The Certified General Accountants Association of BC (CGA-BC) recognizes how challenging the provision of tax services has become for public practitioners. Since 2005, CGA-BC, in conjunction with the course lecturer, Deborah Graystone, BSc, TEP, CGA, has met these challenges by offering a unique Canadian tax course entitled CGA Tax and Financial Strategies Program (T&FS). This 10-month course is a long-distance, business solutions case study program, with a concentration on real-life fact patterns likely encountered by public practitioners.

The program includes:

• issues that financial advisors routinely face when dealing with common business planning strategies, from incorporation to succession and all major events in the life cycle of a business enterprise
• dealing with family relations concerns, shareholder disputes, estate issues, banking, and financing
• important tax considerations such as federal and provincial income and capital taxes, HST, GST, and PST
• learning to correspond with lawyers and clients, and creating journal entries to record the accounting treatment of advanced tax transactions

Participants receive extensive checklists and valuable practice management tips. An added feature appreciated by practitioners is the extended break taken during tax season to accommodate workloads at that time of year.

The course has seen participation from CGAs, CAs, and CMAs from virtually all provinces.

For the course brochure and other information, refer to the Public Practice PD section of the CGA-BC website.