As 2018 comes to an end, tax advisors across Canada are busy restructuring and planning many corporations to respond to the new tax rules that came into existence this year.
Vancouver Tax Planning for CCPC’s As We Approach the Second Half of 2018
As the summer of 2018 comes to an end, vancouver tax advisors are starting to contemplate the tax planning work that will be required for CCPC come fall 2018. At the start of 2018, tax advisors and incorporated businesses awaited the 2018 federal budget with high level of anxiety. After all, the initial announcement to eliminate the tax deferral advantage that a CCPC enjoyed using its after-tax business income to earn passive income was severely punitive. As time passed and Ottawa responded ... Read More
Vancouver Tax Planning Dilemmas As 2017 Come To A Close
2017 has been a year of drama for Vancouver tax advisors and I am happy that it is coming to an end. I have to admit, it is not so much January 1, 2018 I am looking forward to. I am anxiously waiting for the 2018 budget date which may bring all Canadian private corporations more clarity on their financial and tax future. Vancouver Tax Planning - Changes For Private Coporations On July 18, 2017, Ottawa proposed dramatic changes to the taxation of private corporations. Since then, Ottawa has ... Read More
Dealing With the Death of Your Accountant
There are many tax-planning tips for death and estate, but not much is written about the death of your accountant who has been taking care of the family’s finances for decades. I just read a statistic that says 43% of financial advisors are over the age of 55, and are approaching retirement. Even my own experience with new clients tells me that there are more than a few well-established financial advisors getting ready to retire in the Greater Vancouver Area. If you suspect that your ... Read More
Cloud Based Accounting: The Cloud, The Books, The Bookkeeper, and His Death
The use of cloud-based accounting software began to surface about five years ago, amongst my clients. Since then, I’ve seen more young entrepreneurs adopting software quickly and with minimum training. Accounting software, desktop or cloud-based, is supposed to be user friendly for non-accountants, and this has been the case since accounting software came onto the scene in the 1990s. Now, with cloud-based accounting platforms, the clumsy need to transfer an actual physical file to various users ... Read More
Guidance for Vancouver Small Businesses Using QBO
Using QBO - QuickBooks Online More small-business owners are migrating from desktop accounting software to a cloud-based system. Cloud-based accounting software, such as QBO, allows the user access anywhere in the world. This ease of access, combined with the ability to download transactions from banks, vendors, credit card companies, etc., makes bookkeeping so straightforward now, pundits claim, that small businesses using cloud software no longer need bookkeepers. Unfortunately, as great as ... Read More
Checklist for IT Professionals Considering Incorporation
Tax Benefits for IT Consultants?
Major city centers in British Columbia are experiencing a high tech boom, resulting in many IT specialists and engineers converging in the province to offer their highly demanded skills to the highest bidder. The nature of the IT industry is very project-driven, producing vibrant short-term work opportunities for skilled and highly specialized professionals. Because of the nature of the work, it’s not unusual for an “employer” to hire self-employed ... Read MoreThinking About Buying a Small Business?
Buying a Small Business, Accounting Tips to Minimize Due Diligence Costs
Successful businesses are often on the hunt to acquire other businesses for strategic reasons. Acquiring a competitor to increase market share or buying out a supplier to add synergy to an existing business are just a few of the many reasons businesses seek acquisitions. At times, an acquisition may be relatively small and a buyer’s cost-benefit analysis may determine that large accounting fees for due diligence ... Read MoreShould Your Business Move to Cloud Quickbooks?
Cloud-based Quickbooks
Cloud-based Quickbooks (“QBO”) has made great strides in the past few years. Desktop Quickbooks (“QB”) was the top choice for many small businesses for years before QBO came into existence. QB was easy to use, cost effective and provided superior reports. However, the problem with QB was the clumsiness that came with file sharing. The QBA version (the QB version which allowed the business to move forward while the accountant worked on year-end) solved this ... Read MoreWhy Choose the Higher-Priced Professional Tax Advisor?
Increasing Risk of Being Selected for an Audit In our last blog we mentioned that it is no secret that the Canadian government and the CRA have recently been finding new ways to raise revenue. Recent news articles in the Globe and Mail have reported that the CRA has been devoting more resources into uncovering routine common filing errors made by honest taxpayers rather than investing additional resources into uncovering intentional errors. Our recent experience with the CRA confirms this as ... Read More
