We look forward to working with you in 2023. Can we help you with any of your New Year’s resolutions? Be in touch!
Category Archives: News
Hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
It’s been a joy working with clients and colleagues this year. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and much peace, hope, good health and prosperity in the new year. We look forward to working with you again in 2023!
Power on / Open today!
We’re happy to report that our power is back on, and we’re back in business today. Be in touch for all your accounting questions and requirements, as usual.
We have our fingers crossed that all friends and colleagues will have their power restored soon. Kudos to the repair and technical folks working hard to get the lights back on everywhere!
Power out / Closed today
As we are once again without power, we will be closed today. Please contact us by email at info@nevcon.com, and we will respond to your messages as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience!
We hope all our friends, neighbours and clients are safe and well. If you too are without power, we hope it will be restored soon.
Links to key 2022 Federal Budget coverage
Nevcon Accounting is pleased to provide the following links to articles, analyses and more, to help you learn more about the 2022 Federal Budget, delivered April 7, 2022.
- Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable
(Government of Canada) - Budget 2022: Feds eye growth with $31B in net new spending
(Global News) - Federal budget moves ahead with new tax on big bank and insurer profits
(CBC News) - Budget 2022 unveils billions in ‘targeted’ new spending, deficit projected at $52.8B
(CTV News) - Federal budget earmarks $56-billion in new spending, higher taxes, but short on growth plans
(The Globe and Mail) - Provincial, municipal governments praise 2022 federal budget for its focus on the housing crisis
(The Globe and Mail) - Liberals to ‘go further’ targeting high-income earners with budget’s new minimum income tax
(National Post) - Budget promises lower deficit, but more spending on housing, defence and social programs
(Toronto Star) - Complete coverage of the 2022 federal budget including tax highlights, an insightful federal budget analysis piece, and a webinar to learn about the most important tax changes being announced this year.
(Chartered Professional Accounts (CPA) Canada)
Links to key 2021 Federal Budget coverage
Nevcon Accounting is pleased to provide the following links to articles, analyses and more, to help you learn more about the 2021 Federal Budget, delivered April 19, 2021.
- Canada’s federal budget: A financial expert breaks it down
(Global News) - Highlights of budget 2021: Billions for green economic growth, healthier Indigenous communities
(CBC News) - How the 2021 federal budget impacts you
(CTV News) - Federal budget 2021: For this generation of Liberals, government’s role is to do everything within its reach
(The Globe and Mail) - Federal budget 2021 by the numbers: From a $15 minimum wage to $10 a day child care
(National Post) - Money for seniors and vaccine production. Highlights of the federal budget
(Toronto Star) - Federal budget 2021: Program extensions, new hiring subsidy for small business
(Ottawa Business Journal / Canadian Press) - Federal budget 2021: What you need to know
(Advisor’s Edge) - What The Budget Means For Canadian Women
(Chatelaine) - Budget 2021: 20 ways it could affect your wallet
(Macleans)
Create effective passwords, manage them well … and sleep better at night!
A recent series of cyberattacks on the Government of Canada web site used a method called “credential stuffing” to compromise the personal information of thousands of Canadians. The attacks shut down Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and GCKey online portals for several days and caused worry and confusion.
Credential stuffing takes advantage of the fact that many people use the same or similar passwords for multiple online accounts. Bearing in mind how vulnerable that could leave you, it might be time to give some good and considered thought to updating and diversifying your passwords to important accounts and services. You can google lots of good advice – here is an article that we think is useful: Top 15 Password Management Best Practices (from Beyond Trust).
On top of creating unique and strong passwords, it’s useful to organize and manage them all. Here are some tools and services we recommend investigating for your password management needs:
Password best practices and management makes for excellent peace of mind!
Keeping you up-to-date on small business news in response to the pandemic
As we’re sure you may have already heard, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made some announcements this morning (March 27, 2020) about additional programs available to support small businesses. What these programs will have to offer could possibly be substantial to you, so we understand completely that you would like to know what this means to you. Unfortunately, the government has not yet released a lot of details, so we’re not able to answer with any accuracy whether you qualify, or whether it will benefit you.
Please bear with us and all of our accounting and bookkeeping colleagues (who are working together and sharing insights) as more information comes out over the next several days. We promise that as we learn more information about what will impact your business, you will be the first to know.
Here is what we do know so far:
- Temporary Wage Subsidy – Originally introduced at 10% retroactive to March 18th, this new announcement brings the Temporary Wage Subsidy up to 75% retroactive to March 15th. There are no details yet on qualification, caps, or time period.
- Small Business Loans – Up to $40K, government backed, interest free for one year, up to $10K could be forgiven – is what we know at this point. No additional details have been given as yet.
- GST/HST Payments – These payments will be eferred until June 1st. Filings are still due, only payments are deferred.
- Taxes/Duties on Imports – Payments are deferred until June 1st.
- Bank of Canada has also cut the interest rate – down to 0.25%.
Thank you for your patience as we work to get more information. Wishing you and yours safety and good health as we all make our way through these unprecedented times.
Employment Insurance (EI) and COVID-19
This information is developing and changing as the COVID-19 situation unfolds. We’ll do our best to update the details as they change.
Laid off due to work closures?
- Apply for regular EI benefits
- You will need 700 work hours in last year
- You will need a ROE saying you’ve been laid off from your employer to get benefits
- There is a 1-week wait period (so you will not be paid for 1 week)
- Apply online: https://canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html
- Call 1-800-206-7218 for more info
Unable to work due to self-quarantine?
- Apply for EI Sickness benefits
- You will need 600 work hours in last year
- You do not need a ROE or sick note to qualify
- The 1-week wait period has been waived
- Apply online: https://canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html
- Call 1-833-381-2725 for more info
Laid off and ineligible for EI?
- Apply for the Emergency Support Benefit
- Amounts and eligibility has not yet been announced
- Applications will be available in April via CRA MyAccount, My Service Canada Account, and a yet to be released toll-free number
Self-quarantined and ineligible for EI?
- Apply for the Emergency Care Benefit for workers not eligible for EI (including self-employed) who are sick with COVID-19, quarantined, or taking care of a family member with COVID-19
- Up to 15 weeks of benefits, up to $900 bi-weekly
- Applications will be available in April via CRA MyAccount, My Service Canada Account, and a yet to be released toll-free number
Unable to work due to school closures?
- Parents with children who require care due to school closures can apply for the Emergency Care Benefit
- 15 weeks of benefits, up to $900 bi-weekly
- Applications will be available in April via CRA MyAccount, My Service Canada Account, and a yet to be released toll-free number
Do I qualify for WorkSafe benefits?
- WorkSafe benefits are not available for preventative measures or non-work-related exposure
- Only file a claim for COVID-19 virus infection contracted through work-related exposure,/li>
- Call 1-888-967-5377 for more info/li>
Phone scams confuse and hurt everyone – be prepared!
Nevcon Accounting recently received a phone call from an angry individual that left us angry and unhappy, too.
This individual claimed his mother was receiving threatening phone calls about her tax bill and the calls were coming from our number. We explained to the caller that his mother was the victim of a phone scam. We in turn were the victims of caller ID spoofing, where a caller displays someone else’s name and/or number to misrepresent themselves and to trick people into picking up their calls.
The CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) has a wealth of information on how to deal with telemarketing, unwanted and misleading calls and messages. We highly recommend checking out this information and making use of their tips and suggestions.
To be honest, it’s a shame we all have to be so suspicious, but this information is very useful for avoiding the hurt, confusion and worse that scammers try to cause.