============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================
[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Candidus Podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:08] SPEAKER_00: Neil, I want to welcome you to Candidus Podcast and it's the first time I have officially interviewed
[00:19] SPEAKER_00: a grumpy accountant. I've had a few grumpy sessions with my own accountant but it's nice to me the grumpy accountant.
[00:29] SPEAKER_00: This is the first of a problem, we quite a few sessions that are going to be by monthly
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: specials for our entrepreneurial community across the country.
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: Really to help them on their journey building their businesses across Canada.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: You can expect more to come from us on that in the future with emails, posts online, on YouTube, etc.
[00:59] SPEAKER_00: But obviously Neil and I have been chatting and we'll come to this at the end but I think the grumpy accountant
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: is really onto something in terms of simplifying our tax systems for entrepreneurs and equalizing things a lot more.
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: I've been an entrepreneur in Canada for over three decades and I'm not from here originally.
[01:27] SPEAKER_00: And frankly I've seen the tax system for small to medium businesses that I've run.
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: It has really moved from 20 years ago. It wasn't bad. I came from the UK where it was quite punitive.
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't bad here and really over the last 20 years there's been more and more pressure on it, less and less and less sort of.
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: The advantages of being an entrepreneur and children the risk. It's really not been very good.
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: That's my quick thing. I'm not going to steal Neil's thing but that's why I was interested when he pinged me and said you want to talk to me.
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: Maybe everyone wants to listen to him. But I want to kind of just do a little bit of our intro in terms of Neil who you are, your entrepreneurial story, how you got there.
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: So Neil, you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do basically.
[02:35] SPEAKER_01: Sure. So I'm an accountant obviously. And I when I graduated from university, I think it was back in 2008, 2009 and I started working in small and mid-size accounting firms.
[02:50] SPEAKER_01: I ended up working in four different accounting firms in the span of four years.
[02:56] SPEAKER_01: So every year I switched jobs and at first I didn't realize why I was doing that.
[03:02] SPEAKER_01: It took a lot of introspection and thinking and reflection. And I realized I didn't like any of the jobs particularly. I realized I wasn't happy.
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: And after I finally obtained my CA designation now at CPA back in 2013, I realized that I don't like working for other people.
[03:21] SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to try going on my own. I had that what I call the entrepreneurial itch that most entrepreneurs are probably all entrepreneurs have.
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: They they realize at some point they need to be on their own start their own thing.
[03:34] SPEAKER_01: So I did that over seven years ago. I started my own accounting practice. And it's it's grown ever since.
[03:41] SPEAKER_01: But as my accounting practice grew and as which was a fun experience as an entrepreneur growing my own business and meeting other business owners, but I very quickly became quite grumpy and frustrated because of our tax system.
[03:57] SPEAKER_01: I mean what I do as an accountant is helping people and small business owners self employed people file their tax returns and comply with our tax system. And that's what led me to become very grumpy about it and and very frustrated about it.
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: You know just as we're going along everybody if you've got any questions just throw them it throw them in either question box or the chat box Curtis.
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: This is part of the team he doesn't want anyone to see him today, but that's fine.
[04:29] SPEAKER_00: Is sitting here with us and kind of working the working the background. So if you throw any questions in will he'll make sure that Neil and I deal deal with it.
[04:42] SPEAKER_00: So you know, but you meet entrepreneurs all the time. The customers.
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: I always ask this question because I think that's obviously I think we are.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: We are differently than other people that you meet.
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: I think for sure.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: I don't have studies and research to back it up, but my hunch is I mean the vast majority of my clients are people who are self employed and small business owners people who have gone out and
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: have taken a big risk in starting their own business from scratch.
[05:21] SPEAKER_01: And I think for people to do that to give up the security of a biweekly or semi monthly paycheck that's guaranteed and to go out and start their own business with zero revenue and zero income and zero customers.
[05:34] SPEAKER_01: I think you have to I think we are what entrepreneurs are why are differently.
[05:41] SPEAKER_01: Because to be willing to go out and take that risk is.
[05:46] SPEAKER_01: It's not easy as I'm sure we all know anyone who's done it. It's not easy.
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: And I think you definitely have to have an extreme amount of motivation and you have to be able to willing.
[05:59] SPEAKER_01: You have to be willing to be able to ignore all of the naysayers people who will tell you, oh, that's crazy.
[06:06] SPEAKER_01: You're going to quit your job and start your own business. What are you thinking? That's that's ridiculous. You can't do that.
