5 - Blog - Jones & O’Connell LLP

Taking stock of your TFSA

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 20, 20190 comments

Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) have been around for a full decade now, having been introduced in 2009, and for most Canadians, a TFSA (along with a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP)) is now a regular part of their financial and tax planning. TFSAs are, in many ways, the ...

When are legal fees deductible

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsOctober 10, 20190 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 fees (apart, ...

Coming clean with the tax authorities - the Voluntary Disclosure Program

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsSeptember 25, 20190 comments

The Canadian tax system is a “self-assessing system” which relies heavily on the voluntary co-operation of taxpayers. Canadians are expected (in fact, in most cases, required), to complete and file a tax return each spring, reporting income from all sources, calculating the amount ...

Getting a tax assist for post-secondary education costs

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 30, 20190 comments

As the summer starts to wind down, both students returning to their colleges and universities and those just starting their post-secondary education must focus on the details of the upcoming school year – finding a place to live, choosing courses, and perhaps most important, arranging ...

Claiming the Canada Child Benefit

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsAugust 15, 20190 comments

Raising children is expensive and, in recognition of that fact, the federal government has, for more than half a century, provided financial assistance to parents to help with those costs. That assistance has ranged from monthly Family Allowance payments received by families during ...

Claiming a deduction for moving expenses

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJuly 30, 20190 comments

The most recent estimate issued by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is that close to half a million homes will be sold in Canada during 2019. Since that number doesn’t include moves from one rental accommodation to another, or the twice-a-year post-secondary student migration ...

A mid-year check up on your taxes

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsJune 30, 20190 comments

Most Canadians have now filed their individual income tax return for the 2018 tax year and received a Notice of Assessment outlining their tax position for that year. Those who receive a refund will celebrate that fact or, less happily, those who receive a tax bill will pay up the ...

Getting relief from the high cost of driving

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 24, 20190 comments

As every Canadian driver knows, gas prices seem to rise every spring, seemingly in lockstep with the warmer weather. This year, that annual trend has been given an extra push by the implementation of federal and provincial carbon taxes. As of the end of April, gas prices ranged from ...

Fixing a mistake in your (already filed) tax return

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMay 10, 20190 comments

For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2018 tax year was Tuesday April 30, 2019. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Monday June 17, 2019 to get their return filed.) In the best of all possible worlds, the taxpayer, ...

What to do when you can’t pay your tax bill

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsApril 25, 20190 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 of hoping for the best ...

CPA CANADA FEDERAL BUDGET COMMENTARY

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMarch 20, 20190 comments

Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s message with Budget 2019 is that, thanks to the Federal Government’s investments over the past three years, things are going well — especially for the middle class: more Canadians have full-time jobs, unemployment is at historic lows, wages are growing, ...

It’s tax filing – and tax scam – season (March 2019)

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMarch 18, 20190 comments

For many years now, there has been a persistent tax scam operating in Canada in which Canadians are contacted, usually by phone, by someone who falsely identifies himself or herself as being a representative of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The taxpayer is told that money — ...

When and how to file this year’s tax return

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMarch 11, 20190 comments

Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publishes a statistical summary of the tax filing patterns of Canadians during the previous filing season. Those statistics for the 2018 show that the vast majority of Canadian individual income tax returns — nearly 87%, or almost 26 million ...

What’s new on this year’s tax return?

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsMarch 4, 20190 comments

While Canadian taxpayers must prepare and file the same form – the T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return – every spring, that return form is never the same from one year to the next. The one constant in tax is change, and every year taxpayers sit down to face a different tax return form ...

Responding to a tax instalment reminder from the CRA

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsFebruary 25, 20190 comments

Sometime during the month of February, millions of Canadians will receive mail from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). That mail, a “Tax Instalment Reminder”, will set out the amount of instalment payments of income tax to be paid by the recipient taxpayer by March 15 and June 17 of ...

RRSPs and TFSAs — making the annual contribution

By Jones & O'Connell LLPAccounting, Auditing, Tax & Consulting NewsFebruary 11, 20190 comments

For most taxpayers, the annual deadline for making an RRSP contribution comes at a very inconvenient time. At the end of February, many Canadians are still trying to pay off the bills from holiday spending, the first income tax instalment payment is due two weeks later on March 15 ...