taxdetective-Sandusky-Register

News release - The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the registration of The Organ Donation & Transplant Association of Canada as a charity

it isn't often that we know the names of these charities that are being dis-barred, but this one strikes a chord...

Richmond, BC - Payroll Information Seminar - Richmond, B.C.

Hiring a nanny or a caregiver for granny? You'll need this free workshop to keep you from harm and out of trouble!

Remember, those lawyers for Employment Standards and WCB, they don't work for you if you don't register before you hire someone to care for your loved ones. It only takes one injury or illness to trigger an investigation and will you pay, OH YES, big time!

Events and seminars

CRA has all kinds of free workshops about a variety of topics, including personal taxes. This link takes you to the details, places, how to register...

HST in BC - Home

It's time to seriously consider whether HST is bad or not bad... put your thoughts together and submit them by the first week of April. CGA BC has a panel that will be reviewing consequences of various options to the budget for the province.

What's your take?

News release - Harper Government: standing up for honest businesses

Well isn't that about time? And not just for men with hammers, women with cleaning rags, irons and caregivers should be just as honest.

News release - The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the registration of Pediatric AIDS Canada/USA as a charity

What do you know about the charities your hard earned dollars support? CRA's website has reporting by charities and if you know how to read their financial reporting, it's possible to see how much of your money is directed towards administration rather than charitable purposes.

Anyone else with me on this one?  CRA has snuck in a new description of what a deemed disposition is and isn't and I think they've caught those sneaky RRSP transfers where cash or shares come out of the RRSP in exchange for something being moved in to the RRSP...  See what you think...

T5008 reporting:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slps/fnncl/t5008/menu-eng.html
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slps/fnncl/t5008/t5008slp/prpr-eng.html

Deemed dispositions:  it used to be that everyone considered that a transfer of property to an RRSP was a disposition to a trust and therefore not reportable on a T5008.  I don't think that's the case anymore with this new definition of what deemed proceeds are.  If you transfer property into a trust and take back out consideration in the form of other shares or money, I'm not sure it meets this narrowing definition of deemed dispositions, which essentially are transfers for no consideration, none, nada, niet...

Financial slips & summaries.. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slps/fnncl/menu-eng.html

Speaker News Hot Topics and Social Media Connections » Global Speakers Agency

Top 7 ways to reward employees - how many have you experienced?

List of Unit Trusts to review for potential conversion by Jan 1, 2011...

This is a potentially interesting site to subscribe to as it appears to be hosted by a CGA who researches Income Trusts...can't say I know who they are, but maybe I'll find out more if they respond to my query.

Some S. 85 rollovers will require immediate action by unit holders...or hefty late filing penalties for late filing

There's a way to print your filtered lists.  Filter first.  Then ensure Details is open and Select All on the left side in the Actions section of Details.
Once you've selected the client names, open Database and choose either Export or Print Report. 
Export allows you to extract data and to create a .csv which can be opened in Excel.  Select the Options button at the bottom left to decide what to export, choosing fields and deciding on format and file name to export to a .csv.  Load it, save it and open the file in Excel.  You'll end up with two files on your Desktop or in a folder.

Get off my cloud! AccountingWEB.com

Peter's evaluation of the security of cloud computing is worth a read! Look before you leap, wise words.

As of Feb 12th, do you know who represents you?

About this service: Do you know who knows about you? your deepest darkest financial & tax history is revealed in "My Account"

The ridiculous thing is that, a Representative can't take themselves off your list of Representatives, only you can remove them. This means I represent people I don't want to, and currently there's no way to change that. Don't assume that when you fired your last accountant, they removed themselves, they aren't able to do it. Only you can effect removal.

If you haven't checked who your representatives are, it's probably a good idea to do that! Cancel any that aren't in your best interest and set up your current representatives, but carefully consider what Level you want them to have. Would you be willing to allow someone to change your tax returns without your knowledge? If you're okay with that, then maybe you're willing to grant Level 2 access.

If you would rather sign off on any changes first, then Level 1 is more your style.

