12 Tax Rules and Real Estate Gain from sale of principal residence not taxable. Loss from sale of your principal residence not tax deductible. Sale of principal residence must be reported on the personal tax return. If a taxpayer owns more than one home for personal use and/or investment purpose, professional advisor should be consulted for optimal principal residence planning. The rules are complicated. Loss from sale of your real estate investment is considered a capital loss ... Read More
Cloud Software – Only Getting Better With Time
More small businesses are now on cloud account software. Many business owners are performing the bookkeeping functions on their own and just as many business owners hire a bookkeeping firm who specializes in cloud software to do the bookkeeping. Now, AI is getting involved to limit human coding errors that still exist with cloud software. As for me, the external accountant, I have noticed considerable improvement with both, the software and the users maximizing the software full ... Read More
A Liquidity Crunch in Vancouver
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
Non-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 MoreVancouver 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 Sale of Rental Property and the Principal Residence Exemption
While at dinner recently, a friend of mine, Carla, informed me that she sold her rental property and was curious about the amount of tax that she would owe on the gain. Upon further questioning, I uncovered that, in the past, my friend had lived in this rental property (a condo) for many years. She purchased a second condo a few years back and moved into it. She had then rented out the first condo—the one she just sold. From her line of questioning, I realized that, other than the tax ... Read More
A Refresher – When to Incorporate Your Business
When to Incorporate
We recently published a blog post on small business corporate tax rates in British Columbia heading downwards to 11.5% on the first $500,000 by 2019. This reflects a 15% reduction in taxes from the current 13.5%. Considering that taxes are a big-ticket expense item for businesses, a 15% reduction is a huge discount. However, upcoming corporate tax rate reductions are only advantageous to businesses that can leverage them. Successful proprietors are often burdened ... Read MoreThe Best Way to Go About a CRA Audit
The average small business owner in Vancouver has a limited budget to deal with their marketing, accounting, IT and high location rental costs. Successful businesses tend to be surrounded by strong support networks, which include bookkeepers and tax advisors. As a result, their books and records are orderly, current, and their tax filings are consistent with their accounting records. For these businesses, a CRA audit is merely a small project to attend to with the help of a professional ... Read More
CRA Assessed You and Now You Owe More Taxes – What’s Next?
It’s been about a month since the filing deadline for your 2014 personal income tax returns. Since then, the CRA has been sending out notices of assessment or requests for more information. In some taxpayers’ cases, they have received a notice of assessment, which reflects different results from the tax return they have filed. In rare cases, the notice will state that the taxes owing are lower than the amount calculated by the accountant. However, in most cases where there is a difference, the ... Read More
