The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

15 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,A pril 4,2019 insidehalton.com 1200 Speers Rd., Unit 12, Oakville, Ont. L6L 2X4 (905) 845 - 1408 | Fax (905) 845 - 5931 | ricky@rickywong.ca Ricky Wong CPA, CA, MBA, B. Eng Ricky WongRicky Wong DIAMONDDIDIDIDIDIAMAMAMAMAMONONONDIAMONDONDIAMONDONDIAMONDONDIAMONDONONONONONDDD DIAMONDDIDIDIDIDIAMAMAMAMAMONONONONONONONDDD Voted Best Accountant by Oakville Beaver Readers for 11 Consecutive Years For more information please check our website www.rickywong.ca •Accounting •Auditing • Taxation Join Us! TEPPANYAKI GRILL - SUSHI - SASHIMI - DIM SUM www.august8.ca 280 North Service Road W.@ Dorval Oakville 905-338-6228 Call us for reservations 7 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU. New! Chinatown Location Now Open $2.00 OFF LUNCH ONLY Dine-in,cash only & with this voucher.Offer valid at Oakville Location only. Limit 1 voucher per table. not valid on weekends and holidays $5.00 OFF DINNER ONLY Dine-in,cash only & with this voucher.Offer valid at Oakville Location only. Limit 1 voucher per table. not valid on weekends and holidays A FEAST FOR YOUR SENSES. ALLYOU CAN EAT LUNCH OR DINNER 2018 Multi-Award Winner! Canada's Income Tax Act is an inefficient mess that needs to be radically reformed -- it's too compli- cated. There are 40,000 employ- ees at the Canada Revenue Agency; based on Canada's population versus the Unit- ed States, we employ five times more people collect- ing tax than our American neighbour on a per capita basis. A simplified method of collecting taxes would make the process more effi- cient, and staffing require- ments would be greatly re- duced. In a survey done by the Chartered Professional Ac- countants of Canada, seven out of 10 accountants think that our tax collection pro- cess needs reform. The Fraser Institute re- ported that the initial in- come tax act in 1917 was six pages long -- and now, 100 years later, it has grown to 1,412 pages. In our increasingly com- plex world, most people are aware of the advantages ofaware of the advantages ofa simplifying things. The complexity of our current system could be the cause of why almost one- third of taxpayer calls to the CRA helpline were an- swered incorrectly; this in- formation comes courtesyformation comes courtesyf of the Auditor General of Canada. Their study also found that calls to the CRAfound that calls to the CRAf call centers were not an- swered almost two-thirds of the time. If many trained govern- ment employees cannot un- derstand the rules of our current income tax collec- tion process, how can it be assumed that Canadian cit- izens should understand those same rules? The CRA admits that in 2014 it collected $8.7 billion less than it should have raised in theory -- could one of the reasons for this be that our income tax act has become obsolete? If the same inefficiencies that occurred at the CRA happened in a business, that business would have gone broke decades ago. One of the problems is that the act was created by our federal government. Governments take pride in adding extra complexities in an effort to affect our economy, and in some cases additions are done purely for political reasons.for political reasons.f Our elected politicians should start with the specif- ic instructions that our new income tax act would be limited in size, easy to un- derstand and efficient to implement. Canada's tax collection system is a mess: it needs to be overhauled. Peter Watson, of Peter Watson Investments MBA, CFP, RFP, CIM, FCSI offers a weekly financial plan- ning column, Dollars & Sense. He can be contacted through www.peterwat- soninvestments.com. CANADA'S INCOME TAX ACT NEEDS REFORM OPINION IT'S TOO COMPLICATED, WRITES PETER WATSON PETER WATSON Column SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM