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...

Claiming a tax credit for renovation costs (October 2021)
The ongoing pandemic has, as one of its many effects, created a boom in the home renovation industry, as Canadians find themselves needing to adapt their homes to more and more varied uses....

When are legal fees deductible? (October 2021)
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...

The approaching end of pandemic benefit programs (October 2021)
Since March of 2020, tens of millions of Canadians have received pandemic benefits. In some cases, those benefits have been received directly by individuals — typically, through the Canada Emergency...

Year-end planning for your RRSP, RRIF, and TFSA (October 2021)
Most Canadians know that the deadline for making contributions to one’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) comes 60 days after the end of the calendar year, around the end of February. There ...

Some good pandemic financial news (September 2021)
The past 18 months have been characterized by a steady stream of mostly bad news, relating to the pandemic and its harmful consequences. The human cost of the pandemic, in terms of illness and death, ...

Managing a Canada Student Loan after graduation (September 2021)
Getting a post-secondary education, especially where that education includes graduate school or professional training, is an expensive undertaking. According to Statistics Canada, the average undergra...

Avoiding (or minimizing) the OAS clawback (September 2021)
There are a number of income sources available to Canadians in retirement. Those who participated in the work force during their adult life will have contributed to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and w...

Financing the political process – the political contribution tax credit (September 2021)
To win elections, politicians need votes. And to run the election campaigns needed to garner those votes, they need an organization, volunteers, and money — a lot of money. To wage the current feder...

New Quarterly Newsletters (Q2 2021)
Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues....

Tax assistance for post-secondary education costs (July 2021)
There’s a lot that is still unknown about the upcoming 2021-22 academic year for post-secondary students. It may be that such students will be back on campus, living in residence and once again atte...

Claiming a deduction for summer child care costs (July 2021)
As Canada begins to (slowly) transition back to a pre-pandemic way of life, one of the many opportunities which did not exist last summer is once again a possibility — that of sending the kids to su...

Just a few questions about your tax return … (July 2021)
Between February 8 and June 21 of this year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) received and processed just under 29 million individual income tax returns filed for the 2020 tax year. The sheer volume of...

Creating retirement income from home equity (July 2021)
According to Statistics Canada there were, as of July 2020, just under 7 million Canadians over the age of 65. While the age at which an individual retires can vary a lot (from “Freedom 55” to tho...