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.
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 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
The Big Tax Deductions vs The Deductions that Are More Fuss than Their Worth
Right now, Canadians are rushing to file their personal income tax returns on time. At Mew and Company, we are gearing up to process all of the documentation needed to file complete and accurate returns by April 30, 2015. Although we have been preparing personal tax returns for many years, it feels like every year, there are more documents to request and process than the previous year. A significant reason for this is perhaps that my clients’ lives have become more complicated from a tax ... Read More
Effective Income Splitting Needs Professional Pre Planning
Income Splitting Pre Planning We are now firmly into the 2015 calendar year and with the New Year come new tax laws aimed at reducing your family’s tax burden (eg. recently announced family tax cuts) and changes to existing tax laws that reduce old benefits (eg. higher personal taxes on ineligible dividends).
Ineligible Dividends
Ineligible dividends are essentially the type of dividends that most profitable Canadian small business owners get from their corporations. They represent the ... Read MoreCanadian Income Tax Penalties: Repeated Failure to Report Income
Penalties and interest charges are the most common tools the CRA uses to enforce compliance with the Canadian Income Tax Act. ‘Compliance’ refers to filing the tax and information returns in their entirety and on time. When a taxpayer (a person or a corporation) files late, there are late filing penalties on unpaid balances. There is another serious penalty in the Income Tax Act that is catching some taxpayers by surprise. This penalty arises when a taxpayer fails to report an income amount ... Read More
The Costly Consequences of Pretending To Be An Incorporated Consultant
Canadian corporations enjoy a 13.5% corporate tax rate on the first $500,000 of taxable income from active business due to the small business deduction. Therefore, it makes sense for a corporation to structure its business affairs in ways that can take full advantage of this favourable tax rate. The majority of Canadian businesses qualify for the above benefit. However, some “consultants” who may have incorporated their service businesses may be taking advantage of the low corporate tax rate, ... Read More
Canadian Small Business Owners and CPP – What is the Deal?
For business owners in British Columbia, the trend of remunerating shareholders with dividends instead of salaries and/or management bonuses has been going on for years. The low corporate tax rate of 13.5% on the first $500,000 of corporate profits in conjunction with total CPP premiums of $4,712 on the first $51,100 of salary paid to each shareholder/manager created a strong tax planning argument to take dividends instead of salary. Currently, with discussion in Ottawa to further expand the ... Read More
Choose Quickbooks For Your Vancouver-based Small Business
Selecting the right accounting software for your small business seems like a daunting task but it really isn't. This is because there is one software that is far superior even to the second best-in-its-class competitor. Also, 99 percent of all Vancouver professional accountants servicing small businesses use and recommend this software - Quickbooks (“QB”) or Cloud-based Quickbooks (“QBO”).
