A Challenge for New Clients: How to Choose a Trusted Advisor

If you’re in business for yourself, you have a unique opportunity to build wealth in an asset class that others don’t have: equity in a business enterprise that some day may be sold for millions of dollars. In addition, that business can spin off income for family members that can provide significant tax advantages, done well. Understanding how to realize on this asset requires the help of a trusted financial advisory team. Who should be on that team and how do you find them? This is a challenge your next new business clients may wrestle with. Here are some tips on how you can open discussions to help them:

The Manitoba Financial Literacy Forum is a coalition of organizations and individuals working together to promote lifelong financial education skills to Manitobans. Co-founded by Evelyn Jacks, President of Knowledge Bureau and the Manitoba Securities Commission, the goal is to improve financial literacy of Manitobans.

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” -Dale Carnegie

It’s really surprising how many people don’t know when the tax filing deadline is. CRA often mentions two dates: May 2 and June 15. Which is it for you? 

It’s time to get those T4s and T5s out and here’s another reason from CRA to go paperless: Those who issue more than 50 T-slips for a calendar year on paper instead of by Internet file transfer or Web Forms, will be subject to huge penalties this year. All T-slips must be filed with the CRA by February 29, with the exception of T3 slips and T5013s, which are filed by March 31.

The most recent statistics on the Underground Economy (UE) in Canada are from the year 2012, released in April 2015. The total underground activities were valued at $42.4 billion or about 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP). A high of 2.7% was reported in 1994 and this fell to a low of 2.2% in 2000. However, after a brief uptick in the early 2000s the proportion remained relatively stable between 2.3% and 2.4%.

At this time of the year, tax advisors and their clients are familiarizing themselves with the indexing changes that have been applied to tax brackets, and refundable and non-refundable credits. Indexation is based on the consumer price index, but different formulas apply to different provisions.