Tax Advice

Canada Revenue Agency announced this week that they are temporarily simplifying and expanding the office-in-home deductions for employees. Background Traditionally office-in-home deductions are only allowed when the employer has a contractual expectation that the employee fulfill some of their duties at home; the deductions are then based on actual expenses incurred in residing in the...

The government has launched several support programs since the pandemic, each with their own complicated set of rules. We feel it important to take the time to inform you of the reporting requirements to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for your 2020 T4 filings as well as for the Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS) and Canada Emergency...

The Saskatchewan government introduced legislation yesterday to reduce its Small Business Corporate Tax Rate to 0% effective October 1, 2020. The tax rate will increase to 1% effective July 1, 2022, and then back to 2% effective July 1, 2023. The reduced rate will apply to up to $600,000 of taxable income per year in...

Sometime during the month of February, millions of Canadians will receive mail from the Canada Revenue Agency. That mail, a “Tax Instalment Reminder”, will set out the amount of instalment payments of income tax to be paid by the recipient taxpayer by March 16 and June 15 of this year. Receiving an “Instalment Reminder” from...

The Canadian tax system is a “self-assessing system” which relies heavily on the voluntary co-operation of taxpayers. Canadians are expected (in fact, in most cases, required), to complete and file a tax return each spring, reporting income from all sources, calculating the amount of tax owed, and remitting that amount to the federal government by...

When parents separate and divorce, it is frequently the case that they are able to agree on an arrangement to share custody of their children. Such a shared-custody arrangement is often to the benefit of all concerned, especially the children of the marriage. While a shared-custody arrangement usually makes the most sense from a human...

In most cases, the need to seek out and obtain legal services (and to pay for them) is associated with life’s more unwelcome occurrences and experiences — a divorce, a dispute over a family estate, or a job loss. The only thing that mitigates the pain of paying legal fees (apart, hopefully, from a successful...

Sometime during the month of July several thousand Canadians will receive an unexpected, unfamiliar, and probably unwelcome piece of correspondence from the Canada Revenue Agency. That correspondence will be an Instalment Reminder advising the recipient of tax payments to be made in September and December of this year. The reason such Reminders are sent during...

In this year’s Budget, the federal government introduced a new program – the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI), to help qualifying first-time home buyers get into the housing market. Under that program the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (an agency of the federal government) will add a specified amount to the down payment made...

For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2018 tax year was Tuesday April 30, 2019. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Monday June 17, 2019 to get their return filed.) In the best of all possible worlds, the taxpayer, or his or her representative,...