The arrival of T4 and T5 slips — by the end of February — signals the official start of the annual tax-preparation rush. One important rule you and your tax preparer will want to follow is completing all family tax returns together, starting with the lowest-earning family member and progressing to the highest. This will allow you to take advantage of provisions for transferring income to children and provide savings opportunities for the young. Filing returns for minors. There are [...]

We don’t often think of the taxman as cupid, but this month, you may have received a Valentine’s Day treat: the timely delivery of your 2011 RRSP Deduction Limit Statement. Canada Revenue Agency dropped this simple, one-page form — complete with easy-to-read definitions — into the mail early in February, to remind eligible Canadians of their correct RRSP deduction limits. This very useful information arrived in the usual fearsome, brown, CRA envelope.  If you trembled and hid it at the [...]

Governments getting their fiscal houses in order are asking taxpayers to depend less on government services and take more responsibility for the future. But those same taxpayers are wrestling with two layers of taxes: taxes on income, which erodes current income, and taxes on capital appreciation, which erodes future income. This seems counter-productive to the concept of self-reliance. That begs questions about our tax system. Should current income be taxed more than the future income that capital appreciation provides, as [...]

If you are like most, keeping tax records is not your forte; in fact, it’s difficult, frustrating and exasperating if you haven’t been vigilant about keeping things all year long.  We know that people who do, usually get better results on their tax returns come filing time.  Therefore, January is a good time to organize not just last year’s records, but this year’s too. You need to know that under the Income Tax Act, you are required to provide books [...]

Having escaped a -40 day in Calgary yesterday on our nationwide T1 Tax Update Workshop Tour, the beautiful sunrise over Vancouver today reminds me why this lovely province is a retirement haven; a lifestyle many Canadians work years to save for.  Yet for many, saving for retirement has been more difficult recently, and certainly more expensive. We may therefore look back at the significance of the pension reforms being introduced in Canada in 2012 for many years to come.  This [...]

Our family had a wonderful Christmas in Asia this year; reuniting with our son who has been working in Cambodia.  The Cambodia Daily news ran an interesting article written by Al Gore and David Blood while we were there; a reprint from the Wall Street Journal, on the subject of “Sustainable Capitalism in a Global Economy”.  In it the authors made several important observations:   It’s important to abandon short term economic thinking in favor of “sustainable capitalism”. We face [...]

By Evelyn Jacks, President Knowledge Bureau Need a little extra cash for Christmas? Want to start on a good financial footing in 2012?  Your family’s tax returns are a great place to start, because you may just find a lump of gold hiding in year end tax planning opportunities.  In a volatile investment environment, being tax astute can add double digits to your cash flow and investment portfolios.  Following are seven tax tips to discuss with your tax and financial [...]

Evelyn Jacks I have been blogging about how individuals and businesses can work hard to reduce debt.  At a macro level, that may be at the expense of spending to stimulate Canada’s economic activities in the short term, but it may well be a very good plan for shoring up your personal financial stability over the longer term. Without a focus on more aggressive savings, it’s possible that your continued debt, rather than your wealth, will sadly become the legacy [...]

By Evelyn Jacks We have recently been told that the Federal Government anticipates that the result of a more prolonged economic slow down is a reduction of anticipated tax revenues.  This will delay deficit reduction by at least a year to 2016.  If you were born in 1951, that’s the year you turn 65. All of this scares already-spooked individuals, who are trying to build up their savings and reduce their debt after the financial crisis. But in particular the [...]