Matt According to an article published in June of 2026 in The Globe and Mail, Canadian startups struggle to pass the ‘valley of death’. It’s a familiar refrain of so-called ‘experts’ and ‘influencers’. In this case, a poorly researched study was delivered to Canada’s Senate. Predictably, the authors were supporting more taxpayer funding for investor groups … Read more
Here’s an enhanced, more polished version of your blog post—tightened for clarity, stronger flow, and a more provocative close, while keeping your core arguments intact: Rethinking Venture Capital: What Really Drives Startup Success? In today’s startup culture, venture capital is often framed as the essential fuel for success. The story is everywhere: if you want … Read more
As a professional accountant with more than 3 decades of experience – including 5 years with the CRA as an auditor and 5 years with a Big Four firm as a tax specialist in SR&ED, I began dealing with a Silicon Valley-based financial startup, handling the tax compliance for their small Canadian subsidiary. Three years … Read more
Given that CPA Canada has made it easier for accountants in industry to qualify as CPAs, and disrupted the nature of tax and compilation compliance requirements, while making it much more difficult for one and 2-partner firms to train their successors, could a reasonable argument be made that the dominant public accounting firms intentionally re-engineered … Read more
Given that CPA Canada has made it easier for accountants in industry to qualify as CPAs, and disrupted the nature of tax and compilation compliance requirements, while making it much more difficult for one and 2-partner firms to train their successors, could a reasonable argument be made that the dominant public accounting firms intentionally re-engineered … Read more
Is FAAS (Finance As A Service) Just a Way to Bypass Regulatory Oversight? CPA Canada’s new competency map for public accountants in small, one or 2-partner firms is extremely difficult to comply with. However, the path for accountants in industry appears to be simpler. My own experience is that accountants in industry can bypass difficult … Read more
Canada’s new competency map for CPAs: Makes it difficult (or impossible) for small, one or two-partner firms to train their replacements. While the “new” Competency Map (CM 2.0) has not fully launched its certification program yet (delayed until 2027), the current post-unification competency framework has already created significant hurdles for small firms (1–2 partners) trying … Read more
How has that worked out? What Did it Replace? Before 1991, Canada relied on a federal sales tax known as the Manufacturers’ Sales Tax (MST). While both the MST and the current Goods and Services Tax (GST) are consumption taxes, they differ markedly in design and impact: In summary, while the MST was a federal … Read more
EXAMPLE: Taxpayer with total income before dividends of approximately $30,000Actual Taxes Payable with Eligible Dividends of $300,000 The tax rate on eligible dividends is much lower than the rate on “other than eligible dividends” (see table below). However, there must be sufficient “general rate income pool” (GRIP) to pay eligible dividends from. Dividends Income Tax … Read more
