Thought Leaders

Thought Leaders
Who really killed Canada’s carbon tax? Friends and foes alike
While the tax could be replaced by an equally effective tool, its repeal increases uncertainty about Canada’s ability to support climate change mitigation
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Thought Leaders
CPAs in 2025: Frustrated, overworked, and underappreciated
From uncertainty to compliance to staffing, Chartered Professional Accountants say their stress is not offset by client appreciation, reports Dean Blachford
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
Trump’s tariffs threaten Indigenous businesses in Canada — the government must take action
Accounting Professor Douglas A Stuart and Indigenous Business Professor Andrew J. Karesa on supporting Indigenous business during a trade war and tariffs
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Thought Leaders
Trump, tariffs and Canadian tax strategies: There must be 50 ways to leave your country
Allan Lanthier explains how some Canadian corporations have redomiciled to the United States and why there may be more to come unless changes are made
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
Why Trump’s plan to cut national debt by selling ‘gold card’ visas for US$5 million each won’t work
"If you’re a billionaire, you don’t need it," said one Canadian billionaire. "I don’t have to come to the United States to invest in the United States."
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Thought Leaders
Protecting CPAs using solicitor-client privilege
Chartered Professional Accountants may be enveloped into privilege if they are the client’s agent, pursuant to an agency agreement, explains Dean Blachford
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Thought Leaders
Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests
A Canadian accounting professor explains that development relationships like USAID are shaped by both the interests of donors and those of the recipients.
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
What is the 90-year-old tax rule Trump could use to double US taxes on foreigners?
Like Canada, Australia created a digital tax that US President Trump could deem as discriminatory or extraterritorial, and subject to retaliatory tariffs
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Thought Leaders
Why accountants should recognize the bias in accounting standards and use it to our advantage
Accounting standards have focused on the balance sheet, says Philip Maguire, CPA, CA, yet the effort to match book value to market value has been a failure
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
The carbon tax needs fixing, not axing — Canada needs a progressive carbon tax
A progressive tax that punished the wealthy for their outsized emissions would be more palatable than a flat steering tax that hurts low-income Canadians
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
Trump’s proposed tariffs against Canada and Mexico may be illegal, but that’s not the real problem
To integrate further through appeasement with a country that has rejected the rule of law would be to surrender Canadian sovereignty to the United States
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Thought Leaders
The Big Four accounting firms often consult for the same clients they audit. Should that be allowed?
Accounting research shows that the Big Four, when engaged as compensation consultants, appear to uphold more rigorous standards than smaller counterparts
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Thought Leaders
Cineplex’s $38.9 million fine is a wake-up call about corporate sustainability practices
Accounting professor Douglas A. Stuart asserts the Competition Bureau’s fine for drip pricing practices is just one example of sustainability mismanagement
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Thought Leaders
Only the United States benefits from renegotiating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal
Free trade deals with regular renegotiation requirements such as CUSMA put smaller economies under pressure to lose leverage and surrender policy autonomy
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Thought Leaders
Churches don’t pay taxes. Should they?
Many Canadians don’t realize that religious properties are tax exempt, however, this privilege is increasingly being debated as organized religion recedes
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
The ‘tax-free trap’: How a simple phrase skews Canadians’ savings choices
Canadian taxpayers may be sacrificing long-term savings for short-term investments due to heuristic language that simplifies complex decisions
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Thought Leaders
A Privilege Primer, Part III: Reconsidering accountants’ tax services as legal services
In the third of a three-part series on the Gaudreau case before the FCA in Quebec, Brian Studniberg of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP concludes his thoughts on situational forms of privilege between tax accountants and their clients
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- VIEWS 160

Thought Leaders
Election rumours invite reflections on Doug Ford’s record in Ontario
Reducing taxes and costs to businesses and consumers in the short term is raising questions about the Ontario government’s long term fiscal responsibility
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Thought Leaders
‘We remain concerned’: Senate inquiry into PwC tax scandal calls for reform, but overuse of consultants will likely continue
Despite scathing public inquiry reports about the PwC Australia tax consulting scandal, it would take decades to reduce government reliance on consultants
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Thought Leaders
DAC Investment and the GAAR: Did the Tax Court of Canada get it right?
Allan Lanthier is unconvinced by the reasoning in a recent Tax Court of Canada decision involving a Canadian-controlled private corporation and the BVI
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Thought Leaders
A Privilege Primer, Part II: Where do accountants fit in under existing Canadian law?
In the second of a three-part series on the Gaudreau case before the FCA in Quebec, Brian Studniberg of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP examines the settings in which an accountant’s work product could be protected by legal privilege
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Thought Leaders
Why the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion is a bad deal for Canadians — and the world
Taxpayers are on the hook for an economically disastrous Faustian bargain that will burden future generations of Canadians as it contributes to climate chaos
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Thought Leaders
Crystallizing capital gains before June 25: What about the GAAR?
Allan Lanthier explains why the General Anti-Avoidance Rule, as amended by Bill C-59, should not apply to a planning alternative to new capital gains rules
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Thought Leaders
The new game in town: Capital gains and the alternative minimum tax
The federal government's new capital gains rules have left taxpayers in a pickle says Allan Lanthier. But here's a planning alternative with a deadline of June 24
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Thought Leaders
A Privilege Primer, Part I: Gaudreau reminds that there is no accountant-client privilege in Canada. But why?
Can the courts compel Canadian accountants to disclose their tax analysis? In the first of a three-part series, Brian Studniberg of Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP looks at the Gaudreau case currently before the Federal Court of Appeal in Quebec
- COMMENTS 13
- LIKES 149
- VIEWS 160