Death and taxes are the two things that are guaranteed in life. Unfortunately, the scare of tax lingers on even after a person dies. After your death, Canada Revenue Agency would be interested to know how much money you earned in the year you died. Your loved ones need to file a T1 personal income tax return. This return is known as terminal tax return or more commonly as date-of-death return.

The amount of tax to be paid by you after your death depends on the type of assets you owned, whether you named any beneficiary or it was a joint ownership. It is better to hire an accountant to review the estate and ascertain the tax bill payable. We must prepare ourselves so that we can pay the tax debt later before we hear that bad news. The Tax Return should be filed by 30^th of April, like it is done by everyone else. These are some of the requirements and benefits of filing tax returns.

• If the person died from January 1 to October 31 then the return should be filed by April 30 in the following year. For deaths that happened from November 1 to December, the return should be filed within six months from the date of death.

• If you did not file the tax return for last year, then it should be filed within six months from the date of death, and pay any tax you owe. You can have the necessary forms from CRA, T4 / T5 are the necessary tax information slips you need to have for this.

People want to what are the benefits of filing tax returns and how they can claim for twenty-five hundred dollars towards Canadian Pension Plan Death Benefit. For the deceased, the final tax return should not be included in the CPP death benefit.

• On the other hand, if the entire proceeds of the estate are received by one beneficiary, then the concerned person has to pay personal tax return. But if there are more than one beneficiary, T3 trust income tax return should get included in CPP benefits for filing tax returns.

Many people want to know does their accountant need to make the final tax return. The fact is you can prepare the tax return on your own. But if you hire an accountant he or she may be able to give valuable inputs.

Along with personal return T1, you are also required to file return for the estate itself, through T3 income tax return. CRA is interested in knowing what your income through estate is. You are required to file this tax every year in order to have the benefits of filing tax returns.

This needs to be done within three months after the death of the person, till the time estate proceeds are completely distributed. And for the partial year, the last T3 return is also required, till the distribution date. Benefits of filing tax returns are that our government has the financial input to implement its plans.

It is very important for the person who has a dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur to follow a proper business start-up strategy to achieve his in a proper and regulated manner. It all depends upon the approach and strategy of business plan which he uses to execute his dream of becoming a successful business owner. One should have a proper strategic planning of the business so that the critical points of the business are indentified at an early phase.

To plan the business idea into the proper strategy, one has to approach every ked area associated with it in order to ensure the optimum and desired results. Here is an overlook of some of the key areas which should be approached for the business that has just started:

Define your Business and vision: 

It is the first and foremost thing that is needed for  business start-up. Defining the business and vision is indeed as very important stage and must be stated carefully and without any ambiguity so that the person associated with is can have a clear picture of our vision and goals. The phase majorly focuses on the targeted audience, product services, business clients, plan of the growth. These questions can be solved and typically implemented if vision and business is defined in an appropriate manner.

Goals of Business:

Goals of the business is nothing but a strategically plan which is made in order to achieve success in a very short span of time by following the goals which has to be achieved. If the business is newly started it is extremely important to define the short term goals say for a period of 6 months rather than long term goals. The phase will provide the outlook what the business wants to achieve in the above stated span of time in terms of growth, quality and services

Understand your Targeted Audience and customer: 

It is essential for every business to focus on his targeted audience or customer in order to make them satisfy and fulfill their requirements as well as expectations which they desire being a customer. Every business should work on having a large customer base as they are the ones which will enhance the growth of the business in a quick around time. Performance of the business will also depend upon the customer’s satisfaction level.

 Learn From the Competitors:

For a good business start up strategy, it is essential to learn and grasp lot of things from the competitors in order to have a fair idea of the customer needs and requirements which will provide you the definite aid to understand the market.

Financial Matters:

Finance is one of the most important areas of any business and should be handled with extreme care. It is important to define it in a regulated manner by defining break-up points as well as profit margins which indicates the growth of the business.

Plan Your Marketing Strategy: 

Every business should identify the market trends and even various methodologically strategies, tools and processes to achieve it for proper growth of the business.

