Red Ink on the Prairies

A day after Quebec’s Finance Minister Eric Girard brought down a Budget featuring a $6.3 Billion deficit, Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister Jim Reiter tabled his government’s budget on March 19. Next up was Finance Minister Adrian Salas, who tabled the Manitoba Budget on March 24. The common thread: there’s lots of red ink on the Prairies. But that’s where the budget documents differ between Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Here’s the latest tax news and why it matters to the advice you give your clients.

Do you have clients who travelled to another city for medical care in 2017, but failed to keep receipts?  It pays to do a little research to maximize their claims. In fact, they don’t need to miss out on the medical expense savings, if you use the simplified method to file.  Here are the rules:

For many Canadians filing a tax return is the most important financial transaction of the year. Getting the best tax refund is important: not only will it put more of the money you previously earned back in your own pocket, your refund can make at least some of your cash flow and retirement worries go away. Here’s how:

Use them before you lose them! That’s the message for parents and post-secondary education students filing 2017 tax returns who are looking for provincial tuition fee rebate programs to reduce student expenses. This is especially so, since the federal education and textbook credits have been cancelled. But the tuition rebate programs are diminishing, too.

In Part 3 of this series on deductible investment expenses, we discuss costs that are not deductible – a mystery and a surprise to some taxpayers during a tax audit. Here’s more essential information to keep you out of hot water.

In the accounting and finance industry, a lot has changed since the 1950s. Today this field is of particular appeal to women, as they now make up a widening majority (58 Percent) of its workforce. Earnings for women have also doubled, making this an excellent career choice. 

Are retired Canadians turning to you for help when they’ve been subjected to Old Age Security clawbacks? If you are a professional in the tax and financial services industry, its your job to provide valuable advice to pre-retirees on this complex issue, and help them avoid the Pension Recovery Tax that could take a chunk out of their retirement income.