Summit Strategies Chartered Professional Accountants
4817 48th Street T4N 1S6 Red Deer, AB, Canada

Join us next Wednesday evening to learn all about our favourite cloud based bookkeeping platform and how it can help you simplify your bookkeeping and meet your business goals.

Interest rates are lower than they’ve been in many many years this may be a great time to leverage on your capital and fix your liquidity issues. You should consider long-term debt restructuring and turn it into a healthier balance sheet and lower payments at minimal costs. It’s also a great time for succession planning or restructuring your business. With smart planning you can turn a tragic situation into a positive.

Important update to the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program There were some very important changes to the CEBA loan program announced this week that will have a large impact on small owner managed businesses and farmers that may not have qualified previously for the program because they didn't have employees or operated through personal bank accounts. The changes include a provision for businesses or farms to qualify based on expenses rather than employees. Th...Continue reading

We acknowledge that we are all being inundated with information and updates regarding the Coronavirus. All levels of government are taking action and society and commerce in general is taking notice and substantial change is upon us. We felt it was necessary to reach out to our clients with a brief message. Firstly, please rest assured that we are very much Covid19 (Coronavirus) aware! We have met multiple ... times to assess the rapid changes that are upon us and to discuss and digest the recommendations of our Political and Health Care Leaders. Our message is firstly driven around the awareness and health piece. Please be aware that we are striving to maintain our office space as a clean and Covid19 free environment. We are adapting our social norms to avoid hand shaking and undertaking more rigorous hand washing, we are using Lysol and disinfectants regularly, we are practicing social distancing as best we can and we are implementing policies that allow our staff to have remote access to our systems so they may work from home if it seems more advisable. That said, as we all learn more about this virus we are made aware that as a society even more drastic and significant steps to control it are necessary. We are currently maintaining our regular office hours of 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM (Monday through Friday) and staff are permitted to come and go. We are making efforts to minimize the traffic in the office through practical approaches to communications like phone calls, emailing, Skype, Facetime or Zoom meetings, etc and we have options around uploading and downloading data through our Share File Program. We also have a GotoAssist (RAAS) Program that enables our office to log onto your system and access data or make adjustments to your records, etc. and finally we can accept payments for tax remittances or invoices via etransfers, pay pal or credit cards as well. Point being, WE CAN RETRIEVE YOUR FILES AND WORK ELECTRONICALLY. This technology will allow you to stay at home instead of travelling to our office without being disruptive in addressing your tax and accounting needs! We encourage you to consider all of these alternatives over the upcoming weeks as we all band together to fight the spread of this virus. Thank you for your time and attention and STAY HEALTHY (and wash your hands)!! See more

Farmers!! Have you completed your farm fuel charge exemption form for the updated fuel carbon tax before the December 31st deadline? It is a simple form that you need to print, complete and give to your fuel retailer to exempt your farm fuel from the new carbon tax system. The link for the form is:... https://www.canada.ca///formspubs/pbg/l402/l402-12-19e.pdf If you have any questions or need assistance don't hesitate to contact my office. Steve Schiestel, CPA, CGA Partner, head of Agriculture Tax Department Tel 1.403 .341.4702 ext 1113 Fax 1.403.342.6654 4817 48th Street, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada T4N 1S6 [email protected] "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

Steve Schiestel, CPA, CGA Partner, Head of Agriculture Tax Dept Alberta's bill 26 proposal should be legislation welcomed by most farmers. While it doesn't reverse all of Bill 6 provisions it certainly addresses a lot of the concerns of smaller family farms.... Alberta farms in 2017 employed 52,100 people. Of those 82.1% are full time and 17.7% are part time employees. Nearly 28% of farm employees work for farms that have more than 20 employees. Below is a link and overview for the new Alberta Farm Freedom and Safety Act. Affected will be any Alberta farms that utilize employees or contractors. I have also included a link for farm sector employment statistics in Alberta. https://www.alberta.ca/farm-freedom-and-safety-act.aspx https://work.alberta.ca/do/industry-profile-agriculture.pdf Overview Bill 26: the Farm Freedom and Safety Act addresses how employment standards, workers’ compensation, labour relations, and occupational health and safety laws apply to farms and ranches. The bill was developed following extensive consultation with farmers, ranchers and workers. It recognizes that farms are unlike other businesses and need more flexibility to balance the unique economic pressures of farming with the need for a common-sense farm safety regime. Key changes Bill 26 will repeal the Enhanced Protection for Farms and Ranch Workers Act, commonly referred to as Bill 6, and replace it with practical workplace rules. Employment standards Farms and ranches with 5 or fewer employees, not including family members, and employees who work less than 6 months consecutively will be exempt from all employment standards. Farms and ranches with more than 5 waged, non-family employees will still be required to meet employment standards, with some exemptions. Include nursery, greenhouse, mushroom and sod in the definition of farms and ranches. Labour relations Farms and ranches will be exempt from the Labour Relations Code. Occupational health and safety Farms and ranches with waged, non-family workers will still be required to meet basic safety standards under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Workers’ compensation Farms and ranches with more than 5 waged, non-family employees will be required to have workplace insurance, but will be able to choose which workplace insurance option works best for their operation (WCB or private). Next steps labour relations changes take effect on November 20, 2019 insurance changes would take effect on January 31, 2020 other changes would take effect on January 31, 2020

We are on the hunt for our next team member! If you have an accountant in your life that is open to a new opportunity, send them our way! https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1562893449/

Normally our boardroom is one of the most productive places in the office. Today however was the 39th draft of the Summit Strategies Survivor Pool.

https://www.cbc.ca//cra-raids-tax-evasion-investigation-1.

Summit Strategies is looking for someone amazing to join our team! https://ca.indeed.com/m/viewjob

We are so happy to see this Dream Home go to a very deserving couple, with a professional link to the Child Advocacy Centre! An amazing moment!

We are knee deep in tax returns here at Summit! If you haven’t dropped off your information to us yet, now is the time!!

Huge thank-yous going out to everyone that attended, shared & supported our event last night in support of the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre dream home. We had a great turnout, and sold $6,800 in tickets during the evening in addition to a boost in online ticket sales! Every dollar earned goes directly into helping kids in need in Central Alberta - great job everyone!

Who is coming tonight to see my new house and have a drink (on my bosses ) with me? Hope to see lots of friendly faces!

Did you know that our very own Alison Colton sits on the board of the Central Alberta chapter of Cystic Fibrosis Canada? The first ever global walk for a cure is set to take place in Peru this May. Red Deer’s very own Kelly Tibbets has been chosen to climb Machu Picchu to raise funds for a cure for her daughter and so many others that are effected by this chronic disease. If you’re looking for something to keep you busy on this Saturday evening, go check her out with her band The Wait at The Vat tonight and help fund a cure for this great cause!