We are helping my brother get back on track. What concerns me is that he has not filed his taxes, and he’s been receiving letters from the CRA indicating that he owes outstanding GST/HST.

What happens if he doesn’t have the money to pay back the CRA? Can he file for bankruptcy? Can they go after his home or his vehicle to recover the money?

I want to hire a bookkeeper, but he doesn’t have the money to pay one. We family members don’t know what to do. If we lend him the money, we will probably never see a dime back. But if we ignore the letters, we don’t know what will happen if he continues not filing or responding to the CRA.

Does anyone have experience with something like this? Are there any bookkeepers who do pro bono work or offer subsidized services?
My brother is in denial, but a lot of this has to do with the heavy medication he’s been on since being diagnosed with extreme bipolar disorder in 2019. I feel bad for him, and I know he has some responsibility for the situation, but what can we do to help?

He continues to run his business mostly from his bedroom since the meds he’s on make him drowsy and unstable. He’s got employees but I’m worried they are taking advantage of him.

I purchased a house in 1990 with my former common law partner, we changed it from joint tenant to tenants in common a few years ago and we sold it this year as 50/50 tenants in common, I owned 50%, she owned 50%. I lived in the house until 2010 then moved out. She stayed there and our children lived there for several more years. I married my current wife in 2015 and bought a house with her in a different city in 2017. How would the partial principal residence exemption work? I’ve read that as because the house was ordinarily inhabited by my former common law partner the whole time, I could claim it up until 2017 when I bought my new house with my new wife? Or could I only claim it prior to marrying my new wife in 2015? It talks about it here and I’m not 100% clear on what it means and all the exemptions https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-3.3/page-29.html

Hello all - hoping for some guidance, I have been the succession plan for my small Ontario corporation focusing on life insurance for a few years now. Principal is ready to make the transition but I'm feeling a bit unprepared and nervous from the tax side of things. He has done his own bookkeeping and a few things on the financials concern me.

If anyone is familiar with the industry and independent firm operations would love some input. Here are my main questions:

1. Is it normal to transfer ownership of an existing Corp or should I open a new Corp and transfer assets / clientele? There is a brand established and paper trail as the firm been in operations about 20 years.
2. How does one go about finding an accountant for this specific stage of business transition?
3. I am concerned about inheriting tax liability as the principal did his own bookkeeping, what are some ways to protect myself?