[06:11] SPEAKER_01: It's it's insane.
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: But you think about how every business start.
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: I mean Jeff Bezos started Amazon and his garage. Michael Dell started building computer in his dorm room. Mark Zuckerberg was in his dorm room writing code for Facebook.
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: People you take a risk and you started business. You have to be wired differently. I think so.
[06:30] SPEAKER_00: Okay. So let's get back to taxes.
[06:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the greatest challenge you've met in the tax system?
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: Well, the entrepreneurial side, the small of the medium tax system that you you've had to face up to today.
[06:47] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's I mean, what I try to show in the book is is real stories that have happened to clients of mine real experiences. I would say the biggest challenge is small business owners.
[06:59] SPEAKER_01: Just trying to comply with the tax system properly. And one of the crazy of stories that happened to a client of mine.
[07:09] SPEAKER_01: Is that they paid themselves in the wrong manner. Okay. And they and and and they were put through a two year bureaucratic nightmare.
[07:19] SPEAKER_01: And it was it was a nightmare for them. Because instead of giving themselves T fours from their corporations and paying themselves with CPP income tax deductions at source.
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: They didn't know the rules. They didn't know you had to do that. They showed that salary income as self employment income on their personal tax return.
[07:39] SPEAKER_01: The series said no, no, no, no, no, it has to be on a T four. And they and they forced them to redo like two years of tax returns, file T fours, pay and repay the same amount.
[07:50] SPEAKER_01: They already paid the tax and CPP on their personal tax returns. And the CRA made their corporation paid even though it was already paid, but it was just the wrong method.
[08:00] SPEAKER_01: So all the correct amount of income tax and CPP was paid, but it was done in the wrong way. And that that story really was kind of pushed me over the edge.
[08:10] SPEAKER_01: And I actually filed a service complaint with the CRA because of that. And it's stories like that that I find so challenging. It's people are okay with paying a reasonable amount of tax.
[08:21] SPEAKER_01: Most people will say, yeah, I'll pay whatever percent of tax that's fine, but make it easier for me. Make it simple. Why does it have to be so complicated?
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: So the biggest challenge, and this is what the book is about, it's the complexity of the system. And I'm calling for a massive simplification.
[08:40] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just move on with the book a bit. I mean, I must admit, you know, why write the book? You don't expect an accountant to write a book about tax reform. Maybe this is how you make your mind.
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: You know, you make your money after solving people's stuff. So tax what was kind of thing. So why kind of stand out for tax reform?
[09:08] SPEAKER_01: Well, that's exactly why wrote the book. I mean, what I'm doing right now is I'm helping a couple hundred or a few hundred people every year comply with the complicated tax system.
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: But, and that's how I'm earning the living. But I don't, I'm 35. I just turned 35 years old. So let's say I have another 30 years to go doing this, helping a few hundred people every year.
[09:31] SPEAKER_01: If there is a way I could help millions of Canadians, not even have to comply with the complicated tax system in the first place, if we could simplify it. And then people wouldn't need my services and they could save money.
[09:47] SPEAKER_01: Canadians right now spend on average $500 per year per household to file their individual tax returns that doesn't include businesses and corporations.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: We have 40,000 employees working at the CRA, 40,000 CRA employees. That makes them probably one of the largest employers in the country when you think about it. And their budget's almost $5 billion a year.
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: So my goal with this book, the reason why I wrote it is because I felt like I want to do something other than just help a couple hundred people every year that have to pay me for my help.
[10:20] SPEAKER_01: I want to do something that would help millions of people. And if I can advocate for a simpler tax system and if the idea is in the grant be counted can actually become or help influence government policy, then it would help many more people other than just my clients.
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: And I felt like, I mean, I feel like this every night I'm in bed trying to fall asleep and the thoughts running through my head, this is what I'm thinking about.
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about, what am I doing with my time every day, tax season filing tax returns. I want to help more people. And I don't want people to have to keep receipts for six years and go through Siri audits and reassessments.
[10:59] SPEAKER_01: And that's why I wrote the book. I wanted to really do something else other than just, you know, tax season every year.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: So on a style level, which is I found I found interesting. And for those I haven't read it, it makes it a good quite fast, easy read. You made it a fictional term.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, maybe what why did you do that? Because you know, if it's tax, you think dry boring, you know, why why make it a fictional judge?
