UPDATE CA Business watch BC Compan...

UPDATE

CA Business watch BC Company Act, and Joint pack Submission by Craig Fitzsimmons, Manager of Public Affairs

CA Business foresight

This month, the Institute will be releasing the CA Business sight a survey of chartered accountants that reveals their views onward the state of the economy in the pair the short and longterm.

In the past month Ipsos-Reid, a leading national market research firm, interviewed centurys of BC CAs to prosecute their opinions about the BC Canadian, and US economies; the generally received state of various sectors; and the overall watch for the future.

CAs were also asked whether businesses/clients would be expanding or contracting in the coming year, and their opinions were sought forward recent policy initiatives such as business and personal tax chisels

The survey results will be released to the BC media in mid-January (via regional of the present days releases and opinion columns) to demonstrate the central part of knowledge CAs bring to their clients and employer Copies of the examine will also be provided to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Competition, Science, and Enterprise.

The accrues of the survey will be situationed on the ICABC website in the near time to come

BC Company Act

In 1999 the former NDP management amended the Company Act. At the time, then-Minister of Finance beatitude MacPhail alerted the legislature to the fact that BC's Company Act had not been updated since 1973 and was, as a deduction badly out of date. In the following couple years, the Act was not brought into force, which l to speculation that there were question s with the bill (the revised Company Act was about 300 pages extended and included about 450 provisions).

The Institute has now learned that the Company Act is being revisited. We've told the dominion we're pleased with the fact that they're taking a sober other look at an Act many corporate law practitioners regard as unfashionable

The timing is important too, as investor-friendly corporate legislation is sweeping across North America, including our neighbouring jurisdictions. In Canada, many provinces have adopted a "corporations" act based onward the federal government's Canada Business Corporations Act. Many in the business community view the not long ago amended federal legislation as the gauge for corporate law in the 21st hundred years

In addition, this lately amended federal legislation replaced joint and several liability with a modified proportionate liability regime.

The Institute has told the Minister of Finance, Minister of State for Deregulation, and the Attorney General that we earnestly favour a BC version of the federal act.

Joint bundle Submission

In December, a joint taxation committee of the ICABC and the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch (CBABC) made a technical submission to officials in the Ministry of Finance. The Committee's primary recommendation was forward sales tax harmonization.

The Committee welcomed the exemptions from PST for machinery and equipment, still noted a number of technical difficulties that have been attacked in implementing the exemption.

They advocated that the BC management consider abolishing the PST, and, instead, become an agreeing province in regard of the federal goods and services tax (GST) The recommendation assumed a connection of broad tax reform that would be overall income neutral or revenue negative.

In the broader tax reform, provincial, individual, and corporate rates might be reduc to a competitive flat while refundable credits for reasonable income earners (conceptually, a restore of the sales tax applicable to the broadened base) would be implemented.

The Committee stated that the harmonization of sales taxes is desirable to make secure the competitiveness of the BC tax climate, to provide transparency and simplicity of compliance for taxpayers, and to bring into government administrative costs.

In addition, the Committee noted that in the evolving world of electronic exchange there would be a better chance of avoiding significant erosion to the sales tax base in value of digitally delivered goods if BC sales tax was assessed as part of a single, harmonized Canadian sales tax.

A special thanks to the following members of the ICABC Taxation Forum for their work forward the submission: Rich Carson, CA, from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Jeffrey Foreman, CA, from Ernst & Young LLP and Ron Osborne, CA, of Ron D Osborne CA.

The glutted submission is available on the conduct Affairs section of the ICABC website at www.ica.bc.ca.

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Jan 2002

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