Tax

Children’s Activity tax credit, a break for parents

Hockey season has started, and for now, my wife and I are still just observers. But with three boys under the age of six, future fall seasons promise to be much more hectic — and costly!

November 1, 2010

3 min read

Industry

Dividend pays better than salary

Small business owners would do well to invest surplus funds within the company instead of increasing their salary to maximize RRSP contributions, says a report from CIBC. The report Rethinking RRSPs for Business Owners: Why taking a salary may not make sense is based on research headed by Jamie Golombek, CIBC’s managing director of tax […]

By Vikram Barhat |October 20, 2010

2 min read

Market Insights

A.M. market data for October 7, 2010

North American markets Back to Top Open Change YTD Dow Jones 10,967.65 +22.93 or +0.21% +5.17% S&P 500 1,159.97 -0.78 or -0.07% +4.02% NASDAQ 2,380.66 -19.17 or -0.80% +4.91% TSX 12,501.72 +3.72 or +0.03% +6.43% International markets Back to Top Open Change YTD Nikkei 9,684.81 -6.62 or -0.07% -8.17% Hang Seng 22,884.32 +3.91 or +0.02% […]

By Staff |October 7, 2010

1 min read

Tax News

An RESP strategy that works

In my last column, I wrote about the extraordinary unused potential of registered education savings programs (RESPs). I also discussed in general terms the importance of helping clients take advantage of federal and provincial grants and incentives to maximize tax sheltered savings for their children’s or grandchildren’s higher education. RESPs should appeal greatly to investors, […]

By Michelle Munro |October 1, 2010

5 min read

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

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Editor’s note, Sept. 2018: This article was written in 2010 and many of the specifics may be outdated.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 […]

4 min read

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

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