CRA and the Tipping Point of Pain
It happens fairly frequently actually. My phone rings, it's a taxpayer or their representative. It's urgent. We get into it. What seemed "urgent" is in fact not so much a matter of urgency, but a tipping point. A tipping point of pain.
No one ever quits or changes anything until they get more pain from it than pleasure. That's especially true of tax issues. It's fascinating to me how people's perception of urgency changes once they hit that tipping point of pain. The point at which they're getting more pain than pleasure from allowing a tax problem to sit unattended. All of a sudden a tax issue that's been festering for years becomes a crisis requiring immediate attention.
The catalyst could be any number of things. They can't renew a mortgage because there's a CRA lien on their property, their bank has been garnisheed, a collections officer is asking to see a statement of income and expenses, a partner is threatening to move out if a debt or filing isn't dealt with, arbitrary assessments have been issued... and on and on it goes.
If I could ask Canadians carrying tax liabilities or who may have avoided filing tax returns one question; the question I'd ask is, what's your tipping point of pain?
It might be helpful for folks to see things from the point of view of someone who sorts out non-compliance issues all day, every day. The questions running through my mind when I talk to people about their tax issues are quite specific. What has to happen before you decide to deal with a tax problem? How far do things have to go? A garnishee to your employer? A garnishee to your receivables or bank? A lien on your property? Having investments or assets seized?
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If you're a tax practitioner with recalcitrant clients, ask them, "What's your tipping point of pain?"
Owner of RAM Accounting & Consulting
3 年Lynne Couves
Partner
3 年Great advice. I've often found that even in situations where we have to do the work to determine what they might owe and the results aren't great, clients will very often still have a good deal of relief to now have the problem quantified. For many, the true nightmare was having the problem fester for years into a shapeless, numberless black hole. Pinning down the problem in numbers makes determining a solution much more feasible, even if it's not particularly pleasant for a while.