Personal Tax Returns

Here’s a list of some things to avoid when filing your tax return. Follow these tips; they could save you time and money! Filing an income tax and benefit return even if you have no income If you have no income to report, you should still file a return. You may be eligible for

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 can help you decide exactly what to do, when to do it

Travel expenses include food, beverage, lodging and transportation (such as airplane, train, bus, etc.) expenses but not motor vehicle expenses. You can deduct travelling expenses on your personal tax return as long as you meet all of the following conditions: You were normally required to work away from your employer's place of business or in different places.Under

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.

Did you know that if you are receiving CPP benefits, are still working and are between the ages of 65 and 70, you can elect to stop making CPP contributions. Contributing to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is mandatory for working Canadians between the ages of 18 and 64, but optional after age 65. This

If you have sold your home and it is your principal residence then you should be able to use the principal residence exemption to reduce or eliminate any capital gain for income tax purposes on the sale of the property. CRA states that a principal residence can be a house, cottage, condominium, apartment, trailer, mobile

Beginning in 2019, the CPP rate will be gradually enhanced. This means you will receive higher benefits in exchange for making higher contributions. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) enhancement will be rolled out in two phases. The 2018 CPP rate was 4.95% of your salary to a maximum yearly CPP contribution of $2,564

In certain situations, a company can pay and deduct a living out allowance and the employee does not have to report the allowance in their income. In order for this to apply, the allowance needs to be reasonable.  Additional criteria must be met as stated below for employees at a special work site and

An RESP is an education savings account that is registered with the Government of Canada that helps you save for a child’s or grandchild's post-secondary education. With an RESP, you may be able to receive other saving incentives, such as the: Canada Learning Bond Basic and Additional Canada Education Savings Grant There are two different types

If you are in a much higher income tax bracket then your spouse and have investments outside of an RRSP or TFSA then a spousal loan could reduce your taxes. Money that is earned directly by you through employment or investing is considered yours and can’t just be given to your spouse to invest. 

What’s the difference between eligible and non-eligible dividends?  What are the implications to you? Dividends are payments made to shareholders to allocate the earnings of a corporation.   There are two types of taxable dividends that a corporation can issue, non-eligible and eligible. non-eligible dividends are taxed at approximately 10% more than an eligible

When you make a charitable donation, one of the key benefits you receive is the donation tax credit on your tax return. In order to be able to claim a charitable donation and get a credit, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires that individuals keep supporting documents and proof of payment (i.e. cancelled cheques, pledge

A taxpayer can claim medical expenses paid for themselves as well as for their spouse, common-law partner and dependents.  A dependent can include; the taxpayer or their spouse/common law partner's child or grandchild or the taxpayer of their spouse/common law partner's parent, grandparent, sibling, uncle, aunt, niece or nephew whom lived in Canada at any time during

A taxpayer can claim deductible medical costs paid for themselves as well as for their spouse, common-law partner and dependents. A dependent can include; the taxpayer or their spouse/common law partner's child or grandchild or the taxpayer of their spouse/common law partner's parent, grandparent, sibling, uncle, aunt, niece or nephew whom lived in Canada at

Asking for a clearance certificate A clearance certificate certifies that all amounts for which a deceased taxpayer is liable to Canada Revenue Agency for have been paid.  If a clearance certificate is not obtained upon a taxpayer’s death, as the legal representative, you can be liable for any amount the deceased owes.  A

Eventually investors move from the “saving-years” to the “drawing-years”, when they want to start drawing retirement income from their portfolios. This can be confusing. For many the natural inclination is to liquidate their diversified portfolio in favor of income-producing stocks or bonds. However, the idea that retired individuals should load up on dividend-paying common shares

We have all been told to plan for our retirement.  Yet, have you ever wondered why? You need to consider the different retirement planning alternatives. Perhaps you have a plan, most people do, but is it the right plan? In the following example, it is clear how advanced planning can make a huge difference for you

If you are considering a direct beneficiary designation for either a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), you should be aware of some negative consequences that can occur. A direct beneficiary designation can result in unintended tax consequences to the estate, the inequitable treatment of heirs or the distribution

What's the best strategy for structuring the legal ownership of your home? The answer is...it depends. Are you asking for tax planning purposes or for estate planning purposes? Often you may be advised that it's important for you to have the title of your home shared with somebody else so that if something were

Regardless of the reason, if you have unreported T-slip income of $500 or more from any T-slips in your current year tax return, don't wait for CRA to catch it. If you have unreported t-slip income in your current year return and also unreported t-slip income in any of the three years prior, you are subject to a

The capital dividend account (CDA) is used to track the amounts that can be paid out to shareholders, tax free. How is the capital dividend account balance calculated? Capital gains and losses – The balance increases by 50% of any capital gains your company incurs, and decreases by 50% of any capital losses your company

Are you a US citizen? Do you spend more than 120 days per year in the US? If so you may be required to file a US personal tax return.

