Ontario Trillium Benefit
Ontario Trillium BenefitThrough refundable tax credits, the Province provides relief to low- to moderate-income Ontarians for the taxes and energy costs they face. Through the Ontario Trillium Benefit...

Moving expenses — what’s deductible and when (June 2021)
Pandemic notwithstanding, the Canadian real estate market is booming, in terms of both house prices and sales activity. According to Canadian Real Estate Association statistics, the number of sales in...

A mid-year tax check-up on your taxes (June 2021)
By the beginning of June, most Canadians have filed their individual income tax return for the 2020 tax year and received a Notice of Assessment (NOA) outlining their tax position for that year. Those...

Mortgage lending rules tighten effective June 1, 2021 (June 2021)
Over the past decade, the rules governing mortgage lending in Canada have been repeatedly amended, each time to impose more stringent requirements on would-be mortgage borrowers. The latest such chang...

When and how to dispute your 2020 Notice of Assessment (June 2021)
By now, most Canadians have filed their income tax returns for the 2020 taxation year. Specifically, by May 17, 2021, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had processed just under 27 million individual inc...

How to not fall victim to a tax scam (May 2021)
It is a sad fact that, every year, thousands of Canadians become the victims of scams in which fraud artists claim to be representatives of the federal government. Equally sadly, in most cases the mon...

Changes to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy — and the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program (May 2021)
At the beginning of the pandemic, when states of emergency were declared across Canada, the federal government introduced a number of programs to provide financial relief and assistance to individuals...

Deciding when to start receiving Old Age Security benefits (May 2021)
The Old Age Security (OAS) program is the only aspect of Canada’s retirement income system which does not require a direct contribution from recipients of program benefits. Rather, the OAS program i...

Fixing a mistake in your (already filed) tax return (May 2021)
For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2020 tax year was Friday April 30, 2021. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Tuesday June 1...

New Quarterly Newsletters (Q1 2021)
Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues....

What to do when you can’t pay your tax bill (April 2021)
Most taxpayers sit down to do their annual tax return, or wait to hear from their tax return preparer, with some degree of trepidation. In most cases taxpayers don’t know until their return is compl...

Paying the taxman – when and how (April 2021)
Our tax system is, for the most part, a mystery to individual Canadians. The rules surrounding income tax are complicated and it can seem that for every rule there is an equal number of exceptions or ...

Last-minute tax filing strategies—the timing of medical and charitable tax credit claims (April 2021)
By the time most Canadians sit down to organize their various tax slips and receipts and undertake to complete their tax return for 2020, the most significant opportunities to minimize the tax bill fo...

When CERB benefits don’t have to be repaid (April 2021)
When the pandemic was declared just over a year ago, the federal government announced a wide range of benefits to help mitigate the financial stress experienced by those who lost jobs or saw their hou...

What’s new on the 2020 tax return? (March 2021)
While the obligation to file a tax return recurs annually, that return form is never exactly the same from year to year. Tax brackets and allowable deduction and credit amounts change each year and, m...

When and how to file this year’s tax return (March 2021)
Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publishes a statistical summary of the tax filing patterns of Canadians during the previous filing season. Those statistics for the 2020 filing season show t...

Taking advantage of pension income splitting (March 2021)
Income tax is a big-ticket item for most retired Canadians. Especially for those who are happily free of the requirement to make mortgage payments, the annual tax bill may be the single biggest annual...

Paying the piper - the taxation of pandemic benefits (March 2021)
Over the past month, millions of Canadians have received what was probably an unexpected (and unwelcome) communication from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), in the form of a T4A slip. That T4A slip li...

New Quarterly Newsletters (Q4 2020)
Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues....