Running a Growing Business

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced that they are closing their cash receipts window effective September 30, 2013. Find out how this might affect you.

Would you like to have a KWB staff person work directly on your accounting system at a time that is convenient for you? Or to help you figure out why your accounts aren’t balancing or why your accounting software has crashed? KWB is here to help! Learn more about our remote accounting support.

Is it too late to reduce your 2012 taxes and optimize your investments? Perhaps not—if you contact KWB right away!

Do you own a business - either incorporated or unincorporated - and have a spouse or one or more adult children with an income lower than your own? If so, you may be able to shift your income to these other family members, effectively moving the income from a high tax rate to a low tax rate and decreasing the overall tax burden on your family. This is called income splitting.

In the past, it was OK and even advisable to conduct business through an incorporated company even if PSB rules applied. With recent changes to the rules, though, this is no longer true.  So what are these changes, and what do they mean to you?

Save Money with a Health Plan How can you save $100’s and maybe $1,000’s in taxes in one simple step? Are you an employee of your own company and do you have significant medical expenses each year of $2,000 or more not covered by a health plan? Then creating a “Private Health Services Plan” (PHSP) as soon as possible could save you big dollars.

What is your tax filing deadline? How much time do you have to file and what are the costs of not filing or of filing late? Personal Tax Filing Deadline Personal taxes are due on April 30 unless that date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday in which case the return is due on

Depending on the amount of your payroll remittance you may have some options as to when you are required to remit it to CRA. Regular Payroll Remittance You are a regular remitter if you are a new employer or your average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) two years ago was less than $25,000.  In

How long do you have to file a T1 adjustment? If you find yourself in a situation where you have filed your personal tax return and then realize that you need to make a change, there are some steps you need to follow. First, you need to wait until the notice of assessment on your

What if you knew the impact of an important decision before you made it? Could you and your business benefit from this “what if” strategic planning? You would be able to look at the potential outcome and financial impact of business decisions before they are made. At KWB we use software called Profit Driver to

Do you know someone who has lost critical and precious information that was stored on their computer? Are there things on your computer that you don’t want to lose such as financial or business records or personal information like family photos? We live in a digital world and we don’t have hard copies of anything

If you have apprentices working for you, then you should be taking advantage of the apprenticeship job creation tax credit. (Apprentice Tax Credit) An investment tax credit can be claimed on eligible salaries paid to eligible apprentices. The credit is equivalent to 10% of salaries and wages paid to that individual, to a maximum of

Considering making the switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online (QBO)? If you are currently using the Desktop version of QuickBooks, you need to be aware that QBO is not the same program and doesn’t really look anything like the Desktop product.  Don’t let that scare you off though!  The QBO program is

Having good bookkeeping will enable you to make good decisions based on accurate financial information provided to you on a timely basis. KWB Chartered Accountants offers bookkeeping and similar services. With timely and accurate information we can help you address your issues and make better decisions as a result. These are definitely tough times, and

Do you think you may need Controller or CFO services? Are you looking for information to help you make good decisions?  Are you unsure of what's happening financially in your business? You need timely, accurate and complete financial information and the people who can figure out what it all means in order to survive in today's economy

What is director's liability? While the tax debts of a corporation belong to the corporation and the tax debts of an individual belong to that individual, there are some exceptions to the rules. Directors may have liability for certain tax accounts of the corporations they serve. When a corporation faces insolvency, remittances to the government

In addition to personal income tax increases, the Alberta NDP government has also increased general corporate tax rates. However, businesses that earn $500,000 or less of active business income will not be affected by the tax increases due to an offsetting increase to the Alberta small business deduction rate. Businesses that have more than

Here are some great tools on the CRA website to help in day to day activities that I personally use. 1)       Payroll Deduction Online Calculator Use the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator (PDOC) to calculate federal, provincial (except for Quebec), and territorial payroll deductions. It will confirm or allow you to calculate the deductions you include

