Blog - Jones & O’Connell LLP

Year-End Planning for Medical Expense Claims

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 26, 20240 comments

While the current state of the Canadian health care system is far from perfect, Canadians are nonetheless fortunate to have a publicly funded health care system, in which most major medical expenses are covered by provincial health care plans. Notwithstanding, there is a large (and ...

When Help is Available Under the CRA's Taxpayer Relief Provisions

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 19, 20240 comments

Canada’s tax system is a self-assessing one, meaning that the onus rests on individual taxpayers to file their annual return each spring and to pay any amounts owed. The compliance rate in Canada is high – most Canadian taxpayers comply with those tax obligations, filing ...

The Benefits - and Costs - of Extending your Mortgage

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 12, 20240 comments

The past five years have been a tough financial slog for most Canadian families, as they struggled to cope with the pandemic, followed by inflation which tripled from under 2% in mid-2020 to over 6% by the end of 2022, and, finally, interest rate increases which saw the Bank Rate ...

Claiming the Canada Child Benefit

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 5, 20240 comments

The federal government provides a number of non-refundable tax credits and benefits to Canadians under the umbrella term “child and family benefits”, but likely the most widely available and most generous of those programs is the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). The CCB ...

When Are Legal Fees Deductible?

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 22, 20240 comments

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, or a job loss. About the only thing that mitigates the pain of paying legal ...

Some Tax Breaks for the Upcoming Post-Secondary School Year

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 15, 20240 comments

By the middle of August, most students who are beginning post-secondary education this fall have hopefully received an offer of admission from their college or university of choice and are in the final stages of planning the move away from the family home for the first time. While ...

Making the RRSP Decision When You Turn 71

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 8, 20240 comments

During the 2024 calendar year, hundreds of thousands of Canadians will reach their 71st birthday, and a significant percentage of that group are likely to have saved money for retirement through a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). Every one of those individuals, whether ...

Aging in Place - Benefiting from The Home Accessibility Tax Credit

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 1, 20240 comments

Members of the baby boom generation who were born between 1946 and 1965 are now between 59 and 78 years of age, and make up about a quarter of the Canadian population. Many, if not most, are now retired, and the older members of that generation are likely experiencing the changes ...

When the Taxman Has a Few Questions About Your Return

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJuly 25, 20240 comments

By this time of the year, virtually all Canadian residents have filed their income tax return for 2023 and have received the Notice of Assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) with respect to that tax filing. Most taxpayers, therefore, would consider that their annual ...

The Start of a New Benefit Year - What Can You Receive in 2024-2025?

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJuly 18, 20240 comments

Most Canadians, understandably, think of our income tax system as a government “program” that takes money out of their paycheques and out of their pockets. And, while it’s certainly true that virtually every Canadian who earns an income must allocate a portion of ...

How to Respond to a First Instalment Reminder from the Canada Revenue Agency

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJuly 11, 20240 comments

By the time summer arrives, nearly all Canadians have filed their income tax returns for the previous year, have received a Notice of Assessment from the tax authorities with respect to that return, and have either received their tax refund or, more grudgingly, paid any balance of ...

Another Option for Retirement Income Planning

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJuly 4, 20240 comments

Most Canadians contemplate retirement with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. While the benefits of an end to the day-to-day grind of work and commuting (while also having more free time to spend with family and friends) are undeniable, giving up a regular paycheque also means ...

A Mid-Year Checkup on Your Taxes

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJune 27, 20240 comments

Many (if not most) taxpayers think of tax planning as a year-end exercise, one to be carried out in the last few weeks of the year, in order to take the steps needed to minimize the tax bill for that year. And it’s true that almost all strategies needed to both minimize the ...

Claiming a Deduction for Moving Expenses

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJune 20, 20240 comments

Each spring and summer, tens of thousands of Canadian families sell their homes and move – sometimes to a bigger and better property in the same town or city, and sometimes to a new city or even another province. At the same time, university students make the annual move from ...

Getting Tax Help with Summer Child Care Costs

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJune 13, 20240 comments

As the school year draws to a close, the thoughts of millions of Canadian parents turn to the question of how to find – and pay for – child care throughout the summer months. While many Canadians are still able to work from home for some portion of the work week, few (if ...

Making a Voluntary Disclosure to the Tax Authorities

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJune 6, 20240 comments

The Canadian tax system is a “self-assessing” one, in which taxpayers are expected (and, in most cases, required) to file an individual income tax return each spring. On that return the taxpayer provides a summary of income earned during the previous calendar year and ...