Canada Child Tax benefit is a tax which is imparted to the families living in the Canada by the Canadian Government. It is basically a tax free monthly payment given by the Government to all those families or parents who needs money to raise their children up to the age of 18 years.  It is majority divided into two main components one focuses on the low and middle class Canadian families and the other one provides definite assistance and help to the low income families having a necessity of acquiring this help from the Government in the form of tax benefit.

Eligibility Criteria to avail this tax benefit

Canada Child tax befit cannot be provided to everyone. It is given to only those Canadian families which meet the proper eligibility criteria as stated by the Canadian Government in order to avail the tax benefit.

• A person must be the Canadian resident.
• Must be the primary caregivers of the child under 18 years of age.
• If a person is not Canadian resident then one can avail the tax benefit if a spouse or partner is:
  1. Canadian resident.
  2. Protected person
  3. Permanent resident.
  4. A temporary resident who is residing in the county of Canada from the last 18 months.

These are some of the criteria which need to be fulfilled by the person in order to ensure the benefit of the Canada Child Tax.

Application Information

After the eligibility criterion has been met by the Canadian family, another important criterion is to fill the application form to apply for this benefit either through mail or by applying online. One can fill the relevant and necessary information in the application form as provided by the Government under the proper guidelines in order to have a benefit of the Child Tax.

Financial Information

The amount paid under the Canada Child Tax benefit plan majorly depends upon two things which is income tax and benefit returns. The amount paid under this tax can be even adjusted in case the size of the family increases during the end of the year and some other issues.

Dates and Deadlines

The Canada Child Tax benefit is issued for the Canadian family very 20^th day of the month and even one week earlier in December. For more specific dates one can visit to the official website and can keep a track of their status of issuing the tax benefit plan. It is always advisable to the individuals belonging to the Canadian family who has applied for the Canada Child Tax benefit plan to contact to Canadian revenue agency in case one do not receive his CCTB within five business days after the issuance of the tax befit plan.

Therefore, this is a brief overview on the Canada Child Tax benefit (CCTB) for the Canadian residents and families provided by the Canadian Government. One can take the required information from the official website to apply for the Canada child tax benefit plan.

Many people will agree that it is really difficult to sustain ones business in this period of tough economic recession. Companies are looking at every corner to cut down their expenditure, and one such effective way is to outsource as much work as they can. Many companies have implemented this technique and are able to survive in this tough period. Outsourcing need of Accountants and Bookkeepers in business is now different.

Still many companies are unaware of the benefits of growing outsourcing sector. Moving out IT work to other companies has been practiced for decades, but outsourcing bookkeeping is still unheard by many. Here we highlight some benefits of outsourcing the need of Accountants and bookkeepers in business.

• Save Expenses – saving money is the first main reason of outsourcing work. But this should not be the main objective of moving out work. On an average a company is able to save nearly 20% of in-house bookkeeping expenditure. The fact that you are not required to pay the bookkeeper every month saves you money. Moreover, you don’t have to train an outside accountant. Small and medium size business feel the need of Accountants and Bookkeepers in business but for some it is too much expenditure. They can save considerable money by hiring a bookkeeper service.

• There will no expenses related to employment – You can save much more than just the salary by outsourcing your work. You are not required to make government contributions, pay employees taxes and other benefits. You will save yourself from employees’ compensation, health insurance, retirement benefits, government contribution, travel insurance, retirement, and vacation.

• Less Office Equipment – When you employ an accountant you have to provide him office space. You have to buy software license and computer systems and related things, all this will add to the expenditure. You have to update software license as and when required and train your employee accordingly. This is too much to ask from a small or medium size business. By outsourcing the need of accountants and bookkeepers you can save on these costs.

• Professional Advice – outsourced accountants are not directly attached to your business. Hence, they will not form part of office politics. This means, you will have impartial, unremitting and error free accounting services. This is particularly important during tough fiscal times and the need is to make tough decisions.

• Free Time for you – for business owner, bookkeeping can be a time consuming and tedious work and it can be quite frustrating at times. Thanks to improved infrastructure and technology, outsourcing organizations are quite effective in bookkeeping services. You don’t have to train outside bookkeeper and it will save you 50% of the cost. These trained experts can be exploited by your finance managers at a reasonable cost. You will have more control on outsourced bookkeeping. They will update the software of their own, and satisfactorily fulfil your need of Accountants and Bookkeepers in business.

