Rogers outage, Paletta FCA tax case and more Canadian accounting news
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TORONTO, July 10, 2022 – The large story of the week was the Rogers Communications service disruption that interrupted web connections for a whole bunch of 1000’s of Canadians, companies and providers, together with accountants and accounting companies and even the payment of property taxes. Coming so quickly after the messy takeover of Shaw Communications by Rogers, this second service outage in 15 months appears to be like very dangerous for Rogers, in addition to Canadian web safety as an entire.
York College Professor Richard Leblanc, a governance knowledgeable and Canadian Accountant contributor, informed Canadian Press “the outage presents a studying alternative for menace actors comparable to Russian state-sponsored hackers.” Rogers blamed the outage on a “upkeep improve” though many on-line commenters expressed scepticism. And now, on to the remainder of the information from the previous week in Canadian accounting.
Paletta courtroom loss will price a fairly penny. Will the case go to the Supreme Courtroom?
The rich Paletta household of Burlington, Ontario are no strangers to tax litigation. The Tax Courtroom of Canada dominated their Hollywood funding technique was a sham in 2019. Now, a latest resolution by the Federal Courtroom of Attraction might wind up costing them a fairly penny, until they select to combat the choice all the way in which to the Supreme Courtroom of Canada.
The case entails a overseas foreign money buying and selling scheme that, as we reported in 2020, was additionally utilized by former members of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whereas David Rotfleisch gives an evaluation of the case in Canadian Accountant, we have been considering a few of its extra curious facets. For instance, the Paletta property initially received the case in Tax Courtroom earlier than Justice David E. Spiro, who was the topic of a controversial incident involving the College of Toronto.
Spiro dominated that the overseas foreign money buying and selling actions gave rise to a enterprise. By the way, among the many precedents cited within the case was Friedberg v Canada, 1993, an enchantment of an FCA resolution during which one of many legal professionals concerned was David E. Spiro.
The unanimous decision within the Paletta case is especially harsh: “The Tax Courtroom’s causes … aren’t solely incorrect, they’re implausible” and “The Crown has succeeded in demonstrating that Mr. Paletta was grossly negligent in portraying his buying and selling losses as enterprise losses regardless that they weren’t.” The FCA basically dominated that the entire scheme was meant to create tax losses, not in “the pursuit of revenue.”
With tens of millions of {dollars} at stake, will the case go to the Supreme Courtroom? The tax neighborhood, which celebrated the Tax Courtroom’s preliminary resolution, appears dismayed on the “shocking end result” within the FCA. For media retailers, nevertheless, Paletta tax circumstances are the reward that retains on giving.
Go East, younger accountant
Mylene Lapierre is the president and CEO of CPA New Brunswick earned some media this week with a report on how the accounting career contributes to the provincial financial system. She used the chance to tout the province as a beautiful location for accountants — particularly younger accountants and the internationally skilled — as the present workforce strikes towards retirement.
Accounting companies shifting into post-pandemic world
Enterprise in Vancouver, the commerce publication revealed by Glacier Media, spoke to several accounting firms recently about work within the post-pandemic world. Among the many points mentioned have been hybrid work fashions and laws concerning disconnecting from e-mail after hours. Among the many reveals is that companies are reducing again on their journey budgets as they discovered in the course of the pandemic that work could be achieved capably by video conferencing.
CRA windfall confuses PEI residents
Anne of Inexperienced Gables can be kicking up her heels. However PEI residents have been simply confused this week by a windfall from the Canada Income Company, which mixed an entire bunch of tax rebates into one cheque, and labelled all of them as “Prince Edward Island gross sales tax credit score.” According to the CBC, maritimers have been lower than impressed, and needed to do some investigating to seek out out why they have been so fortunate.
Fast Hits
CRA loses fight with construction foreman over drive-to-work expenses (Monetary Publish)
NDP calls for action to make the rich and powerful pay their fair share (NDP.ca)
CEOs at Canada’s largest companies saw 23-per-cent pay increase in 2021 (Globe and Mail)
Edmonton realtors push back against councillor’s mansion tax idea (CBC)
Will Pillar Two Block Multinationals’ Real Estate Rollovers?—Part 1 (Bloomberg Tax)
Why the U.S. dollar will be replaced as the dominant global currency — sooner than you think (Toronto Star)
The stock market is plunging. What should you do to protect your investments? (Toronto Star)
Wirecard’s former top accountant admits forging documents for KPMG special audit (Monetary Occasions)
EY boosts accountancy title inflation by dubbing senior staff ‘partner’ (Monetary Occasions)
By Canadian Accountant workers.