This is the revised version updated April 1, 2020.
Originally published March 27, 2020.
On March 18, 2020, the Government of Canada announced measures
intended to relieve financial difficulties related to the COVID-19
outbreak. The plan includes tax relief measures for both
individuals and businesses, such as income tax remittance
deferral.
The only specific measure announced by the federal government in
respect of GST/HST was that the CRA will not contact any small or
medium businesses to initiate any post assessment GST/HST for the
next four weeks (starting March 18, 2020). Additionally, for the
majority of businesses, the CRA will temporarily suspend and will
not initiate audit interaction with taxpayers and representatives.
This means that no new audits will be launched, there will be no
requests for information related to existing audits, no audits
should be finalized and no reassessments should be issued.
Interaction with taxpayers will be limited to high
