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.

According to Statistics Canada, 20.6% of Canada’s total population is foreign born. Between 2006 and 2011, 1.1 Million foreign-born people immigrated to Canada from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Unincorporated small business returns are increasingly in demand as an aging demographic moves from full-time employment to self-employment as a way to leverage time and money.

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.