Being audited is a difficult experience that can be both scary and costly. When being audited the professional and legal fees can amount to thousands of dollars quickly, so we found a way for you to insure against those unexpected professional fees by offering an audit insurance product called Audit Shield. With Audit Shield, claims

RRSPs are one of the few last minute and flexible deductions available to people with employment income from a T4. However, if you are an owner of the business and have some control over your salary, you should consider some of the other alternatives first. Even if you can’t control your own salary you should

Form T1135 Foreign Income Verification Statement must be filed if you, your corporation, trust or partnership, owned or held foreign property with a cost amount of more than $100,000 at any time in the year even if some or all of the property was sold before the year of the year. The form is

If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to save more money, then the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) may be a good option for you to use. Learn more about the TFSA rules and limits.

If you are late filing your corporate tax return by more than three years, any overpayment is considered statute barred under the Canadian Income Tax Act (Section 164(1)). This means that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will not issue the refund to the corporation. In addition, the corporation cannot apply for tax payer relief to

Under the Canadian income tax system, an individual's liability for income tax is based on his or her status as a resident or a non-resident of Canada. An individual who is resident in Canada during a tax year is subject to Canadian income tax on his or her worldwide income from all sources. Generally, a

Will CRA email me for information? Can I refuse to pay income taxes if I want to? Can I avoid paying GST? Do I have to pay taxes on lottery winnings? These myths are answered.

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

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made a major change to the Principal Residence Exemption that affected Canadians when filing their 2016 tax returns. Regardless of whether the sale is exempt or not, individuals are now be required to report the sale of their principal residence on their personal tax return. Under the Principal Residence Exemption

You may qualify for the disability tax credit and not even realize it.  If so, you could collect as much as $2,500 a year in tax savings!!! You do not need to be in a wheelchair to be eligible for the disability tax credit. If someone isn't able to walk the length of a football

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

Advance Income Tax Rulings are written statements providing assurance on the income tax treatment of a specific proposed transaction or transactions that you might be contemplating. Subject to any disclaimer or qualification stated in the ruling, the ruling is considered binding with respect to the specific taxpayer making the request and the specific proposed transaction

If you have been selected for a CRA audit, you may be wondering what kind of tests they will perform. While this largely depends on whether the CRA auditor believes your records are accurate and reliable, they are also required to perform a number of indirect tests to verify that what you have earned has

The amount of CPP benefits that you are eligible to receive depends on how long you earned employment income, and how much you earned in those years. You can visit the My Service Canada website to see how much you have paid in to CPP over your working years. This information is used to calculate

An allowable business investment loss can arise in many ways: 1)      Through a disposition of shares in a small business corporation 2)      Through a disposition of debt owed to you by a small business corporation 3)      When amounts that you have loaned to a small business corporation become uncollectible, or the corporation has gone bankrupt

CRA service standards have been set by the CRA to give you an idea how long it should take to receive a response to your submission. The CRA service standards for 2017 & 2018 have been released and the turnaround times that Canadians can expect are as follows: Document   or Service Turnaround   Time

CPP death benefit The CPP death benefit is a one-time, lump-sum payment to the estate of the deceased contributor.  It must be applied for within 60 days of the decedent’s date of death. The CPP death benefit can be paid to: The estate of the decedent(if there is an estate) The person who paid the

If you want to figure out how to avoid a CRA audit there are a number of things you should know. Probably one of your worst nightmares is the dreaded audit letter from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) informing you that you're going to be audited and CRA will send out approximately 30,000 such

Many companies may experience a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) audit. Here’s what you need to know: Types of Audits: Not all CRA audits are the same! In some cases, they may only want to see records pertaining to one area or it could be a full audit. Here are a few details regarding the different

If you have celiac disease you are able to claim the incremental costs of the gluten free food as a medical expense. In order to claim the expense you need to track the gluten free food during the year and keep the receipts to show that the expenses were incurred. An app called celitax.ca

RRSP’s can be a simple concept but they are also governed by some complex rules. Learn more about how your annual contribution limits are calculated and what to do if you have over contributed.

To make sure you are claiming all the tax deductions that you should be, read about the 7 most commonly overlooked tax deductions.

With summer over and the kids back at school, many are looking at accessing their RESPs to cover the costs of post-secondary education. Here are some things to consider.