Link to differences between Level 1, 2 and legal representative

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/chng_rps/lvlschrt-pf-eng.html

Here's what a Representative has access to on My Account:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/myccnt/hlp-eng.html#mao.a1-1

CRA is allowing bulk electronic submission of Form T1013 as of February 12th 2011:

This means they will have to audit Representatives to ensure they really have signed T1013's on file!

Being a Representative of your clients has taken on a whole new meaning including levels of authorization and functionality

http://www.efile.cra.gc.ca/l-blltnbrd-eng.html#lmt20

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/rprsnttvs/faqs/fqssngsrvc-eng.html

I like Alan Rowell's (see The Accounting Place.net) suggestion of an amended name, namely "Restricted Quality of Life Tax Credit"
http://www.theaccountingplace.net/index.php/the-truth-about-disability-tax-credits/


I believe there's a much easier option that's already right in front of our noses and it's already enshrined in the legislation, so it's not a stretch to embrace it. It even has a positive spin, as it's not a 'dis-ability' it's impairment in function or impairment in ability.



The Income Tax Act refers to an 'impairment in physical or mental function' in S. 118.3

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/I-3.3/section-118.3.html

S.118.3 never mention disability...it discusses an impairment in function, the effects of which are such that the individual's ability to perform a basic activity of daily living is markedly restricted...or one or more basic activities are significantly restricted where the cumulative effect of those restrictions is equivalent to a marked restriction... (cumulative effects available since 2005)

During the short tenure of the Disability Advisory Committee, all three meetings in 2005 and early 2006, before we were along with every other committee that advised CRA, abolished, I pushed for a change to 'impairment in ability' but wasn't successful. There is much money tied up in the use and image of the word 'disability' by many stakeholders. Our committee continued to meet informally every month until the end of 2010, but without the formality of advising the minister of revenue, it was successful in that significant improvements were made in communications with qualified medical practitioners, and a list of these QP's by province has been published. I would have liked to have seen appropriate formatting or forms for QPs on how to 'certify in writing' various medical expenses, many of which require 'certification in writing' to be allowable, but that wasn't to be.

We did get achieve a shift from a focus on what they called the 'disability community' to a recognition that impairment in ability may touch every family in Canada, so who on earth was this mythical 'disability community' other than stakeholders, with a career, a vested interest in continuing their service provisions to persons with an impairment in ability. As a result, the name of the RC4064 guide was changed from its former title to Medical and Disability-Related Information. Recognition that there are over 150 medical expenses and only four of them require the DTC certification was a huge leap forward. Many of the stakeholders in that 'disability community' had no idea that medical expenses were of such a broad scope. Narrowing that scope by restricting claims for many categories to require 'certification in writing' was undertaken and the change to exclude cosmetic procedures as of March 4, 2010 were also as a result of these discussions. I asked why children with a learning disability couldn't claim a computer, but a millionaire could claim their expensive cosmetic surgeries, tummy tucks, face lifts, body parts lifting and even teeth whitening. Unfortunately while disallowing cosmetic procedures, the learning disability community wasn't granted dispensation for computers for kids, which these days have come down significantly in price with the advent of NetBooks and iPads.

Lifelong Learning Plan

Wondering how to finance going back to school?

Here's a unique plan you may not have known about...

Withdraw funds from your RSP to finance you or your spouse/common law partner's education or training

Authorized Medical Practitioners by Province for Purposes of Claiming Medical Expenses for the Medical Expense Tax Credit
At the link above, check out which medical practitioners are licensed in your province/territory... Did you know that a podiatrist is certified in only some of the provinces/territories?

For more information about claiming medical and disability-related expenses and credits, you'll find my webpage loaded with free, very useful information.. Travel there directly by selecting this link: www.taxdetective.ca/ptc.html

or look for the Families: Tax Info tab on the left side at www.taxdetective.ca

Province of British Columbia

Up until 2009, if you were low income, you would be entitled to a $75 sales tax credit in BC. It would often offset the cost of preparing a tax return, and discounters would use it to pay their bill.

No more. In BC in 2010, you'll receive the BC HST credit quarterly along with your GST Credit...

