Just two years back, when buying condo presales was the rage of investing free cash in Vancouver, I wrote a short blog cautioning investors to begin preparation years ahead for the closing date of the deal. When the condo completes, full payment of the balance on the condo is required to close the deal; hence qualifying for the mortgage at that future time required some income reporting planning. Back then, waiting for construction completion date to close the deal was not necessarily part ... Read More
Last Chance Tax Planning for 2018
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.
BC's New Tax Law Called Tax on Split Income (TOSI)
The biggest new tax law introduced this year is Tax on Split Income or TOSI for short. TOSI is so complicated that many tax advisors use a flowchart to visually follow the rules to assist in determining where the taxpayer stands with this rule this year. As ... Read MoreNon-Canadian Resident and Collecting Rental Income in Vancouver
Non-Canadian residents who own Canadian real estate and collecting rental income have two ways to deal with the Canadian tax liability.
The first method is remit to the CRA, 25% tax on the gross rent collected. This 25% is due to the CRA on the 15th of the following month the rental income was credited to the non-Canadian resident. This tax is considered the final tax liability on the rental income and the non-Canadian resident has no further obligation. However, the non-resident ... Read MoreDeath of a Taxpayer – A To Do List
Death of a family member is one of the most stressful events in life. To compound the grief, there are final tax matters to deal with either by April 30th of the following year or 6 months after the date of death.
What To Do Upon The Death of a Taxpayer?
Upon the death of a taxpayer, at a minimum, there is a final return (“terminal return”) to be filed with the CRA and three optional returns to be filed if desired. In addition, a trust return to report income received after death is ... Read MoreCloud 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
Capital Dividend Account Tax Planning: A Look at Proposed Changes
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog under a similar title. At the time of my writing, our Finance Minister in Ottawa, Mr. Bill Morneau, had yet to surprise us incorporated small-business owners with his plan to eliminate tax planning tools commonly used by the incorporated self-employed. I will not go into all the proposed tax-rule changes, but I will discuss the one proposal that may impact the Capital Dividend Account tax planning I wrote about just before the announcement. One of the ... Read More
Non-Residents Selling Canadian Real Estate
As a non-resident, a little bit of extra tax planning is required when selling Canadian real estate.
The 25% Withholding Tax
The CRA requires that the purchaser withhold 25% of the gross sale amount from a non-resident. (Note that the 25% of the gross sale proceeds withheld would normally be in the seller’s lawyer’s trust account, and this individual has the undertaking of releasing the funds to the CRA and the balance to the seller once the Certificate of Compliance has been obtained ... Read MoreReal Estate Gains and Canadian Income Tax – A Brief Analysis
A Brief Analysis of Real Estate Gains & Canadian Income Tax
Recently there has been a lot of media attention focused on financial gains being made in Vancouver’s housing market and the favorable tax treatment given to real estate used as a principal residence through the Canadian Income Tax Act. Without getting into the technical details of this tax treatment and all of the possible complex scenarios, the simple rule is that as long as a taxpayer or an immediate family member ... Read MoreInheritance and the Canadian Taxpayer
While Inheritance is Non-taxable, A Word of Caution
Inheritances are non-taxable for Canadian taxpayers regardless of whether or not the inheritance comes from a Canadian citizen or a foreign citizen. This non-taxable tax treatment is also consistent regardless of whether or not the inheritance is straight cash, a summer house, a rental building or shares of a company. Before you become complacent, a word of caution! The non-taxable status of an inheritance doesn’t mean there aren’t ... Read MoreLate Tax Returns & Getting Mortgage or Credit
If I Ignore CRA’s Request to File Outstanding Returns – Tales of Two Taxpayers - submitted by Lilly Woo, CA, CFE, CFP It has been a strange summer for me. As the 2014 tax season came to an end on April 30, 2015, I was relieved as always and mentally plan for the lazy summer I wanted to enjoy. Then a strange thing happened. I received a phone call from a friend (“Paul”) whom I have lost touch with six years ago. He sounded stressed right away. As soon as we were through the initial ... Read More