[11:33] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when I started writing the book, I mean, the reason why it started is because I would complain every day to my wife after work about everything that happened that day.
[11:42] SPEAKER_01: And she grew tired of this and she said, stop complaining to me, but maybe you should write down your thoughts, write a blog, write some articles. And I took that advice.
[11:52] SPEAKER_01: And I started writing and I realized there's enough material here for a whole book. So I started to compile it into what would become a book. But the original format I was just writing out kind of, you know, problem solution.
[12:06] SPEAKER_01: Here's the problem with the tax system. Here's how we can fix it. And I realized that that format is so dry and boring. And even I had trouble going back and reviewing what I wrote the previous day as I was editing it.
[12:22] SPEAKER_01: So I realized I have to find a different format for this book to make it relevant and readable. And it was around that time I read the wealthy barber by David Chilton and the wealthy barbers written as a story. It's almost like you're writing a novel.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: And I felt, oh, that's how I need to write my book. So my book is about Jerry and Elaine and George. And it reads as a story as it's almost like you're reading a novel and there's characters and the characters develop.
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: And those characters are real that they come from you. You know, your life experiences, your business life experience.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: Well, the names of the characters come from a certain TV show, which I won't name because I don't want to be sued by a castle rock. But you can probably guess what show that I'm a big fan of.
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: But the story's in the book that Jerry is the main character and George is the grumpy accountant. And Jerry bumbles through the tax system at every stage in life. So the book reads as an narrative. Jerry graduates from university and he starts his first job. And then you know, when he gets married and he has kids and he starts his own business and he retires.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: So he goes through every stage of life. And he and George are navigating the tax system. But all the stories and the tax nightmares that Jerry goes through are based on real experiences that have happened to my clients.
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: And I received permission from my clients to include their stories. And I had to, you know, change around some of the details a little bit. But it's all true stories. And that's what, you know, some of the feedback I've been receiving has been people kind of in shock.
[13:56] SPEAKER_01: That's some of these stories are true, but they are, they are true stories.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: Well, we're getting some questions here. I was going to ask you, you know, did you consult with the CRA on some items in the book, but the C Angie has thrown out the question. So we'll take Angie's question, which is quite similar is.
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: Do you have any CR influences, there are sympathetic here cause of tax reform for the benefit of creating a more business friendly culture and system in Canada?
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: So is the question people at the CRA specifically? Yeah, yeah.
[14:30] SPEAKER_01: Well, I was, I remember once I had a phone call, I'm on the phone with CRA agents all the time. And I remember once an agent said to me, I was completely, we were going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, but a particular rule that made no sense.
[14:46] SPEAKER_01: And the agent basically came to agreement, she said, look, you're right, this law makes no sense. But if you want to, but I don't have a choice, like she said, I have to apply the law, but you should contact, remember a parliament and trying to change the law.
[15:00] SPEAKER_01: And I said, actually, I'm writing a book about this and I will change this law one day.
[15:05] SPEAKER_01: So there are people, the CRA who are sympathetic, but like they can't do anything about it. The let it's and I write this in the book. It's not the fault of anyone at the CRA, the complexity of our tax system is the fault of it's not the CRA's fault.
[15:18] SPEAKER_01: It's the department of finance and that's headed up by the minister of finance. So it's the prime minister and the minister of finance that would be responsible for actual legislative changes to the to the income tax act and to the tax system, the CRA and what's known as like the department of revenue, they don't have a choice. They just have to apply the law.
[15:40] SPEAKER_01: So we have to lobby the prime minister and the minister of finance to actually make the legislative changes.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: So based on reading your book and some of your notes, I guess I want to live in Denmark because their tax system for small business seems to be a great model. And I see Paul here has a question that similar to that.
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: He says what needs to take place from a regulatory perspective to streamline the taxation process here, not in Denmark.
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's a lot we can do it. And I'll just focus on, you know, self employed people entrepreneurs, small businesses. The compliance burden right now is so great. And I'm not even talking about, you know, tax rates and the amount of tax.
[16:24] SPEAKER_01: Let's leave that aside, just the complexity. So for example, one thing I think we need to do is increase the small supplier limit for GST, HST, $30,000.
[16:35] SPEAKER_01: If you're under $30,000 of revenue every year, you're exempt as a small supplier from collecting and registering for GST, HST and filing HST.
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: But that $30,000 number comes from 1991. It's 30 years. And like, have we not had inflation in the past 30 years? Like what am I missing here? That number should have increased every year.
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: So today that number should be around 60 or maybe 70,000. I think that's, yeah, I think that's one thing we could do to actually relieve some of those people who are under, you know, maybe 70, 80,000 of revenue every year.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: To relieve them of the burden of collecting and registering for GST, HST and filing HST returns because it's a big burden. And I think another thing we could do is right now, if you have a corporation, you have to file your corporate tax return, your personal tax return, your HST return, your T4 for salaries or T5 for dividends.
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: We should have a way of combining all of that into one tax filing. That's what they do in the United States. There's something called an S Corp. I'm not a US tax expert, but I'm a little familiar.
[17:43] SPEAKER_01: An S Corp is, if you own and manage your own company for legal purposes, you could have the corporation, but they combine it into your personal tax return.
[17:53] SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to file a corporate tax return and a personal tax return and a sales tax return and a T4 for your own salary. It's crazy. We force business owners to have four or five different tax filings and sometimes even more because HST has to be filed quarterly and you have to make corporate income tax installments, personal tax installments, payroll tax, HST payments.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: So we have to find ways and I present these ideas in the book of how to combine that into maybe one tax filing, which would make it so much easier.
[18:22] SPEAKER_01: And also less chance that people will incur penalties on late filing. So there's a lot we could do to really simplify that compliance burden.
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got another question from Angie. Angie, you seem to be following my trainer thoughts, but still that's cool.
[18:41] SPEAKER_00: Neil and I over the last week or so, I had a couple of chats.
[18:46] SPEAKER_00: And you know, what Angie says is what are the top two actions you were championing, championing that small business owners across Canada can take to lobby the Minister of Finance.
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: And that kind of pulls into the question that I had was how do we get a movement going to get small business tax reform on the government agenda because they're not interested.
[19:14] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's so far away from where they're at.
[19:18] SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you talk about lobbying Angie? I like those top two actions. I'd love to know what you thought the two things to focus on would be Neil.
[19:29] SPEAKER_00: But think about the movement side of it as well.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: Sure. Well, the top two, I think would be the two I mentioned increasing that GST small supplier limit that would help a lot of people and combining the tax filing so people could have a corporation for legal purposes because they're worried about liability issues and things like that.
[19:48] SPEAKER_01: But from a tax filing perspective, allow one tax return, combine the HST return, the corporate tax return, the personal return, the T4 combine those four into one.
[19:59] SPEAKER_01: And it should be one page, one page tax return. Then people when they need to hire people like me to do all of that work for them.
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: So the goal of tax simplification might not might, you know, if you asked me to my top two ideas, the goal should always be people should be able to navigate it and do it on their own.
[20:19] SPEAKER_01: That should be the ultimate goal. So those are two things we could do.
[20:22] SPEAKER_01: In terms of a movement, I've been thinking about this a lot actually and starting some sort of advocacy organization that's, you know, non partisan, non political that has people participating from all all across the political spectrum to call for tax simplification.
[20:42] SPEAKER_01: Because when you think about it, we might disagree on, you know, whether what the tax rates should be our Canadians paying too much tax, too little tax, who should be paying what tax capital gains tax.
[20:56] SPEAKER_01: Should we increase it? Should we decrease it? Aluminate it. I mean, I don't think we'll ever come to agreement on those issues, people from across the political spectrum.
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: But what we should all agree on, at least let's simplify the tax system for as many people as we can as much as we can. Who could just agree with that?
[21:11] SPEAKER_01: I mean, even if you know someone's the most ardent kind of communist or socialist or libertarian or fiscal conservative or whatever, anything in between, we should all agree.
[21:21] SPEAKER_01: Let's have a simple tax system to save everyone money on all end. So the advocate, I've been thinking about advocacy and maybe starting some sort of organization and I actually have a Facebook group called grumpy taxpayers of Canada Unite.
[21:38] SPEAKER_01: And I have also a book launch team. If people really like the book, you could reach out to me from my website and join, we're creating a team, a small little community, community of dedicated fans of the book to help spread the word about the book and that might lead to an organization to advocate for a simpler tax system as well.
[22:01] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, on the book, we will be Kurdish is in charge of that. We will be doing a draw from the attendees and letting them know if they want a coffee.
[22:11] SPEAKER_00: So just to let everybody know. But you know, I'm also interested, you know, moving a little bit away from the book and your perspective, you're in the counter, you get to have you've got small business clients that, you know, across I imagine, all kinds of things.