Small Business Accounting will help you to run your business function properly and smoothly. Accounting is a key factor which is essential for very every business whether it is small sized or medium sized. It is indeed a very important aspect for every business as it helps to keep a track of financial records and expenses for business which depicts the growth of the industry.

Tracking the financial records in an accurate and appropriate manner by the accountants having vast experiences and sound knowledge will help to achieve long term success for the entire business. Managing them properly is a complex and tedious task if it is not done by any professional in this field as the professionals accountant will only have a proper expertise and understanding of all these in-depth processes and will help the business a proper growth in a lowest turnaround time in a best possible way.

As many small business owners try to manage all the accounting and bookkeeping by themselves, but it is indeed very difficult for them to achieve this task as they being a owner has many important tasks to deal with. It is therefore a responsibility of the professional accountants and bookkeepers to maintain the financial records and expenses in proper documents and prepare monthly financial reports in order to depict the whole picture of the small business scenario. This is possible only if the small business owner through his undemanding and knowledge hires professional accountant from outside which can provide them definite aid and perfect solution regarding all the major problems faced by the business in the early beginning phase of the business.

The task of hiring the professional Accountant and Bookkeeper is not easy for the small business owner but it is quite important to hire them as they play a very important role in upbringing the whole business. Their vast and diversified knowledge will help business to achieve the optimum results in a quick around time.  In today’s scenario, there is much software accounting software present in the market which makes the process and task of bookers extremely simple and easy as they are the one which is responsible for creating a proper database with proper security. But these softwares work properly and efficiently only if they are managed by some capable and efficient professional person otherwise it does not reveal reliable results.

It is advisable for the small business owner to have a separate account for the deposits and business expenses in order to have a clear over view of the finance in the business which will not let mix the business and personal transactions in any case possible. Further this will also helps to track the financial records quite easily and simply in a regulated manner. This is the major role played by the accountants and even plays a major role in depicting the growth of the industry by filling the summarized information on the tax returns file in order to have a benefit of tax returns and ensures tax savings as well.

Tax Planning Tips for Self Employed Individuals

Self employment is a very interesting field as you are the boss of your own empire. Self employed persons indeed have a more advantage on Tax Savings as they have much more tax efficient income as that of the persons on the salary income basis. So it is very important for them to manage the tax efficiently to avail the full benefit of it.  If you are a self employed person and falls in any category fall under head of income.

Here are some of the Tax Planning Tips that will enhance your tax efficiently:

Taking Advantage of all business expenses:

All the expenses related with the business or works are called as business expenses. There are varieties of expenses in the businesses even for the self employed individuals such as house rent, electricity bills, travel costs, internet and telephone costs, and other utilities consuming during the self employed business can be even treated as business expenses. Vouchers and bills can be even considered as the business expenses. To manage all these business expenses in a proper and regulated manner bookkeeper is very much essential.  With the aid of proper Tax Planning one can claim the deprecation of all the business or work related expenses and can avail the full income from the Government.

Distribution of Income:

This task is possible in case if you involve your family member in the business. By involving them part of your income is shifted through that side too and will help you to achieve your goal as it helps to reduce taxable business income prevailing in the business.

Availing Deductions:

Normal deductions are allowed for the self employed persons such as PPF (public provident fund), insurance, pension planning, fixed deposits as well as other money saving schemes.  Tuition fees of your child can also be claimed from the Government through an effective tax panning scheme from the self employed individuals. One can even avail the claim deduction in regard with medical premium of the parents as well as his/ her family as a whole. If the person is living in the rented home then one can claim the rent of the house even as deduction. These also deductions depends upon the different situations and will be provided by the Government at different interest rates.

Hedge your Risk and Save Taxes:

It is important to have a life insurance scheme for every person in the family in order to have full and proper protection in case of any mishappening and incident. Avail the policies which will help you to protect your family from accident or incidents and even from the medical emergency as well as these liabilities help you to repay the loans in a lowest turnaround time possible very efficiently.

These are therefore some of the most important tips for the tax planning for the self employed individuals running their own business organizations.

