As an immigrant to Canada, it's important to understand the Canadian income tax system and your tax obligations. Whether you're a permanent resident, a temporary worker, or a student, you'll probably need to file a tax return with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) each year. Do you need to file a Canadian income tax return? [...]
As you may know, you don't pay tax in Canada on the sale of your principal residence. But what if the property was your principal residence, but was an investment property by the time you sold it? Q: I purchased my home 20 years ago for $120,000. Fifteen years later I converted that principal residence [...]
What is double taxation? If you live in one country but earn income from a payer in another country, sometimes that income is taxed by the foreign government. When you file your taxes in your home country, you must declare that income, and it may trigger tax in your home country as well. This situation [...]
Is there a mistake on your taxes? Maybe you missed a tax slip or a receipt when you filed your return. Or maybe CRA made a change to your return based on a misunderstanding. However it happens, you can discover that there's a mistake on your taxes - an error in an income tax [...]
Little-known fact: 80% of Canadian income tax filing works on the honour system. During tax season, CRA receives an avalanche of income tax returns; far more than they could ever review in real time. Consequently, they send out most Notices of Assessment having done little-to-no review of what is actually in those tax returns. Unless [...]
It's simple to get a GST or HST number in Canada. You can do it over the phone, or you can do it online if you're registered for CRA's online My Business service. But no matter how you register, CRA is going to require you to provide some information and make decisions up front. You [...]
Contributing to an RRSP is always a great move, right? Not so fast. RRSPs reduce your taxes by sheltering income from tax when you contribute. You will pay the income tax later when you withdraw the funds, which is ideally when they’ve had a few years to grow (tax-free), and when you’re in a lower [...]
Video: Overdue Tax Returns - Should You File? The Short Answer Is ‘Yes’ Filing old late tax returns. Should you do it? I know I’m biased. I am a tax professional and I prepare tax returns for a living. Of course I'm going to tell you to file your tax returns. But bias or no, [...]
It is better to give than to receive, but what's even better is getting a tax credit from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for it. Here are three tax tips on how to make the most of your charitable donations on your Canadian income tax return. VIDEO: Charitable Giving and Tax in Canada - Three Things [...]
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) asks for tax installments when you establish a tendency to owe tax at the end of the year. But sometimes life gets in the way, income is low or expenses are high, and you don’t get around to paying the tax installments requested by CRA. So what happens if you [...]
