I tried asking a few questions and getting a discussion going on CAIS in the Farm Management forum but hardly anyone seems to be there so figured I'd try here as you guys are more active :-)
Had an interesting discussion with my accountant this morning on CAIS. He has 350 farm clients and is about ready to strangle CAIS admin. The latest info he's been given is that he won't get the CAIS supplementary forms until at least the end of March. Then they expect him to be able to meet with farmers in April-June to complete them. Even an accountant can figure out that's not going to work but I guess it's too hard for CAIS staff. He's made up his own form which he hopes gathers the right info and is using it during his current meetings with farm clients so that hopefully he won't have to go back to them. He also said he is refusing to take on any new farm clients who aren't already in NISA as he simply doesn't have time to try to come up with the 5 years of info needed to get a reference margin. Apparently, that's happening with many accountants so even if you are willing to pay, you might not find anyone willing to help you do it.
Then there is the offical requirement that different income tax forms being used for reporting farm income based on whether or not you are in CAIS. But if you join CAIS later, you have to go back and re-submit your data on the CAIS-type forms (I'm not talking supplementary forms here, just regular income tax data). My accountant wants to use the CAIS-type forms (which are the old 1163 forms used for NISA) for all farmers and let CAIS only get the data from CCRA from those farmers who participate. He's been waiting for 3 days for a call from CCRA as to whether they will accept this. Thankfully, we are incorporated so this is a non-issue for us.
As to ourselves, we are still waiting for our 2003 Options Notice (have had 2004 for several weeks). I've called CAIS twice and got two completely different answers on the status (though both say it's stuck at their end).
Thoughts, comments, questions?
Had an interesting discussion with my accountant this morning on CAIS. He has 350 farm clients and is about ready to strangle CAIS admin. The latest info he's been given is that he won't get the CAIS supplementary forms until at least the end of March. Then they expect him to be able to meet with farmers in April-June to complete them. Even an accountant can figure out that's not going to work but I guess it's too hard for CAIS staff. He's made up his own form which he hopes gathers the right info and is using it during his current meetings with farm clients so that hopefully he won't have to go back to them. He also said he is refusing to take on any new farm clients who aren't already in NISA as he simply doesn't have time to try to come up with the 5 years of info needed to get a reference margin. Apparently, that's happening with many accountants so even if you are willing to pay, you might not find anyone willing to help you do it.
Then there is the offical requirement that different income tax forms being used for reporting farm income based on whether or not you are in CAIS. But if you join CAIS later, you have to go back and re-submit your data on the CAIS-type forms (I'm not talking supplementary forms here, just regular income tax data). My accountant wants to use the CAIS-type forms (which are the old 1163 forms used for NISA) for all farmers and let CAIS only get the data from CCRA from those farmers who participate. He's been waiting for 3 days for a call from CCRA as to whether they will accept this. Thankfully, we are incorporated so this is a non-issue for us.
As to ourselves, we are still waiting for our 2003 Options Notice (have had 2004 for several weeks). I've called CAIS twice and got two completely different answers on the status (though both say it's stuck at their end).
Thoughts, comments, questions?
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