People living in Canada have new options which enable them to get more tax refund and prevent few dollars from going into tax man’s pocket. Tax-free savings account is one of the key strategies which enable Canadians to invest five thousand dollars and earn tax free interest on these deposits. The main purpose is to save money and you can open this account from any financial institution. It is used in combination with RRSP – Registered Retirement Savings Plan.

According to a report released by statistics Canada nearly one-third of people living in Canada contribute towards Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). There is special software which has the embedded features of RRSP. Canadian tax filers will be able to calculate the amount of contribution or check out some other options. It enables them to invest in a scenario that gives them the best return. Your data from the last session will be carried forward by this software.

In reality, very few tax returns among the millions are actually reviewed by the IRS. It is just two percent of the total tax returns that are reviewed annually. Audit Defense Canada does not audit tax return on a routine basis unless there is something which is highly noticeable such as a deduction which required certain documents, the deduction is of high level as compared to earned income, or a certain item that is been listed as “red flag”.

If you receive a letter from Audit Defense Canada that your account will be audited than you should alert your accountant or tax attorney immediately so they can prepare a response appropriately.

Reasons for Audit from Audit Defense Canada

There is a standard list of reasons for an audit. In case you fall in one these categories, it is not necessary that you will have an audit but there are increased chances of getting one. If you fall in one of the following category, you may be audited, but this list in not all inclusive.

• If you use your vehicle for business purpose
• You are self employed
• Your salary is inordinately high
• There is an attempt from your side to deduct expenses of home office
• A long list of itemized deductions is submitted by you

If you do not include all the information related to your income or business, then there is absolutely no way you can prepare tax return in an honest manner. You may be audited at some point in your life, if you include any of the point mentioned in the above list.

Process of Audit Defense Canada

You need not be scared of Audit Defense Canada. Audit personnel will not show up at your office all of a sudden and order you to show your financial accounts and related documents. In the majority of the cases audit is done through mail and only a portion of your entire financial statement. For instance, if business meals are regularly deducted by you the audit personnel may ask for receipts.

Accounting is a key and most important factor for small business to achieve optimum and desired results. It should be managed in a regulated and sequential manner. The H&T Accountants at Oakville Mississauga have diversified and vast experience in managing the financial records and balance sheets thereby helping in achieving success.

The accountants plays a major role in the growth of the industry, as it is their responsibility to keep an eye on preparation of monthly financial reposts which depicts the growth of the industry in a particular month such as income tax, balance sheets, gross profit, budgets, and cash flow statements. These are indeed the very important aspects which depicts the financial aspect and growth of the business as a whole. Depicting these things in a proper and regulated manner can be done only by Professional Accountant.

All the above mentioned things will help you manage the company’s resources quite efficiently in an appropriate manner. On can effectively manage the things for other months if one is aware about the current status of the company since budgets and cash flow helps to provide a clear picture of the business as a whole. The main role of the accountant is make use of his adequate and sound knowledge and implements his approach in a regulated manner in preparing all these documents thereby achieving the desired growth and success expected from the business by the small business owner.

If such things are depicted in a proper and appropriate manner by your accountant, then on can easily consult and seek the advice from the accountant  having vast experience and diversifies knowledge.  Even for the small business owners in Canada it is highly recommended and advisable to purchase the accounting software which will prepare the financial reports in a proper manner on a monthly basis which can depict the financial aspects of the business for the month.

Even certain programs such as QuickBooks software or simple accounting is indeed plays a same role and is highly recommended for the small business owners in Canada.  These programs of preparing right and beneficial financial documents are helpful only if your business possess the right and capable bookkeeper that will manage the things efficiently with the proper utilization of these accounting software programs.  These programs work efficiently and produce reliable results if it is managed by a capable person.

To run the small business in Canada effectively another major aspect is to have effective financial controls that will lead to proper and desired results. If they are not managed properly it will lead to unreliable and disastrous results. Some of the examples of financial controls in small businesses are:

• Keeping the receipts of the purchase made in the company in order to have a proper knowledge about the cash used.
•  It is important to have a separate business account for the deposits and business expenses so that an overview of the financial growth can be easily depicted.

