Financial Relief During COVID-19

During this difficult time, as people in British Columbia and around the world are self-isolating in order to slow down the COVID 19 pandemic, governments, the Law Society of BC, and CPA Canada have provided law firms, lawyers, and accountants with some relief.

As of 28 March 2020, key forms of relief include

PST: filing and payment deadline extended to 30 September 2020 [1]
EHT: filing and payment deadline extended to 30 September 2020 [2]
GST: payment deferred to 30 June 2020 for the February, March, and April 2020 reporting periods, for monthly filers, and for the 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020 reporting period, for quarterly filers [3]
Income taxes: payment of income taxes that become owing on or before March 18, are deferred until after 31 August 2020 [4]
Wage subsidies: the federal government will be provide small businesses with a wage subsidy package. These subsidies will be included in income for 2020 [5]
CERB: the government of Canada has implemented a new Canada Emergency Response Benefit for a range of workers, including the self-employed, who find themselves unable to work [6]
Interest rates: The Bank of Canada has reduced its overnight rate to 0.25% [7]
CIV: The Law Society of BC has relaxed its CIV requirements so that, with some restrictions, lawyers can use video-conference technology [8]
LIF: lawyers experiencing financial challenges can defer payment of the second LIF instalment to 31 August 2020 [9]
Trust Report: The Law Society of BC extended the Trust Report filing deadline for the period ending 31 December 2019 to 30 April 2020 [10]
CPA Canada: 2020/2021 membership dues payment deadline deferred to 1 August 2020 [11]
Work-sharing: duration of work-sharing program has been extended from 38 to 76 weeks. [12]
CERB: the who have been laid off or the self-employed who have found their work has dried up.