Mar 9, 2018

SAM FARIS President FARIS CPA " TO YOUR FINANCIAL RESCUE "

SAM FARIS President FARIS CPA

There are few things more stressful, harrowing and daunting than receiving a letter (or a phone call) from the Canada Revenue Agency telling you that you’re being audited or that you owe them money.

Sam Faris has successfully used his finely-honed tax and accounting skills to assist clients with tax disputes, accounting advice, and preparing financial statements.

But ideally, he wants to help you avoid the problems before they

become problems.

Since 2003, Sam has assisted scores of individuals and corporations with accounting services, helping clients throughout Canada.

As a Chartered Professional Accountant, he’s been a trusted advisor providing professional services to a wide range of industries.

In a recent case he touts, a client received approximately $900,000

in refunds from the CRA, after a successful fight with CRA – a

refund that the previous accountant had missed. In another case,

the client had approximately $250,000 of what CRA claimed was

unreported income, which Sam reduced to zero.

“Normally what people don’t understand is they think that if they

don’t get audited it means their accountant did a good job,” he says.

“But when they do get audited, they discover the accountant

made mistakes, and they realize the accountant did not do a good

job, and they’re in the hole.”

That’s where Sam comes in.

“There are times when people have bad accountants

who have made errors, lack knowledge, and after being audited

the clients realize they need me to come and fix things, and help

them throughout the audit with CRA.”

Among the various corporate tax services he provides

are preparing corporate tax returns, appeals to audit assessments,

and negotiating with the Canada Revenue Agency on behalf of clients.

“There are times I handle the accounting cycle from A to

Z for certain corporate clients,” he said.

Personal tax accountant services include optimizing

various personal tax credit claims and deductions, negotiating

with the Canada Revenue Agency on the client’s behalf, and

representing them in government audits.

Sam and his team can help you correct your tax affairs and he fully understands the CRA Voluntary Disclosure program – one of his specialties.

The Voluntary Disclosure Program is where the client

comes forward on their own to fix any omissions in a tax filing.

By doing so, the CRA will waive interest and penalties and not

prosecute provided that the taxpayer approaches the CRA before

they start an audit.

Examples of this include unreported or under reported

income, unreported capital gains, errors made on a previous tax

return, unreported foreign income taxable in Canada, unreported

offshore assets, and claimed ineligible expenses.

Voluntary disclosure would have been helpful in one case Sam

acted on, where a client was forced to report his foreign income

going back to the 1990s. “This client was going to his accountant

each year, laying down twenty bucks for a quick filing, and he

thought he was good and done. But he was audited, and they

discovered his offshore portfolio.”

Baffled, the client thought his offshore business didn’t have anything to do with Canada. “But the tax auditor told him he had to disclose this,” as the client was a Canadian resident since the 1990s.

“If you’ve misrepresented or submitted false information,

the audit can go back to past years. This taxpayer could have been

charged with criminal tax evasion, a charge that has jail time.”

Things have become a bit stickier in 2016, for those

with foreign accounts. Recently, Sam explained, CRA has signed

agreements with banks in Switzerland and Europe that stipulate

that Canadians must disclose their accounts, or the banks will not

continue to serve the clients.

“Canadians have to provide evidence to the offshore

banks that they disclosed the portfolio,” Sam explained. “People

are now rushing to do voluntary disclosures, because otherwise

it could mean interest and significant penalties and possible

charges.”

Sam also has experience in preparing corporate

financial statements; for example, a third party user such as a

bank or potential investor requires audited or reviewed financial

statements done by a Licensed Public Accountant to verify the

numbers are fairly stated.

“People don’t understand, for instance, that taking funds

out of the corporate account have tax consequences. You can’t

take funds out tax free,” he says.

“Furthermore they’ll have to pay interest since the company is a lender.” If these funds are not paid by the taxpayer within a certain period of time, the funds have to be included on the taxpayer’s personal tax return, he asserts. If left out of the filing, it is considered unreported income, where significant penalties and interest will be applied.

Lastly, for those looking to have their tax issues settled,Sam has a key piece of advice:

“People think that when they have a tax problem they always need a tax lawyer to resolve it, which is wrong. They will end up paying too much money in legal fees.”

Extra costs, of course, are the very things that everyone wants to avoid, and Sam has been helping countless clients do that for nearly fifteen years.

Dave Gordon has penned more than a thousand articles, and more than five hundred editorials, on every topic imaginable. He writes regularly on domestic and international politics, current events, culture, relationship issues, and much more.