Line 127 - Capital gains

Now that you know the 27 reasons... here's the details...

1. Proof or Validation of what you own 
2. Validation of cash and transfers for Proceeds of Crime/Money Laundering / attribution tracking 
3. Calculation of capital gains and losses for Tax purposes
4. Adjustment of cost for superficial losses to bump future cost to reduce tax
5. Verification of RSP claims to ensure all claims captured
6. Verification of withdrawals from RSP/RRIF and tax withheld at source
7. Instant tax planning if the market changes dramatically
8. Tax consequences for RSP swaps/loss denial/capital gains
9. Tax planning to reduce tax on capital gains by selling to trigger losses
10. Planning to get back tax you already paid by triggering losses to carry back
11. Plan for retirement/demise/divorce/ Not so active/Not so alive/Not so together scenarios – Plan for what to hold and what to sell
12. Plan to reduce cost of demise to preserve capital for spouse/family
13. Assessment of value of financial advisors advice?
14. Warnings about calculation verification on statements by investment companies
15. What happens when you can’t remember what you own? Dementia has set in. How will you communicate about your holdings if that is a sudden event?
16. Verify T-slips? Are they right? Are they ever wrong?
17. Verification of expenses, margin interest, flow thru’s, write down of ACB to nil
18. Cost of lawyers doing accounting because accounting not done while alive to assist executor reduces value of estate, adds to stress for those left behind
19. Cost of pre-1971 ownership documentation
20. Elections in 1994 documentation, CGE Pool eliminated after 10 years – did you add back your unused cost? When you sold, did you remember to use those figures to calculate reduced gains?
21. Comprehensive Income calculations required for reviewed or audited financial statements for corporations, trusts, non profits – all unrealized gain/loss net of tax
22. RRSP over contribution assessment arrives for contributions not claimed, reconciled claims between your investments and your tax returns?
23. Tax auditors requests to verify source of funds for attribution of income back to source
24. Responsibility to Public Trustee when acting as a trustee for a trust, managing finances for a senior or person with a disability
25. Are you the Executor? How will you report to the beneficiaries in an orderly fashion? Are you aware that the Charitable Foundation that was left a % of the estate is entitled to financial statements and will check your work?
26. Are you the accountant expected to account and concerned about the source of the funds invested?
27. Have you elected under S.50(1) on your delisted shares and claimed the loss carryback to obtain a refund for tax paid on capital gains in the last three years?

Link explains the credit and includes information about how to apply for the personal energy use portion of your credit

TaxTips.ca - BC HST - Residential Energy Credit and Rebate

Dorothy has put together a page on the residential energy credit. Key to note is you must, if a home based business claiming ITC's on home office costs, refuse to accept the credit on your utility bills. I called both BC Hydro and BC Gas last summer a number of times before they finally took the credit off my bills. I just checked and my Terasen bill says I have a rate classification of "small commercial" on the statement of account. My Hydro bill doesn't indicate any rebate and charges me the full 12% HST.

To claim a rebate, there are special rules set out in Dorothy's TaxTips.ca column linked herewith. Let me know how you make out...

Note the penalties of 10% and 25% for obtaining the credit when you shouldn't have... whether unintentionally or by fraudulent means!

For authorized e-filers, one small step to speed up the authorization process...
Removing the wait time from processing T1013's a definite bonus... See the link for more information about inception of this program in February 2011

Arrange Your Affairs - The Monitor

Just listed! February 19th isn't very far off...

Register early as this is one event that will sell out quickly!

I'm not doing many talks on personal taxes this year, too busy with other projects...

This is your only chance.

McCarthy Tétrault - e-Alert

Ever since life insurance agents formed themselves into groups not accountable to anyone, I've wondered when this would surface... it's long overdue. This wasn't necessarily the fault of the agents. The life insurance companies turned them loose and they decided to support each other, doing the best they could with a strange situation.

The problem is that there was no regulation for these groups. They don't report to anyone, neither do the agents under them.

Both fell between the cracks. If they were ethical, your dealings may have been ok, but if they weren't, there were no rules....