On June 30, 2015, the Alberta government passed Bill 2, An Act to Restore Fairness to Public Revenues. The bill has created a progressive personal income tax rate structure for higher income earners. Effective for 2015 and subsequent tax years, four new tax brackets and rates will be introduced: Taxable income of $125,000 to

Often deductible business expenses are overlooked or missed as business owners are unsure whether they are deductible. A business expense is any cost incurred by the company to generate income. These expenses must be supported by physical documents such as invoices, purchase contracts, sales receipt, etc. If cash is used to purchase items, it is

Review our year end tax tips to discover a number of perfectly valid actions you may still be able to take before the end of the year to cut your taxes and to optimize your wealth management planning. As tax planning specialists, we at KWB can help you decide exactly what to do, when to

If you haven’t reviewed your Unanimous Shareholder Agreement (USA) recently, here are 3 excellent reasons why you should do so:  In 2006, the Federal Budget introduced a second dividend rate. Corporate earnings in Alberta, up to $500,000 are taxed at 14%; when a dividend is paid to an individual shareholder this “ineligible-dividend” is taxed

Each year various tax rates, contribution limits, benefit amounts and deduction rates change.  The following is a quick reference guide for 2018. Personal income tax rates and brackets: Federal Taxable income                                  Rate $0 to $46,605                                      15% $46,606 to $93,208                             20.5% $93,209 to $144,489                           26% $144,490 to $205

Technology is constantly evolving and many commercial banks are using the latest technology advances. Some of these include mobile banking, electronic payments and mobile cheque deposits or Mobile Remote Deposit Capture (MRDC). We have all seen the commercials showing us how easy it is to deposit a cheque by taking a picture of it with

The current Small Business Deduction in Canada allows corporations to pay a lower rate of tax on their first $500,000 of active business income. Active business income includes income earned from a company’s regular operations, but excludes other income such as rental or investment income. Budget 2016 released by the federal government has introduced

Triplog is a great tool if you are tired of tracking your mileage every time you get in the car. Especially if you aren’t claiming mileage as an expense because you forgot to check the odometer or write down your trips in a log book. This app easily integrates with Quickbooks Online Triplog is an

Jobber is a cloud based software solution designed for small and medium sized field service businesses that works with Quickbooks Online (QBO). It has a number of features that are designed to help you run a better business by helping you manage finances, client requests and a busy team. Jobber integrates scheduling, quotes, invoices and

There are many apps that can be integrated into your Quickbooks Online software in order to provide extra value and Dryrun is one of them. Forecast cash flow and sales Dryrun was created right here in Edmonton and is a forecasting tool that will assist you in making better decisions about your business.  You

It has been 29 years since Alberta Labour Standards were last reviewed and changed. The changes effective in 2018 are as follows: Minimum Wage The minimum wage has already been increased in recent years and is going to have one more increase to $15.00 per hour.  This increase comes into effect on October 1

Proposals from the Department of Finance on July 18, 2017 included changes to the taxation of split income. The most common form of split income is income from a dividend from a related entity that is not excluded from being categorized as such. Prior to 2018, shareholders of privately held companies over the age of

TSheets is a website application that is used to track time and help with scheduling. If you’re tired of tracking your time sheets manually, this may be the solution for you! Regardless of whether you are an employee, management, moving from one job site to another, or work in the same office each day, there

Wagepoint is an online payroll software that will meet all of your payroll needs. Wagepoint Features: Direct deposit CRA/WCB remittances T4 and T4A preparation Statutory Holiday calculations Record of employment (ROE) preparation Additional deductions Contractor payments Additional incomes Online pay stubs Integrates with QBO and TSheets Wagepoint also integrates with Quickbooks Online (QBO) accounting software

It is very common for owner-managers to draw funds from their company during the year and find themselves with an outstanding shareholder loan at year end. These balances are often cleared up by recording dividends or bonuses to the shareholders and the problem is solved.  If the loan is not repaid during the fiscal