[22:31] SPEAKER_00: And kind of disciplines. You know, we've gone through probably the most scary six months that I've, that I've experienced and I've done some pretty hefty recessions in the last 30 years.
[22:50] SPEAKER_00: What are you seeing? I mean, what's the future of small business in Canada from what do you have? You see it?
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's, it's very scary. I think it really depends on the particular industry that the business is operating in. I have a few clients, maybe more than a few that have really been hurt by this.
[23:12] SPEAKER_01: And some of these shutdowns and lockdowns, some people's businesses like I have a couple clients that are in the kind of industry like party and events, equipment rentals and catering, catering events.
[23:26] SPEAKER_01: There's no events now. So these businesses are, they're inactive. They just stopped operating. And it's very hard for people. It's very scary.
[23:34] SPEAKER_01: Some people, one of my clients, people who, who he's a very savvy entrepreneur, he's, he completely transformed his business from being a event and party rentals type business to hand sanitizers.
[23:50] SPEAKER_01: Some people have been able to make that pivot. It's, but it's very hard. But he's been doing okay because he did that. But his event party rental business is, you know, zero revenue now. It's very scary.
[24:02] SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people at anyone, you know, the whole restaurant industry, hospitality, they're, they're suffering. It's very hard. I don't know what the future will be. I imagine that eventually the world should go back to normal. I don't think this will ask forever.
[24:17] SPEAKER_01: I think eventually the world will go back to normal. I hope. But until then it's, it's scary. And all the government programs that they've put into trying to help small businesses.
[24:28] SPEAKER_01: The sea balloon, right, that $40,000 sea balloon, the wage subsidy commercial rent relief. These programs have been, for the most part, not designed perfectly. Let's just say that and complicated sometimes and difficult to access.
[24:46] SPEAKER_01: And of course, after people sign up and receive some of these programs and benefits, the CRA will be auditing to make sure you were in fact eligible for them. So there's going to be a compliance burden there.
[24:59] SPEAKER_01: Next year, tax season 2021, it's going to be a nightmare for many people. So it's, yeah, it's, it's very scary. What's happened. It's, it's very difficult for a lot of people. And I hope obviously that eventually things go back to normal and everyone can reopen.
[25:16] SPEAKER_00: I think Angie is what, Angie sort of on, on the question thing, because she wants a bit of free advice from the counter. No, I'm just kidding.
[25:26] SPEAKER_00: She's got one more question here. And you know, we're kind of reaching on 30 minute limit here. But, do you know any other country states that have been cooperating technology and innovation and achieved tax reform already that they can look at as a best practice?
[25:45] SPEAKER_01: Is there a lot of countries that are doing things in a way that's a lot better than how we're doing it. So for example, in the United Kingdom, for employees, if like they get their T, T4 slip, the equivalent of a T4 there. And then the employee has no further filing obligation at the end of the year.
[26:12] SPEAKER_01: So most people in England and some of those other European countries as well, those Scandinavian countries.
[26:18] SPEAKER_01: The employee doesn't have to file a tax return at the end of the year because the T4 basically is the tax return. Now we have this technology here in Canada already. So to the credit of the CRA, this might sound a little weird for me to say.
[26:33] SPEAKER_01: But to the CRA is credit actually, they have auto fill so you can auto fill your tax return. They have my account. They have my business account anyone who has an HST account, yes, T account payroll account corporate tax account.
[26:46] SPEAKER_01: You set up your online CRA my business account for your individual tax. You set up my account. You could auto fill your tax return. You could see all your notice of assessments there. All your T slips are already there.
[26:58] SPEAKER_01: You could see all your payments, your account balances, your installment payments. You've made all your assessments and reassessments. You could submit documents right through there. They've actually got a lot better using technology.
[27:10] SPEAKER_01: The problem is not the CRA is willingness to adapt and use more technology. The problem is the government itself, like I said before the legislation, our tax returns right now have so many.
[27:21] SPEAKER_01: If you look at your tax return from last year, the calculation for federal tax is nine pages long. It's insane. Look at all the deductions and credits. That's what we have to target. We have to eliminate every single tax deduction and credit.
[27:36] SPEAKER_01: And then you can lower the tax rate and we could do the same thing for businesses. We could get rid of the expenses and just have a lower tax rate on the revenue or at least give people the option of how to calculate their taxable income.
[27:49] SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot we can do there. But again, it's not. I've got stuff on the other coin here. I don't know whether you know Marvin. He was here. It said, how you from Thornhill as well.
