The past month or so – and in particular the last week – all of us have experienced some very wild changes, volatility and surprises. With respect to COVID-19, we've unfortunately witnessed some of the selfish sides of society with greed, hoarding and irrational behaviour.

In today's era of non-stop news (that favours drama and opinions over facts) and social media (that provides continuous dopamine hits to our brains with people seeking "likes", and increasing their "number of engagements"), the ability to filter the truth can be difficult. The barrage of constant information can easily lead to fear amongst our population, especially when dramatic responses like we are seeing today occur.

If you are like me, your inbox has been littered with messages from virtually every single industry that tells the reader what their particular business is doing to deal with the COVID-19 health crisis. But that's not what our short message is about. Having said that, suffice it to say that here at Moodys Tax, we're keeping things simple: we're taking all of the usual and extra precautions and following the advice of medical authorities.

In addition to our commitment to keeping everyone safe, here's what we're really trying to do: provide calm and rational leadership in the face of fear by deploying the following simple steps:

  1. As stated above, we are following the advice of our medical/health authorities and encourage people to do the same;
  2. Many of us are turning off non-stop news channels, "disliking" fear mongering "news" stories and disengaging from social media. We're not doing this to "put our head in the sand" but instead we prefer to receive our information from credible sources and not contribute to the pandemic of fear;
  3. We're ensuring that our teammates, friends, community members and, of course, our clients to remain calm and look out for their loved ones by spreading calmness;
  4. We're going out of our way to support local businesses. Now, more than ever, they need your help; and
  5. Like usual, being "ear" for you. In other words, would you like to chat? We'd like to listen...about anything. Our ears are wide open.

Our firm's vision—Transforming Tax Services by Making Complexity Irrelevant—seems even more relevant in light of all of the complexity that society and people are facing today. Accordingly, our firm is committed to do our part to reduce complexity and bring back all the benefits that calmness and rational thought can provide.

As Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century stated: "Your greatest fears are created by your imagination. Don't give in to them."

In the days, weeks and months ahead, let's all do our part to emphasize the positives that we will undoubtedly witness out of these challenging times.

Moodys Gartner Tax Law is only about tax. It is not an add-on service, it is our singular focus. Our Canadian and US lawyers and Chartered Accountants work together to develop effective tax strategies that get results, for individuals and corporate clients with interests in Canada, the US or both. Our strengths lie in Canadian and US cross-border tax advisory services, estateplanning, and tax litigation/dispute resolution. We identify areas of risk and opportunity, and create plans that yield the right balance of protection, optimization and compliance for each of our clients' special circumstances.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.