Canada Revenue Agency and police again warned taxpayers of randomly targeted fraudulent telephone calls and e-mails that are being sent out as CRA fraud.  These phone calls and e-mails are not from the CRA. Annually the number of CRA fraud scams rise near the April 30th tax deadline. The phone call scams are imposters trying

In general, CRA can reassess tax returns for individuals, trusts and Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (CCPC’s) within 3 years from the original Notice of Assessment date. After that, the returns enter a statute barred period. The typical statute barred period starts 3 years after the Notice of Assessment is issued A Notice of Assessment is the

If you left the work force or reduced your working hours to be the primary caregiver for your children, it will likely be to your benefit to apply for the CPP child rearing provision when applying for CPP benefits. To apply for the CPP child rearing provision you would complete section 11A in the application

There are 16 rights set out in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights that you should expect when dealing with the CRA. These apply regardless of whether you are an individual or own a business. Their goal is to increase transparency, accountability, and to improve the quality of service they provide. You have a right to:

As Canadians get busy filing their taxes, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reminds everyone to be cautious of fraudulent tax filing. The CRA will audit, reassess and can apply a gross negligence penalty equal to 50% of the additional tax payable if it can show that a taxpayer knowingly, or under circumstances amounting to gross

Have you ever wondered about CRA statistics like how many tax returns get filed each year or how much Canadians pay in taxes each year? Earlier this year, CRA released their 2014-2015 Annual Report to Parliament which included the following CRA statistics: 28 million tax returns were filed for the 2014 year. Approximately 1% of

What is the value of deferring my OAS benefits, sometimes also called OAS pension, to a future year? There are several reasons why you might want to defer your OAS benefits, such as: 1)     Based on current and future sources of income you may be able to keep thousands more. 2)     You’re planning to work past 65

Here are our top 4 financial tips for the new parent: Apply for a Social Insurance Number (SIN) for your child: It’s a good idea for you to apply for a Social Insurance Number for your child as soon as they are born. This way, you will not be left scrambling to obtain one when your

Have you made some renovations or leasehold improvements to your home office?  You should be claiming any “repairs” in the year that they occur, but you have some options when it comes to claiming the amortization from leasehold improvements to your home office. However be aware that this option may mean losing your homes

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

Buying or building a new home? Did you know that if you purchase a new home or have substantially renovated your own, you can claim a rebate on the GST or HST you paid through CRA’s new home rebate. What qualifies? Your home must meet the following conditions: Must be you or your relation’s primary

The Home Buyers Plan (HBP) is a program that allows you to withdraw up to $25,000, per person from each of your RRSP accounts in a calendar year to buy, or build, a qualifying home. To be eligible for the Home Buyers Plan, the following must be met: You must be considered a first-time

Starting for 2016 taxation years, inter vivos trusts, trusts created by will and certain estates will be subject to the top taxation rate. There are two exceptions to this change: graduated rate estates and qualified disability trusts. Graduated tax rates will still apply to these types of estates and trusts. Income earned and retained in

Are you paying too much in taxes? Are you getting all the tax deductions available for your business? An effective way to minimize your company’s tax expense, in addition to good planning, is to ensure the company is claiming all of the expenses legitimately allowed under the tax act. Take a look and see if any

Every year CRA conducts reviews and audits to sample and educate tax payers on tax compliance, and 2016 will be no different. CRA estimates that approximately 30,000 letters will be sent out across Canada this year. These letters will give you information about certain claims you have made on one or more of your

Provincial legislation is periodically updated. In Alberta, a revised Wills and Succession Act came into effect in 2012, an updated Estate Administration Act was passed in 2015 and now an initiative is underway to co-ordinate the Trustee legislation across Canada. The Alberta Trustee Act is the provincial legislation governing the administration of trusts. A trust

An estate planning gifting strategy is basically when you start to give away some of your assets prior to death in order to optimize taxes within the family. Usually, an estate planning gifting strategy refers to how we will distribute our assets when we die.  But you might be overlooking significant tax savings by not

Here are some common myths about our personal tax system: Myth: The CRA completely agrees with the information you submitted in your return if it sends you back a Notice of Assessment that agrees to what you filed. A Notice of Assessment is just the result of a quick assessment that will have fixed any

The 2015 federal budget announced the introduction of a new Home Accessibility Tax Credit (HATC), beginning in 2016. The HATC is a non-refundable tax credit for qualifying expenses incurred for work performed or goods acquired in respect of a qualifying renovation of an eligible dwelling of a qualifying individual. A qualifying individual and eligible individuals

Tired of waiting for snail mail? The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) now allows you to receive some of their correspondence electronically through their My Account service. What correspondence does this apply to? Notices of Assessment (issued after February 9, 2015) Notices of Reassessment (issued after February 9, 2015) Tax Free Savings Account letters (issued after

If you are moving and are the owner of your own business you should consider deducting the expenses in your company rather than on your personal tax return. If you do not have that option, then the tax rules provide that if you have moved to be at least 40 km closer to your place

If charitable giving is something that you are interested in and you want to see the tax benefits obtained recently by one of our clients, read on for more information.

