The Importance of Provincial Budgets: Elbows Up and No Bracket Creep!

Some of the right things are happening in Nova Scotia, from the perspective of improving standards of living in that province.  And that’s important news because according to the Fraser Institute, Canadians have suffered the worst five-year decline in their standard of living over the 2020-to-2024 period since the Great Depression.  It notes, our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person decreased by 2.0% (0.4% annually) ; this despite aggregate GDP growth of 1.5% over the period.  Further, all ten provinces are experiencing stagnation, which is unique in our history.  So what’s the good news in Nova Scotia, at this critical juncture?

If you’re a tax professional, you can’t afford to miss this:  Knowledge Bureau’s Annual Advanced Personal Tax Update is coming soon, January 17-25, 2017, in six cities across Canada. Early-registration savings end January 10. Reserve now to guarantee your spot and do your pre-reading for this comprehensive certificate workshop featuring 10 CE-CPD credits.

Payroll must be right and it must be on time for two reasons:  to keep your employees and to keep out of expensive and time-consuming audits from CRA.  That’s way it can be a sound investment for any small business to insist on professional certification in advanced payroll management.

"Shortly after completing my DFA designation program, I was approached by a Turbo Tax recruiter to apply as a remote tax advisor. After completing their application process of a written exam and phone interviews I was offered the position over the other 700 plus applicants." Liam Pollard, MFA™, DFA - Tax Services Specialist™, Saskatchewan

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  Albert Einstein

There are so many reasons to count our blessings as Canadians; in the financial arena, one of them is the growth in Canadian wealth over time. While we are behind the US by 22% in terms of wealth per adult ($270,200 vs. $344,700), in Canada wealth has grown at an average rate of just under 6% in the period 2000-2016, and an average of 6.5% since 2010. Why are we so lucky?

Last week Knowledge Bureau Report discussed who’s eligible to make a moving expense claim. This week: what’s deductible and what’s not?