2 - Blog - Jones & O’Connell LLP

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 ...

Dealing With The OAS Clawback

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 23, 20240 comments

Most retired Canadians receive income from two government-sponsored retirement income programs – the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Old Age Security (OAS) program. While benefits from both are paid to recipients by the federal government on a monthly basis, there are significant ...

Disputing Your Notice of Assessment

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 16, 20240 comments

This year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will receive and process more than 30 million individual income tax returns for the 2023 tax year. No two of those returns will be identical, as each such return will have its own particular combination of amounts and sources of income reported, ...

More Help For First Time Home Buyers

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 9, 20240 comments

As everyone knows, buying one’s first home – achieving that elusive first step on to the “property ladder” – has always presented a challenge, and that challenge has rarely been greater than it is now. The two unavoidable hurdles which must be cleared ...

When You Make a Mistake on Your Tax Return

By Amanda CoombesAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 2, 20240 comments

For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2023 tax year was Tuesday April 30, 2024. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Monday June 17, 2024 to get that return filed.) When things go entirely as planned and hoped, ...

How to Know You're Really Hearing From the CRA

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

Most Canadians rarely have reason to interact with the tax authorities, and for most people, that’s the way they like it. In the vast majority of cases, Canadians file their tax returns each spring, receive their refund or pay any balance of taxes owing, and forget about taxes ...

How, When, and Where to Pay Your Taxes for 2023

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

Our tax system is, for the most part, a mystery to individual Canadians. The rules surrounding income tax are complicated and it can seem that for each and every rule there is an equal number of exceptions or qualifications. There is, however, one rule which applies to every individual ...

Reduing the 2023 Tax Bill - Some Tax Filing Strategies for Those Over Age 65

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

No one likes paying taxes, but for taxpayers who live on a fixed income having to pay a large tax bill can mean real financial hardship – and the majority of Canadians who live on fixed incomes are, of course, those who are over 65 and retired. Adding to their financial stress ...

What to do When You Can't Pay Your Tax Bill on Time

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

Most taxpayers sit down to do their annual tax return, or wait to hear from their tax return preparer, with some degree of trepidation. In most cases taxpayers don’t know, until their return is completed, what the “bottom line” will be, and it’s usually a case ...