CRA cuts red tape on small biz

CRA, in collaboration with the Canadian government, has made several changes to improve its services for small business owners.

Read: Small businesses face bigger banking challenges

The changes:

• Allow businesses to submit payroll enquiries through the My Business Account enquiries service;
• Allow businesses to update business banking and direct deposit information online;
• Improve access to My Business Account by reducing the processing time for a Business Consent Form from 14 days to only 5 days; and
• Increase outreach to businesses to ensure they are aware of less burdensome filing frequency options (for example, filing quarterly rather than monthly).

Read: CRA to cut 600 Ottawa jobs

“Improved technology put in place by our Government has made it much easier for small businesses to manage their taxes and we are committed to continuing that progress,” says Gail Shea, Minister of National Revenue and Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Minister. “With this latest suite of improvements, business owners and their tax professionals will have greater access to the online services they are asking for.”

Read: Small biz gets hiring tax credit

“Small businesses are major employers all across Canada, and help to support their communities,” adds Plamen Petkov, CFIB Director of Provincial Affairs for Ontario. “With these new changes to online services our members should be able to spend even less time meeting their tax obligations and more time running their business.”

For more from the CRA, watch their new video, which offers tips to biz owners.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.