Covid-19 Update: March 23

As we have all seen in recent days in the media, the Covid-19 virus has changed our lives in ways we could only have imagined. While these events have caused much uncertainty for all of us, as Canadians we will face it with strength and resilience. We are all in this together.

We believe that we all must do what we can to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus and the best way to do that is to practice social distancing. To achieve this, effective immediately until the end of the day, Tuesday, March 31, we are requiring staff to work remotely and provide our client service to you. We continue to be available to you by phone and email to assist you in whatever way we can.

We have made arrangements to allow you to drop off packages at our office daily from 9am to 1pm only. This is subject to change. We strongly urge you to take advantage of the secure document transfer portal to the extent possible in order to minimize interpersonal contact.

On March 18, the Federal Government introduced several measures to assist individuals and businesses through these challenging times. The more prominent and relevant measures include:

• Extending the personal tax filing deadline from April 30th to June 1;
• Deferring payment until after August 31, 2020 the payment for most income tax amounts that become owing after March 17, 2020
• Providing various income supports for workers and parents including relaxing qualification rules for Employment Insurance (EI) and introducing and Emergency Care Benefit and Emergency Support Benefit

Our colleagues at PwC have summarized the various tax reliefs in a document in the attached link. We encourage you to review it and contact us with any questions you may have. We highlight that some of these measures have only been introduced by the Federal Government and we are awaiting guidance from Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada on how some of the programs will be administered.

Please give either of us a call if you have any questions. We hope you and your families remain safe and healthy.