedom from tall tales of truck taxes

It’s been amusing watching the Conservatives and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation playing populists over a supposed “truck tax.” The Sun Media chain has been running multiple stories warning readers that the Liberals are planning to broaden an existing tax on large SUVs to apply to trucks. The CBC debunked the grandstanding this past week by pointing out the difference between policy and the advice in the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, while Canada’s National Observer asserted that There isn’t a truck tax — but there should be. Regardless, the absence of a truck tax won’t change the Sun Media chain’s opposition to electric vehicles.

Hike the corporate tax rate, says other side of the tax spectrum

In case you didn’t already know, there are three large national tax policy advocacy groups in Canada. On one side is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (“we hate all taxes”). On the other side is Canadians for Tax Fairness (“we like most taxes”). And you can throw the Canadian Tax Foundation (“we like to talk about taxes”) into the mix. Notice that all three can be called “the CTF.” Come to think of it, you can toss in CPA Canada as well.

And that preamble is just to say that Canadians for Tax Fairness (actually: C4TF) asserted in the Toronto Star this past week that, If we want Canada to recover economically, it’s time to raise the corporate income tax rate, saying “It was welcomed news that the 2022 federal budget included two new taxes on banks and life insurance companies.”

Deloitte tops commercial services global brands

Congratulations to Deloitte, which was named this week as the most valuable and strongest commercial services brand in the world, valued at US$29.8 billion. Brand Finance, a chartered accounting firm in the UK, published a series of annual lists of top global brands, including in the commercial services sector, which not only includes the Big Four but credit card companies and consulting firms.

For those keeping track, EY (2nd), PwC (3rd) and KPMG (9th) all made the top 10 commercial services brands, and ranked as the top four professional services brands as well. The publication features an interview with Deloitte CEO Punit Renjen, who threads the needles with a lot of talk about being both purpose and profit-driven, which apparently are not mutually exclusive.

Watch out for infected accounting resumés

This report from IT World Canada is warning organizations to be on the watch for malware spread by infected resumés in job applications. Apparently ransomeware-types are setting up fake profiles on LinkedIn and then responding to job postings with resumés in zip files. A couple of Canadian companies in addition to one UK accounting firm have become victims.