In this comprehensive course, Steven Pitucci, a practicing CPA from Toronto, Ontario, discusses the main areas you need to know about audits executed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), updated for current technical issues encountered by tax accountants and lawyers across Canada.
The ten areas covered in this course include:
- Government stats and objectives pertaining to CRA audits.
- Introduction to the CRA Audit Manuals, with a walkthrough of navigating the Income Tax Audit Manual (ITAM).
- Types of reviews and audits that the CRA executes.
- Common audit triggers and adjustments to tax returns.
- CRA audit trends being observed in 2024 – including net worth audits, property flips, GST/HST carousel schemes, and other matters.
- Steps in the CRA audit process.
- Steps in the tax objection process.
- Legal considerations when dealing with the CRA.
- Legal privilege in tax audits (and when accountants can assert such privilege).
- How to achieve the best results from a CRA tax audit.
Included in this course is a bonus section that contains a downloadable copy of a Net Worth Audit (NWA) spreadsheet template similar to one used by the CRA when conducting such audits. This resource is extremely useful for understanding how the CRA conducts its analysis in NWAs and can also be used to vet their findings. Steven includes a video walkthrough on how to use this spreadsheet and further discusses specific considerations related to NWAs.