taxdetective-Sandusky-Register

Training bundle $290 
(40+ products) original training series - 20 hours plus 5 hours working papers/reports/reconciliation

Inventory Parts $134.87  
(3 part series)

Quicken Series $219.80  
(4 part series requested by bookkeepers after September 2012 overview)

Keeping Records - self-employed $274.75 
(about tax, not QuickBooks, though it does use QuickBooks to show how to do the accounting for tax)

Microsoft OneNote - $109.90 
(2 hours on using OneNote for all sorts of reasons)

Internal controls for bookkeepers $229.00 

Oh yes, I also created along the way, something you might want to share with your teens, young adults, and teachers...it's slowly being picked up and used by business education teachers who care...

Free - Student WorkBook for Canadian High School Teachers - Case studies & YouTube videos to learn how to use TurboTax Online for free / anonymously to protect student privacy

Meandering through the ages... some thoughts on being a teen and tax..

Does the age of majority vary depending on what it is that is being authorized?  

Does it vary depending on whether it's the age of consent for to be employed and at what rate, or to contract to purchase a car or a house? Or for sex? or drinking, or driving...

How about for signing your own tax return? 

Or opening an RRSP? 

Did you know about a directive in the federal budget in 2013 about representation and uptake on the RDSP? 

Here's what CRA has to say about how they are handling the challenges of low uptake on the RDSP...and there's some stuff about youth in there too...

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2012/qa08-eng.html#_Toc320860289

There are significant variances in how legal representation is handled across the jurisdictions.

If you're in the area, and in need of PD, I'll be doing a presentation on QB Online for accountants at the Fraser Valley CGA Computer User Group on Wednesday night 7 30 pm.

There's been some exciting updates in the technology over the past few months. Did you know that you can use it on a MAC as you're able to access it via Safari? 

Or that you can access a simplified version via an APP on your mobile device?

Did you know that accountants can sign up for a free account and then invite clients to check it out, and provide those clients with access to a 30% discount on the monthly access fee?

There is more. See you on Wednesday night?

Here's the information about the group, fees, times, address etc.

https://www.cga-bc.org/events.aspx?id=2896&terms=computer%20user%20groups#fraser

There's a lot to learning to use any software.  There's the look and feel, the special tips and tricks. There's the best practices to stay out of a mess.

A couple of years ago, I spent four months writing, and then two weeks delivering a ten part series on how best to keep records, and yes, it's using QuickBooks (but really, it should be any software) because in this series, I incorporated the best ways to keep records for business paperwork. Except that anyone who uses other software isn't willing to spent the time on it, because all they see is ...blah, blah, blah QuickBooks. That's sad, but it's true... maybe this winter, I'll have to create something that is software neutral on the business paperwork angle.

This is a little 'flipsnack' I created with the content descriptions for each of the ten sessions.

http://www.flipsnack.com/TaxDetective/

Then, after IPBC (www.ipbc.ca) which now has 1,100 members... and I recorded these ten sessions in March 2011, I went on to record another five hours just on working papers in March 2012, and other answers to questions posed by the live participants who attended those two series.

In October 2012, we realized how expensive all these individual pieces had become, so to make it affordable for bookkeepers, we decided to bundle 44 products, and call it a training bundle. Bookkeepers purchased the bundle (members at half price) and sent me emails telling me they were watching the videos three times with the sample data file open so they could play while they learned. They would set up a laptop with the recordings to listen while they worked on their desktop with QuickBooks open.  Pretty effective way to learn something, by doing as you listen. Stopping, starting, pausing, rewinding to hear it again...

Business owners would call and I'd say, well you could spent thousands on training one on one with me, or you could buy my training bundle for $290.00. You choose.  Sometimes they would choose to spent several thousand, and then at $125/hour, eventually, they'd get it, and ask me, didn't you have a training video series that would cost me less and I could do it on my own time?  Then later, they'd email that yes, they wished they had listened to me in the first place. You can lead a horse to watch, but you can't make him drink...

Last fall, because members were asking, IPBC and I did another three hour series, this time in November 2012 on just Inventory Parts.