Congratulations! You just sold and realized a profit on that promising investment (stock, mutual fund, ETF etc.). When you’re done planning how to spend your windfall you might also consider how much tax you owe on that gain. Unless the sale occurred within a non-taxable RSP or TSFA. Normally, this is fairly straightforward. You

You may not be aware that you or your business are required to remit quarterly or monthly tax instalments to CRA.  And it is likely that if the instalments are not made, you will be charged interest and penalties Goods and services tax instalments You are required to pay GST instalments if your net tax

On October, 19, 2015, Canadians voted in new Liberal party Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. During the course of the election campaign, the party announced they would make certain changes related to income tax rate calculations. Although it is unclear when these changes will be enacted, they could be introduced soon after the new government takes

You can start receiving CPP pension benefits when you reach age 65 (the month after your 65th birthday) which will entitle you to a full CPP benefit depending on how much and how long you have contributed to the CPP. However, you have the following choices: Take a reduced CPP retirement pension as early as

When you have a job transition, you may transfer your pension plan savings to a locked-in-retirement account (LIRA). LIRA’s are similar to Retirement Savings Plans (RSP’s) but with more restrictions. Adding another investment account will also add extra administration to managing your retirement savings. Alberta pension legislation allows people age 50 or older to transfer

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

There are no immediate repercussions for the change in business use of property from capital to inventory. The differences arise upon sale of the real estate. There is no provision in the Income Tax Act which describes the circumstances in which gains from the sale of real estate are to be determined as being either

As a student, you may be wondering what deductions you can make on your tax return. Can you claim the cost of textbooks? Can you transfer your credits to someone else?   What deductions can I claim? There are three credits available: tuition, education, and textbook amounts. These are non-refundable tax credits that can be

If you have a child that is 10 years old or younger (born in Alberta between January 1, 2005 and March 31, 2015) they are eligible for a one-time $500 grant from the provincial government. However, you only have until July 31, 2015 to submit the form and apply for this grant before it ends

You may have been asked to provide your bank account information to CRA so that any refunds owed to you can be directly deposited into your account. However, if you are concerned that CRA now has access to your account and could access your funds you can stop worrying. CRA  has stated that if money

We often hear about individuals who decide to incorporate while working as an employee for a business. But is it really beneficial to do so? Let’s look at an example. Joe works as an employee and earns employment income (a T4 slip) in Alberta. On July 1, he incorporates. Although he has incorporated, he continues

It may be obvious to state that an investor only keeps the after-tax return. It is less obvious how to minimize the tax leakage from your portfolio. A good starting point is to identify the two primary causes of tax; portfolio turnover and an inefficient portfolio structure. Taxes resulting from portfolio turnover can cost you

There’s great news for 2015 for Canadians with children. Stephen Harper has announced a “child care benefit boost” – which includes an increase to, or return of, the monthly Universal Child Care Benefit cheques and an increase to the amount taxpayers can deduct for child care expenses and the child fitness credit.   Changes to

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Joe Oliver recently announced a “Family Tax Cut” credit which allows certain Canadian families to reduce their overall federal income tax. This relief will be available starting in 2014. The new measure would allow a higher income spouse to shift a portion of their income to a lower

The Conservative government has announced some changes to the children’s fitness tax credit which will begin taking effect for the 2014 Income Tax year: 1)      For the 2014 income tax year, the fitness tax credit is increasing from $500 to $1,000.  This credit is non-refundable. This means that parents whose income is too

Did you know that Canada Revenue Agency has an online service called My Account which provides you with secure access to your personal or business income tax information? This online service is available 21 hours a day. (Closed from 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM) The following provides details on the information available through My Account

For 2014, if you have a dependent that you claim under one of the following: Spousal amount (line 303) Equivalent to spouse amount (line 305) The child amount (line 367) The caregiver amount (line 315) The infirm dependant (line 306) And that person is defined as infirmed with an impairment in physical or mental functions

As you may have heard, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) extended the 2013 personal tax return deadline to May 5th, 2014. This was due to a security issue, known as the Heartbleed bug vulnerability. This vulnerability affected how usernames and passwords were encrypted when logging into “secure” websites. Thus, allowing hackers the potential to steal private

We would like to remind our clients that for the majority of Canadians, your personal income tax returns normally need to be filed by April 30. If you haven’t already brought us the information we need to prepare your return, we would ask you to do so shortly. CRA has extended the filing and payment

Well, it looks like spring time may finally be here and tax time is certainly upon us as well. Find out what the important personal tax deadlines are.

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

The Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) rules are changing, and, unless you are currently collecting on your CPP and are over the age of 65, you need to pay attention.

Two separate tax credits now exist that are specifically focused on providing relief for families with children in various activities. And, with these credits in place the tax relief provided to parents is now better than ever.