Tax

Technology can drive savings

The rewards for employing technology include business efficiency and enhanced personal communication. Even the tax system provides benefits to those who embrace the cyber world. Let’s start with tax write-offs for computer equipment: Computers used in a business are capital assets that may be depreciated over time. But currently, a temporary 100% write-off is available […]

By Gena Katz |October 1, 2010

3 min read

Tax News

Taxation of foreign investments

Editor’s note, Sept. 2018: This article was written in 2010 and many of the specifics may be outdated. This article, from 2017, is more updated. The strong loonie has many Canadians shopping for foreign investment opportunities. But Canadian residents are required to pay tax on their worldwide income. That is, income earned by a resident […]

By Michael Callahan |October 1, 2010

4 min read

Tax News

CRA goes after dodgy donors

Time is fast running out for the patrons of “gifting tax shelters” making questionable charitable donations in the hope of making a fast buck. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is tightening the noose around those who are using questionable tax shelter programmes to claim phoney charitable donations. Such schemes typically give the donor a tax […]

By Vikram Barhat |September 16, 2010

3 min read

Tax News

Taking on the CRA

Once in a while, it’s refreshing to see a financial advisor take on the Canada Revenue Agency over business expenses and ultimately succeed — in getting at least some originally disallowed expenses permitted.

September 1, 2010

3 min read

Capitalizing on corporate mutual funds

Mutual Fund Corporations have been around for some time now but they really exploded on the scene about 15 years ago. Their popularity was sparked by astute advisors and clients looking for ways to reduce income taxes on investments. As a refresher, a mutual fund corporation is a single entity which establishes multiple share classes […]

5 min read

Avoiding questionable expenses

How careful are you, as an advisor, in ensuring the business expenses you claim each year at tax time are appropriate, reasonable and properly documented? A recent tax case decided in April (Platis v The Queen, 2010 TCC 150) involved Toronto advisor Peter Platis, a commissioned commodities and foreign exchange broker employed by Refco Futures […]

3 min read

Fee transparency trumps structure: readers

Our mailbox continues to fill with opinions on the fate of trailer commissions, following a story we ran earlier this week on 12(b)-1 fees in the U.S. With all the fuss over how an advisor is compensated, one reader pointed out that un-advised investors are frequently still paying the fee for advise to their execution-only […]

By Steven Lamb |August 13, 2010

3 min read

Advised Canadians are far better off: IFIC

Here’s a suggestion for those who question the value of financial advice: take it easy…but take it. Having advice is strongly associated with the accumulation of financial wealth regardless of income level or age, according to an Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) report. The study, titled The Value of Advice: Report, reveals financial advice […]

By Vikram Barhat |August 12, 2010

3 min read

Retiring before your mortgage

What do you do when your client enters retirement with a mortgage or other debt? It happens all the time. In fact, the stats show us that 40% of Canadians are retiring with debt and some are even accruing debt in retirement. At this point it’s too late to avoid retiring with debt, so what […]

|August 11, 2010

6 min read