Blog - Jones & O’Connell LLP

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It’s The Time of Year to Spread Some Cheer!

By Web AdminSocial EventsDecember 2, 20250 comments

Our team at Jones and O’Connell LLP stepped up to make a difference this season by making a donation including toys and other essentials to the local Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold. There was enough for more than twenty-five children to wake up to presents on Christmas ...

Year-end tax planning strategies to consider before December 31

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsDecember 1, 20250 comments

December 31, 2025 marks not just the end of the calendar year, but the end of the 2025 tax year for every individual Canadian taxpayer. Most Canadians are thinking about anything but income taxes during the holiday season, but the reality is that December 31 is often a critical date ...

Buying a first home – the current rules on qualifying for a mortgage

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsNovember 27, 20250 comments

In recent months, the housing market pendulum has swung more toward affordability for first-time home buyers than it has in several years, for two reasons. First, after years of price increases, the average cost of a home in Canada has (according to the Canadian Real Estate Association) ...

Planning for charitable donation tax credit claims for 2025

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsNovember 20, 20250 comments

As the holiday season approaches, the year-round appeals for charitable donations which every Canadian receives will inevitably increase – and there’s no shortage of need, or of worthy causes which merit support, both domestically and internationally. Generally, ...

Getting source deductions right in 2026

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsNovember 13, 20250 comments

For most Canadians, tax planning for a year that hasn’t even started yet may seem premature. However, most Canadians will start paying their taxes for 2026 with the first paycheque they receive in January of 2026, less than two months from now. And while the overall rate of ...

Year-end planning for your RRSP, RRIF, and TFSA

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsNovember 6, 20250 comments

Even Canadians who have no more than a basic knowledge of our tax system are usually aware that the deadline for making registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions is March 1, and that contributions to one’s tax-free savings account (TFSA) can be made at any time ...

Accessing home equity in retirement

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 30, 20250 comments

It’s an acknowledged fact that the cost of living has been on a steady upward trend for the past several years. Making that trend even more problematic is the reality that such cost increases have been greatest in areas where eliminating or cutting back on expenditures is hardest. ...

Maximizing the medical expense tax credit for 2025

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 23, 20250 comments

Notwithstanding the fact that Canada has a publicly funded health care system, the reality is that each year millions of individual Canadians incur medical and para-medical expenses (like prescription drug costs) which can be significant and which are not covered by that public health ...

When are home office expenses deductible in 2025?

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 16, 20250 comments

For individual Canadians, one of the few positive aspects of the recent pandemic was the opportunity it provided to work from home – first as a mandated public health necessity and later as a choice provided by employers. For most employees, working from home was a welcome ...

CRA makes changes to the Voluntary Disclosures Program

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 9, 20250 comments

Canada’s tax system is what is known as a “self-assessing” one, in which taxpayers are expected (in fact, in most cases, required) to take the initiative to prepare and file an annual tax return by a specified deadline, to report all taxable income on that return, ...

New Quarterly Newsletters

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 2, 20250 comments

Two quarterly newsletters have been added – one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues. They can be accessed below. Corporate: Issue #73 Corporate Personal: Issue #73 Personal The information presented is only of a general nature, may omit many ...

Some tax breaks for the upcoming post-secondary school year

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 25, 20250 comments

As September approaches, students who are beginning post-secondary education this year have received one or more offers of admission and then chosen a college or university, have hopefully been offered a place in a university residence or have secured off-campus housing, and are ...

Claiming a tax credit for adoption expenses

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 18, 20250 comments

The process of adopting a child is often a lengthy one, in which a myriad of requirements must be met and legal processes followed. Where the adoption is an international one, the process can be even lengthier and more complex, as often the legal requirements of more than one government ...

Making the most of the Tax-Free Savings Account program

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 12, 20250 comments

Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) have been a part of the Canadian tax system since 2009, and the TFSA program can be utilized by more Canadians than any other tax-advantaged savings program. And Canadians have clearly recognized the benefits: Canada Revenue Agency statistics show ...

When the CRA comes calling – dealing with the return verification process

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 4, 20250 comments

By the time the end of summer approaches, the tax return filing deadline for all Canadian individual taxpayers has passed, and nearly all tax filers will have filed the required return for the 2024 tax year and received a Notice of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) ...

Making use of the First Home Savings Account program

By Web AdminAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 28, 20250 comments

The Canadian tax system provides a number of opportunities for taxpayers to save on a tax-assisted basis. Most Canadians are familiar with registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) and many are also aware of the availability of the tax-free savings account (TFSA). The newest (and ...