So it's been a few years, you haven't filed your returns, and now you've decided to get honest about it. Good for you! You’ll feel great for having gotten this off your mind. But while we always recommend filing late returns, don't rush in blind if you owe tax. Consider taking advantage of CRA's [...]
Self-employed people in Canada can take a home office deduction. It's one of the best things about being self-employed: you can take costs you were already incurring -- your residence costs -- and use them to reduce your taxes. Business-use-of-home The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) calls the home office deduction business-use-of-home. As a self-employed person [...]
Q: I’m a plumber earning less than $30,000 per year. In order to bid on jobs I found I needed to have a GST-HST number, so I registered two years ago. But since then, I haven’t earned over $30,000 per year. Do I still have to charge GST-HST? Do I have to file returns? A: [...]
When someone dies, their final tax return is subject to a number of special rules. The deemed disposition rule in particular can have a major impact on the final tax bill. What is a deemed disposition? It's a form of capital gain To understand deemed disposition it's first important to understand the basics of what [...]
Q: Since I registered for the GST-HST I have still not earned over $30,000, so I haven’t charged GST-HST. Now the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has sent me a GST bill saying I owe them thousands of dollars in GST-HST, even though I haven’t earned enough income and I haven’t been charging GST-HST on what [...]
You may be aware that if your self-employment earnings are less than $30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters (i.e., in a year’s time) you don’t have to register for the GST or HST. However there are some situations where you might choose to register, even if you don’t have to. Registering for the GST-HST because [...]
If you've registered to collect the goods and services or harmonized sales tax (GST-HST) in Canada, you may have come across the term input tax credit or its acronym, ITC, and wondered what it's all about. To understand input tax credits (ITCs) you need to understand the basics of the GST-HST system, which are simply: [...]
For the 2020 and 2021 tax years, Canadians were allowed a special Work-From-Home credit for time spent working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The credit can be calculated two ways: using a flat rate, or doing a calculation involving a percentage of utilities and/or rent costs. The flat rate requires no additional documentation. Any [...]
So it’s RRSP season again, and you’re trying to decide how much (if anything) to contribute this year. This is especially a question if you didn’t end up earning much. Here are the top three things you need to know about RRSPs in a low-income year. 1. RRSPs are less helpful to people with low [...]
Q: After a few years of low income, I'm finally ready to start contributing to my RRSP again. But looking at my Notice of Assessment I completely forget what the RRSP numbers mean. My notice from last year's taxes gives me the following: RRSP deduction limit: $15,000 Unused contributions previously reported & available to deduct: [...]