[28:00] SPEAKER_00: Who's an X CRA employee? Okay. Field order. It feels officer technical advisor. Of course.
[28:06] SPEAKER_00: Who basically that question by Marvin. Fantastic input. It says what we're advocating what you're advocating will take light years to implement.
[28:16] SPEAKER_00: The answer is to educate small business owners in the ways of blogs ebooks, etc. He thinks the CRA is not trained properly. I think he means in terms of working with small business.
[28:29] SPEAKER_00: And the spike in retirement. The CRA is causing them nightmares as well. Probably not enough people to put on it.
[28:38] SPEAKER_00: He's starting a blog. So maybe you're both in the same in the same town there. Maybe he should. He wants to start a blog with case studies, which will have good insight.
[28:49] SPEAKER_00: So you two guys to get together because he's got stories from the other side. I think that would be a real real good thing.
[28:58] SPEAKER_01: Marvin, you you should write the grumpy X CRA employee. Start writing that.
[29:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. And finally, you know, we're going to have to kind of, you know, we fit our 30 minute limit, which I try to make these live sessions on one thing from Angie.
[29:14] SPEAKER_00: She says get all the big Canadian accounting funds on side view. You know, do you see why MNP, etc. to rally behind the course?
[29:23] SPEAKER_01: CPA Canada, I've I've reached out to the CPA Canada has tax committees that are supposed to liaison with CRA and liaison with the department of finance from the government to help them and help advise them.
[29:37] SPEAKER_01: The word on the street is that the current government in power right now in Ottawa is just not interested in this issue of simplifying the tax system.
[29:45] SPEAKER_01: It's not on the radar. They're not interested in it. So we have to hope. I mean, I don't want to get political, but I hope my personal opinion, I'm disclaimer. This is my opinion. I hope for a change in government and hopefully a new government that specifically puts this in their party platform.
[30:02] SPEAKER_01: And I would welcome every political party to put the idea of tax simplification in their platform, but the current government is not on board. Like they just this is not on the radar. But CPA Canada has this on the radar to simplify the taxes and they know it has to be done.
[30:17] SPEAKER_01: They might not take it to the extent that I do because they would mean a lot of accountants will lose a lot of business. And as Marvin was saying, the difficulty that CRA is having.
[30:28] SPEAKER_01: Again, it's a very good point, but it proves my point. It's the legislation itself is too complicated and even the CRA can't keep up with with administering it.
[30:36] SPEAKER_01: So when the tax system, when the taxpayers and tax filers can't comply with it. And the CRA, which is the body responsible for administering the tax system can't even administer properly. We know we have a problem.
[30:49] SPEAKER_01: And the problem is the legislation itself. We have to abolish the current income tax act and redo it. We have to completely redo it from the ground up. And I try to offer a plan like that in the book.
[30:59] SPEAKER_00: I think we just need to keep reminding governments that entrepreneurs small business is the lifeblood of Canada. And especially with so many big businesses retracting back to the States or Europe or whatever, we are we are the future basically.
[31:24] SPEAKER_00: So, so Angie, I'm going to kind of pass that price that final question on because I'm going to bring it to a close.
[31:33] SPEAKER_00: Neil, just before we close, why don't you let everyone know how to just repeat you said you did say how people get a hold of you. But I think just repeated again because we were involved in conversations and dialogue.
[31:47] SPEAKER_00: So just let's let's tail off with that and let people know how they get a hold of you.
[31:52] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can just visit my website, grumpy accountant dot CA. And there's a contact form so you could just reach out to me right through there.
[32:01] SPEAKER_01: And the book, of course, well, we're going to be giving out some free copies, but it's also it's available on Amazon dot CA. There's an ebook and audio book. I actually narrated the audio book, which was a lot of fun.
[32:13] SPEAKER_01: So if you want to listen to me rant for over five hours about this, you can.
[32:18] SPEAKER_00: Wait until you win a copy. So that's all I was.
[32:22] SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Neil. No, for sure, for sure.
[32:26] SPEAKER_00: Okay, guys, well, thank you, Neil. It's really great. Thanks, everyone, for attending.
[32:31] SPEAKER_00: It's the first of many sessions. It's been a nice discussion. Everyone dived in with questions and input and really really mean fun. Thanks, everyone.
[32:42] SPEAKER_00: And we'll see on Canada's podcast next time through.
[32:46] SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
