You asked. We delivered.
While you were working feverishly away during tax season, we thought you might like some good news…
In the early days of the CEWS Pilot Program being undertaken by the CRA, Accountancy Insurance funded, outside of the policy, the first 50 eligible CEWS Pilot Program audits for our clients that came across our claims desk.
For us, that wasn’t enough. We wanted to find a way to continue covering all eligible CRA wage and rental subsidy reviews for our Audit Shield clients.
- Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS),
- Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS),
- Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP),
- Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP),
- Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP), and
- Local Lockdown Program (LLP)
are now covered by Audit Shield.
This is great news for CPA firms, as we understand more CRA review activity is on its way.
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Audits in respect of any government benefits or entitlements like wage and rental subsidies have historically always been an exclusion in the Audit Shield Tax Audit Insurance policy.
The logic behind this is that a Tax Audit Insurance policy covers Tax Audits in respect of validating, substantiating, justifying, or supporting whether or not you owe more taxes or duties than you declared in a filed return. Government benefits and entitlements like wage and rental subsidies, on the other hand represent discretionary incentives being offered up by governments to encourage certain behaviour.
They are not compulsory and not everyone is entitled to these, and the process involves an application process, and then a possible audit of the eligibility, entitlement, purpose or use of that benefit or entitlement.
With this in mind, we wanted more for accountants and their clients. We wanted to find out how we can cover wage and rental subsidy reviews with Audit Shield.
How did we make this happen?
Our team have been collaborating with our underwriter, Lloyd’s to see how wage and rental subsidy reviews fit into the Audit Shield coverage to better support accountants and their clients.
Any delay so far has been caused by detail only recently being released as to how these programs are going to be administered and more importantly for us how we think they are going to be reviewed or audited in the future.
After lengthy discussions with Lloyd’s, we came to the conclusion that many of the CRA wage and rental subsidy reviews are covered by Audit Shield.
This is a big win and one we fought hard to get over the line. A big thank you also goes to Hugh Neilson of Kingston Ross Pasnak (KRP) for assisting us in our submission to our underwriter.
The team at Accountancy Insurance are pleased to be able to deliver this news. We hope that it will be some help in supporting your firm and clients.
Protect your clients against additional fees with Audit Shield.
CRA review and audit activity is already back to pre-COVID levels, and we predict huge increases in CRA compliance activity going forward.
The premise of Audit Shield is very simple. It is a solution offered by a CPA accounting firm that provides for the payment (often this is written off) of professional fees incurred when their client is selected for a review, audit, inquiry, investigation, or examination of filed returns instigated by the CRA and other provincial revenue authorities.
With Audit Shield the accountant and the client can take on a CRA review or audit, side by side, responding in the most thorough way, without the cost or stress being a concern.
Why CPAs in Canada like Audit Shield:
- No COST solution, in fact you retain an admin fee each year
- No claim DEDUCTIBLE, no minimum claim
- We do the work to send the offer to your clients (goes on your letterhead)
- If your client is subject to a review or audit – you claim 100% of your time responding (up to the sum insured)
- Claims are paid directly to you within 5 working days
Exclusions:
For clarity:
- Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB),
- Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB),
- Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB),
- Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB), and
- Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB)
are all Employment and Social Development Canada programs and are still not covered by Audit Shield.