The Carleton Student Engineering Society (CSES) is facing around $96,000 in taxes, fines, and late fees from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
According to a CSES statement, the CRA accessed CSES’ primary bank account and withdrew the money on Dec. 17.
According to the CSES website, the society provides members with “academic, professional, and social resources to help them make the most of their four (or more) years at Carleton.”
Despite the sudden withdrawal and amount of money taken, CSES president Sasha Christie said in an interview with the Charlatan that students wouldn’t be impacted.
“We do have several contingency investment accounts that we are able to pull from to bridge the gap that’s been created. We haven’t touched any of our student group funding at all. We’re going to leave that entirely intact,” Christie said.
Christie explained that the issue dates back to the end of the 2015 tax term. He said the CRA requested an audit, but that CSES executives couldn’t respond to the requests. Due to the annual turnover in the CSES executive, the CRA’s contact information for the organization must be updated every year.
“That didn’t happen in that year,” Christie said, meaning that the CRA wouldn’t allow the current executives to correspond on CSES’ behalf.
He said that because CSES is considered a not-for-profit organization, it shouldn’t have been taxed as much as it was.
“Unfortunately, because we couldn’t talk to the CRA, they assumed that the majority of our income was taxable, and so the taxes that they charged to us . . . were far higher than they should have been,” Christie said.
He added that the other part of the problem was “improper filing of our returns . . . Our [input tax credits] were too low in general, and our HST collected was far higher than it should have been,” saying those two numbers together added up to the $96,000 withdrawn.
In its statement, CSES apologized to its members for the “gross mishandling” of students’ money.
According to Christie, all that remains to be covered is “a small gap—about $10,000,” which they are optimistic about doing. He said they are currently talking to the engineering faculty about getting that money.
“Last year we hired an accounting firm,” Christie said, and added that the firm, Welch LLP, is helping to reclaim a significant portion of the $96,000, and has begun speaking to the CRA on CSES’ behalf. Christie said that both he and Welch LLP are confident they can get a “good amount” reimbursed.
In an email to the Charlatan, Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president Zameer Masjedee said he offered CSES access to CUSA’s two full-time certified public accountants if they needed their assistance. He also said CUSA offered to cover the financial cost of CSES’ accounting firm, which is about $5,000 to $10,000.
“CUSA has an ability to help financially. I think it’s in our mandate, and it’s a responsibility,” he said.
Masjedee added that once CSES determines how much they still owe to the CRA, CUSA would consider contributing further financial aid if necessary.
Christie said this issue stems from their lack of knowledge surrounding accounting practices, adding that the annual executive turnover makes it “difficult to transition the new people coming in.”
“Moving forward we’re definitely taking steps to mitigate this,” he said.
Christie added that CSES has spoken with the Carleton engineering faculty, and is working on arrangements for submitting bi-annual reports to the department to “guarantee accountability.” Additionally, he plans on speaking with Welch LLP to get a set of guidelines for future CSES vice-presidents to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The CRA did not respond to numerous requests for comment in time for publication.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