In January this year, a series on using Quicken for Investment Accounting

And in February, we recorded a tax series on self-employed record keeping, another five hours.

This fall, we're half way through a series on Internal Controls. There's nothing about QuickBooks in this series.  The tax series on self-employed, it's not about QuickBooks either, though I do use it to show how to do account for tax.

You can purchase all of these products on my website. Learn at your own pace.  If you have staff turn-over in your bookkeeping and accounting department, you can pull out the videos and start over without incurring additional training expenses to send your staff off to school. You'll know exactly what they are learning, because you've already watched it.

This winter I'm thinking about doing a new series on using QuickBooks Online. And during the Internal Control series, several people expressed interest in a course just on how to keep records, for any software, to minimize the risk of audit. I may use QuickBooks Online, and maybe add in some other software, as I did a survey of what's out there (find it under Keeping Records>Productivity Tools on my website www.taxdetective.ca

Training bundle $290 (44 products, including 20 hours content included in Flipsnack above)

Inventory Parts $134.87  (3 part series)

Quicken Series $219.80  (4 part series requested by bookkeepers after September 2012 overview)

Keeping Records - self-employed $274.75 (about tax, not QuickBooks, though it does use QuickBooks to show how to do the accounting for tax)

To register for the Internal Controls workshop, to download the first two recordings, and attend the last two sessions, which are looking really interesting, visit www.ipbc.ca to register. They'll send you a link to the protected page with the downloads and the next session is December 4th at 1 pm PST.

Oh yes, I also created along the way, something you might want to share with your teens, young adults, and teachers...it's slowly being picked up and used by business education teachers who care...

Free - Student WorkBook for Canadian High School Teachers - Case studies & YouTube videos to learn how to use TurboTax Online for free / anonymously to protect student privacy

And, if you're looking to acquire more PD hours for reading before year end, my TaxLinks Pro Portal is free links to a variety of tax topics. Everything from Artists & Writers ( a very popular page) to Personal Services Businesses, or T2125 and self-employed, or Leaving Canada.

Look under the Learn About Tax button on my website (top of each page)
or go direct to http://www.taxdetective.ca/taxlinksportal.html

If you own Seg Funds, the capital gain or loss on disposition of units of the fund is calculated and included in your T3 report slip from the company.

It isn't necessary, or even possible to calculate this gain/loss yourself.

I recently read a discussion about how to calculate the gain/loss yourself, and there was no mention that this calculation is prepared for you by the Seg Fund company.

Has something changed? Or am I wrong? Can someone comment from the Seg Fund / Insurance Investment sector?

http://crowdfunding.cmf-fmc.ca/regulatory_updates/provincial-and-federal-tax-credits#!

http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/267724/Income+Tax/Crowdfunding+Proceeds+May+Be+Taxable#!

Hot topic these days, crowd-funding.

It seems there are at least two types, equity, and donation with benefits.

There's also legal controversy swirling around this topic. Here's some links from Alan Baggett who has been following this topic because it's new and interesting, of course, because it's about raising money for businesses...and who doesn't want to figure out how to do that more effectively.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11267067.htm
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/09/crowdfunding-financing-is-taxable-income-cra-says/
http://www.ctf.ca/ctfweb/EN/Newsletters/Canadian_Tax_Focus/2013/4/130407.aspx

As for the two types, donations with benefits, and equity funding, they are quite different.

Remember, donations, they have to be for charitable purposes, and can't come with strings attached. And most sources of income are taxable, especially when you're in profit making mode, and your source of funds doesn't fit any of the criteria in S. 81 of the Income Tax Act. 

S. 81, that's what I call the hero section, where if you provide extraordinary service, for example, you take in someone who isn't family, who is on welfare, or you're a foster parent, or...here's the actual section, which sets out exactly what isn't income.. and crowd-funding, well it's not on that list.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-3.3/section-81.html

Equity funding has typically come about by the issuance of share capital. How exactly will it work when you're issuing shares on the street without going through the usual channels? That's where the controversy likely comes in. I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the next few months as our securities system attempts to come to grips with this new financing methodology.