Investigative Tax Prep:  Top Ten Changes to Probe

Tax season 2025 has started with a focus on the increased income levels some taxpayers may report due to proposed changes in capital gains tax laws.  But aside from this there are new questions to probe with clients to ensure the family’s tax returns are filed to their very best benefit, given change in their life and financial events as well.  Here are top 10 queries to add to your interview checklist:

Baby Boomers and Gen X are already in the process of transferring their wealth to Millennials and Gen Z. However, increasingly the solution to wealth transfer for singles will be to plan a donations strategy.  Consider these reasons individuals donate to charities:

Is the Canada Pension Plan sustainable, and if so, are further premium rate increases required?  The 31st Actuarial Report on the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)[1] is expected to be released before the end of December, 2022 and it should shed important light on how expensive these source deductions may yet become. 

Did you know that asset purchases before the end of this year could qualify for immediate expensing – that is, a full expense deduction for capital purchases?  Yes, you read that correctly.  Certain eligible asset purchases can be immediately expensed in the year the asset becomes available for use. This provision has recently been expanded to also include sole proprietors and many partnerships in 2022. 

About a third of the largest publicly traded companies in Canada offer their employees stock compensation arrangements. Recently, Shopify announced that they will be overhauling their employees’ compensation arrangements, offering them a choice between cash or stock. But do the recipients of these compensation arrangements truly understand the risks associated with investing in stocks? Are they aware of how these securities fit within their holistic wealth management plan?  It’s a real opportunity to add value as we head into an economic renewal.

As baby boomers age, technology makes it possible for people and businesses to operate globally, and economic changes make it appealing for people and businesses to purchase investment property globally.  As well as the increase in the sharing of financial information between countries, cross border taxation issues become key for cross border employment, entrepreneurship or asset ownership, as does the issue of residency and U.S. citizenship.

New Course Alert: The Digital Practitioner Course (Your Guide to Remote Work) When the pandemic hit, there was a natural surge in employees working from home. In Canada, the percentage of *core-age employees working from home was about 43% in May 2020. As the pandemic subsided, in December 2021, 26% of core-age employees in Canada worked from home, compared with 13% in the United States. Majority of people who are working remotely—want to keep it that way.