The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will soon be conducting its seventh annual Office Audit Letter Campaign. This campaign targets a specific group of taxpayers that have demonstrated specific tax behaviour. This year, CRA is targeting about 30,000 taxpayers who claim consecutive business or rental losses or who are employees claiming employment expenses on line 229 of their tax…
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Voluntary Disclosures Program What are you supposed to do when you discover that you’ve shorted the government some tax money? How about if you haven’t filed a tax return in years but you’ve been profitable the whole time? Or what if you’ve made an outright fraudulent tax filing in the past? No big deal,…
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Steps common to all business structures Make your start-up easier and consider your tax position while you plan your business. You have a lot on your plate with writing the business plan, doing marketing research, and looking for financing options. But if you consider taxes now, you’ll be saving yourself a major headache down…
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Recording, collecting and paying HST doesn’t have to be a hassle. Understanding what the CRA wants from you is the first step. In case you missed it, in our last we talked about supplies you have to charge HST on, registering for an HST account, and how to charge HST. This is part 2 of…
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HST or “Harmonized Sales Tax” is one of the main sales taxes in Canada and is used in provinces where the federal GST or “Goods and Services Tax” is combined with the provincial sales tax to form a single value added sales tax. The HST is a “value added tax” meaning that it is a…
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Chalk one up for the little guy. Why you ask? Well ETFs (which stands for Exchange Traded Funds) have reached a new milestone: they are now as “big” as hedge funds. According to ETFGI (a consultancy specializing on ETFs) the ETF industry has achieved the 3-trillion dollar mark for assets under management. This is up…
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Common Business Deductions: Current as of October 2015 Advertising As long as you’re advertising to a Canadian market, you can deduct the full cost, unless you’re using a foreign broadcaster (there are special rules for this). When advertising in a periodical, the issue you’re advertising in has to be at least 80% original content (of…
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Invasion of your privacy, long hours of unpaid paperwork, paying penalties and interest. If you are a fan of such things then a CRA audit is just what the doctor ordered. Let’s face it, a CRA audit is anything from annoying to downright frightening for most people. While the CRA does not fully disclose their…
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It is inevitable that at some point in any small business owner’s life they will ask themselves the question “what is my business worth?” The answer is far from simple. As self-employed baby-boomers begin to plan their retirements and the ultimate succession of their wealth to the next generation they often wonder what their small…
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Using a Holding Company: Dividends paid between connected Canadian corporations do not usually attract tax. This is just one beautiful advantage of a holding company. When your assets build up, your business gets riskier, and you need legal methods to ease the tax burden, a holding company could be the answer. First, your small business…
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Doing business in Canada means filing a lot of information with the CRA. Sometimes you will be called upon to prove your claims with records and supporting documentation. Keep the stress down and make life a lot easier by understanding what the CRA will look for and by keeping accurate records. What the CRA is…
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What are the steps I need to follow to start my business? Steps common to all business structures Make your start-up easier and consider your tax position while you plan your business. You have a lot on your plate with writing the business plan, doing marketing research, and looking for financing options. But if…
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