Claiming Medical Expenses: Free Healthcare?

Free Health Care? Did you know that Canadians spend on average more than $1,000 on medical expenses each year? It’s estimated that government programs, via our taxes, cover about 72% of medical expenses, which means that we pay for the rest. Your clients may be over-paying on their taxes because they don’t know about medical expense deductions. 

Tax pros need to stay up-to-date all year long!  Knowledge Bureau’s Evergreen Explanatory Notes should be your go-to reference for answers personal, corporate and GST/HST questions. It’s your own top notch tax research library that seamlessly links you to CRA publications and forms while providing educational notes and examples. Best of all it is included in all certificate courses or as a stand-alone subscription.  Here are the topics updated in August:

It’s a frustrating time:  the fourth wave is upon us, and soon too will be tax season 2022.  While the need to stay in quarantine hotels ended on August 9, many Canadians expended significant sums to come back to Canada from abroad during the pandemic.  Are those costs deductible?  The answer depends on the taxpayer profile and circumstances of the expenditure, according to recent CRA interpretations.

It’s an issue that made devastating headlines for months: the suffering and death of vulnerable seniors before our very eyes.  All the worse for the raw fact that they lived in deplorable conditions of neglect.  According to Karen Henderson, Founder of the Long-Term Care Planning Network, planning for our own aging is a critical element of tax and financial planning discussions with advisors.  But it should also be a key issue in today’s national discussions to enable responsible change.  Her passionate story is Knowledge Bureau’s Special Guest Report this week:

Do you have clients who are recipients of German social security pensions?  If so, many of them may be very elderly.  Unfortunately, they and their heirs may be experiencing a new stressor:   the tax department in Germany, Finanzamt Neubrandenburg, is clamping down on taxes they think are owing by delinquent German pension recipients living in Canada and charging interest and penalties. The issue is:  can they?

We have heard a lot about inflation in the last few weeks as the economy gets up and running again, and many people have been feeling stress about this.  This should be a big concern to employers, too, according to the Financial Consumer Association of Canada.    The issue will also be addressed at Virtual DAC Acuity 2021, October 17-19 with special guest speaker Dr. Brian Shaw, a well-known sports psychologist for the Blue Jays and author who has written about stress management for top financial professionals.  Financial advisors can help; here’s what you should be thinking about:

Join Knowledge Bureau President Evelyn Jacks, and guest speakers for a full professional training experience at the next Virtual CE Summit on September 23, 2021. Early-bird registration ends Sept 15.