H&T Accountants in Brampton |H&T Bookkeepers Milton | HandT Accountants in Oakville
HandT Accountants Milton | HandT Bookkeepers Oakville

Congratulations! For adding another achievement to your business, you are able to take it to the level you want. Over the years you may not have made any drastic changes in the way you do business, but you have to keep track of the changes made by the tax department. Here are some Tax Saving Tips and plans that can be beneficial for you. To withdraw full benefit from corporate structure you need to understand the following parameters:

• You should keep a record of all the transactions and make sure to keep track of supporting documents. One of the good accounting practices is to keep a record of all the transactions. This will enable you to keep track of your expenses, revenues, and net income.

• If you are already occupied and don’t have time to do all the calculations, make sure to keep record of – receipts, invoices, deposit slips, agreements, bank statements, letters from WSIB, CRA and other.

You should also have all the documents pertaining to the foundation of your company, minute book, and articles of incorporation. You need to have some evidence in order to support you case in front of CRA, therefore you need to have some documents at your disposal. You need to prepare before hand in order to take care of this, the best way is to store all the related documents of your business activity.

Some tax saving tips and plans for families are as follows.

• Everyone is looking for ways to reduce tax, as it is a considerable burden on many families. Families can include their child care expenses in order to save tax. There are two ways to do this. Flexible spending account is the first option. You can reduce taxable income through your employer sponsored accounts. It contributes to expenses towards your child care on the basis of pre-tax.

• The second option is to claim the expenses on your child care and use it to deduct taxes at the end of the year. Many parents are not aware of the fact that the money spends on summer day camps for their kids can be used to save tax.

• If the main reason for your child attending summer day camp is that you are going to school or work, than the money spend on these camps can be used to save taxes. Camps are entertaining and fun, and this fact does not eliminate them from tax deductibles.

Tax saving tips and plans through health care are another option to save tax. Flexible spending account for health care expenses can be used to deduct tax in a given year. It is important that you keep track of all your health care expenditure; this also includes the medications you purchased in a given year. You can get a reimbursement for your medical expenditure, if you have a flexible spending account.

These are couple of tax saving tips and plans that can help you immensely in saving money.

Tax Planning is indeed a very important key area for the development of strong business foundation. To lay down the strong foundation of any business it is very much essential to plan for the tax effectively which can result in the gains and growth of business in a very short span of time. It is therefore one of the essential aspect for the business to develop financially.

Planning for each business should be done in a proper and regulated manner irrespective of the size of the business. It is mandatory for every business to be a tax payer and implements the proper strategy of the Tax Planning. It can be quite complex and tedious if the tax is not planned and managed effectively as the whole foundation of the business depends upon these financial aspects.

It is therefore advised to the business owners not to depend on any inadequate advice on Tax Planning as it can result into something disastrous. Adequate and proper knowledge of the tax is very much essential before planning it for the business and applying it in order to achieve optimum results for the business.
It is often advised and suggested to the business owners to seek the advice about Tax Planning from expert having adequate and sound knowledge of the subject and latest advancements in the tax planning as well which can further help you to reap the benefits of the sophisticated tax planning which results in high profit margins.

Financial and Tax Planning Services will provide necessary and definite help for every business to grow successfully in a regulated manner as these services are quite essential in order to calculate the taxes accurately and will even provide you the streamlined approach of planning your tax as well as finances in a best possible way for your business.

It is important for every business owner to keep an eye on the latest changes and updating that is happening in the taxation laws which ensures better and effective tax planning and even ensures tax savings. This complex task can be made easier only if you seek the proper advice of the tax consultant having wide experience in planning tax and have a proper approach of even implementing it. Business owners to carry this tedious task in a disciplined and regulated manner hire professional services which ensure proper tax planning as well as tax returns. It is their responsibility to fill the form for the tax returns in a particular span of time.

These expertise professionals will prepare the required documents of filling the right form of taxes in a correct manner and further apply their analytic skills and approach to implement the same in the area of tax planning and tax savings. Financial services is another major aspect which plays a key role in bringing success and growth to the business and will even aid the business to be aware of the latest advancements happening in the taxation industry in a lowest turnaround time.