Increased Compliance & Liability for Executors
Toronto, Ont., October 10, 2012 - On May 12, 2011, Ontario Bill 173, Better Tomorrow for Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2011 received Royal Assent, making a number of notable changes to the 1998 Estate Administration Tax Act (EATA) including, but not limited to, tighter reporting requirements for estate trustees.
Coming into effect on January 1, 2013, is section 4.1 of the EATA which requires estate trustees who apply for an estate certificate to provide the Minister of Revenue with certain prescribed information about the deceased and their assets, and allows the Minister of Revenue to assess or reassess an estate's tax payable at any time if the Minister establishes that any person failed to give the appropriate prescribed information about the deceased or the estate, or made a misrepresentation to neglect, carelessness or willful default or fraud. The Budget Measures Act makes it an offence not to comply with the information disclosure requirements or to make misrepresentations. Penalties could be between $1,000 to twice the amount of tax payable by the estate and/or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.
Emergent's Estate Accounting & Tax software, already in use by over 86% of Canada's leading estates practitioners, is sure to see a surge in users as law firms, accountants and banks inform their clients of the increased reporting requirements and penalties for non-compliance. Estate Accounting & Tax helps users organize an estates assets, automates the accurate valuation of certain items and produces documentation in the format required by courts; a format that is labor intensive to create and prone to errors/omissions. WindUp Estate Accounting & Tax is licensed on a per File basis with one-time fees ranging between $50 - $500/File.
About Estate Accounting & Tax
Used by more than 86% of Canada’s leading estate practitioners, Estate Accounting & Tax can easily balance an estate, produce Statements of Account in court passing format, automatically calculate Executor's compensation, produce Tax schedules for Terminal returns and much more. Estate Accounting & Tax can be used for Guardianships, Powers of Attorney, Committeeships, Trusts and Estates, and WindUp traditionally saves users over 75% of the time they would otherwise spend when using Microsoft Excel or Word.
About Emergent
Emergent is the preferred software solutions provider for legal, financial and accounting professionals who practice in the area of Corporate and Estates law. Outside Corporate and Estates law, Emergent is renowned for its Legal Kiosk™ document sharing and collaboration software which is applicable to any area of law.