Best Practices

Making sure you don’t fall victim to a tax scam Most Canadians interact with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) just twice a year – once when they file the required annual tax return and the second time when they receive a Notice of Assessment with respect to the return filed a few weeks earlier. By the […]

Using home equity to increase retirement income The phrase “affordability crisis” is one that is now familiar to all Canadians. The cost of living has been on a steady upward trend for the past number of years, and the increase in living costs has hit particularly hard in an area where expenditures are completely non-discretionary

Making the most of your tax-free savings account Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) were first introduced in 2009 and so have been available to Canadians for just under 20 years. Many Canadians have taken advantage of the benefits offered by such plans – in 2023, according to Statistics Canada, more Canadians contributed to a TFSA than

Coming clean with the tax authorities – making a voluntary disclosure While it’s unlikely that many of them do so with any great degree of enthusiasm, the vast majority of Canadian taxpayers meet their tax filing obligations each spring, by completing and filing the annual tax return. And, in most cases, the return filed is

When you sell your home – claiming the principal residence exemption in 2026 As is commonly known, the purchase of a home represents the largest single financial transaction most Canadians will make in their lifetime. However, buying a home represents much more than a financial transaction, however large that transaction may be. The purchase of

Claiming a deduction for legal fees incurred Like most good professional advice, legal fees can be costly. And, adding insult to injury, the need to seek out and obtain legal advice (and to pay for it) is usually associated with life’s more unpleasant events – a divorce, a dispute over a family estate, or a

The CPP post-retirement benefit – deciding whether to continue contributing In 1966, Canadian workers began contributing for the first time to a new government sponsored retirement income plan – the Canada Pension Plan. Today, 60 years later, retirement for most Canadians bears little or no resemblance to the way retirement looked in 1966. At that

Getting help from the tax system for post-secondary education costs Graduation from high school and the start of post-secondary education is an exciting time for both students and their families. Students who are beginning post-secondary education this fall are likely focused on choosing courses for the upcoming fall semester, getting a place in residence or

Making the RRSP decision when you turn 71 One’s 71st birthday is a very consequential event when it comes to retirement planning for Canadian taxpayers, and it’s an event which will be experienced by hundreds of thousands of Canadians during 2026.   While saving for retirement through an employer-sponsored pension plan used to be the “norm”, that

How to respond to a first Instalment Reminder from the Canada Revenue Agency 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 spent their tax refund or, more