The client was in the restaurant business with monthly sales of $15,000 - $30,000 depending on the time of the year. They owed approximately $70,000 plus ongoing interest in HST arrears. CRA demanded $15,000 immediately and $5,000 a month until the debt was paid with interest. The client could not afford it and asked their accountant to speak with CRA. After speaking with CRA the accountant (who had no experience dealing with CRA and tax arrears) came back to the client with the same repayment plan of $15,000 immediately and $5,000 a month.
The client contacted Money Consultants. Money Consultants became an authorized representative of the client (the only way CRA will speak with someone that is not the owner). Money Consultants was able to work out a repayment arrangement that the client could afford and that CRA would accept.
The arrangement that was presented and eventually accepted by CRA was:
No money down. (The CRA abandoned its $15,000 first payment demand.)
The original $5,000 monthly payment was reduced.
The repayment arrange that was presented and accept was $1,000 per month for 6 months and increased by $500 every six months until the arrears and interest were retired. This took approximately 34 months.
The monthly payments were also split into two equal payments of $500 payable on the 7th and 22nd of each month because the client had rent on the 1st and remittance on the 15th.
The client not only had to make the monthly arrears payments but also had to stay current on their new obligations.
The client, also in the restaurant business, operated 2 franchised restaurants.
The client had debt on both restaurants of about $50,000 for each restaurant. (Both restaurants were in Southern Ontario.)
Money Consultants worked with the client to find a repayment amount that the client could meet each month while staying current with his monthly tax obligations.
In this case, there were two CRA Collections agents involved, one for each restaurant. One agent was situated in Ontario and, after one phone call, agreed to an arrangement.
The second agent was located in BC. Peculiarities of CRA staffing and file management can sometimes lead to having offices in other provinces handle audits, objections or collection matters. This case was also a bit unusual in having two separate offices responsible for collection from the same tax debtor.
The BC agent was far more aggressive and unwilling, at first, to accept the same deal that was accepted by the Ontario agent. The client was pushed into a prepayment agreement with the BC agent before meeting Money Consultants.
The agreement was for $7,000 a month, which the client after a few months could not afford.
When asked why she (the CRA agent) would not accept the offer that I presented, she said: “The client did not live up to the last one. Why would he live up to this one?” Of course, the reason the client did not live up to the first arrangement was that the amount was unfair based on the client’s financial capacity. Eventually, after speaking with the agent’s team leader, CRA agreed to the arrangement that Money Consultants presented.
However, the team leader and agent said that they were going to review the client’s business in six months to decide if they wanted him to pay more. Money Consultants made it very clear that you either accept the deal that was presented with no changes down the road or the client was going to go with option 2 that was presented to the CRA. CRA accepted option 1, which was for $2,500 a month until the arrears and interested was retired.
There was another twist to this file that does happen quite often. During the repayment period, a new CRA agent was assigned to the file. The agent called the client up (who had made every payment on time and had kept current with his new tax obligations) with only 10 months left before the debt would be paid off. The new agent demanded that he pay the balance off in 6 months not ten months.
The client called Money Consultants to see what he should do. Money Consultants contacted the new agent and, after a brief call, the agent left the client alone and made no further demands.
Money Consultants’ fee covers the entire time that the client is repaying the tax arrears, not just the initial negotiations.
Money Consultants has been retained by businesses in the manufacturing, service, Tech and restaurant industries that have owed CRA between $50,000 and $1,250,000 million.
Contact
416-565-9455
michael@moneyconsultants.ca
Michael Yasny