News Room

The Gateway:  Maximizing the Impact of the Disability Tax Credit

In addition to reducing income tax through a non-refundable credit, the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) serves as a gateway to a wide range of additional tax benefits and government programs. Eligibility for the DTC can unlock enhanced credits, financial supplements, and long-term savings opportunities that go well beyond the tax return. Understanding how the DTC connects to these broader supports is essential for maximizing financial stability—both for individuals living with disabilities and the family members who support them.  Unfortunately, many taxpayers miss this credit and their tax and financial advisors can certainly help when this happens.

How to Determine Whether a Gain is Income or Capital?

Your client has just flipped a principle residence, sold a speculative piece of property or traded frequently in his or her TFSA.  Is this a business transaction, a capital gain or an exempt transaction?  In order to determine whether a gain is of income or capital nature, there is no determinative test. However, there are some clues to follow in anticipating the tax outcome and an important precedent-setting case.

DAC Sneak Peek: Meet Our Speakers & This Year’s DAC-in-a-Box

The experience at this year’s Virtual DAC Acuity Conference may just beat out last year’s – which the Globe and Mail touted as one of Canada’s most innovative virtual conferences.  Check out this sneak peek through our new speaker videos and DAC-in-a-Box program guide, and then enrol by September 30 to take advantage of early-bird tuition prices.

Uncertainty Lingers: Majority Won’t be Hiring in 2022

The reasons are varied, but 60% of KBR readers polled last month said they won’t be hiring new seasonal staff in 2022 and the prevailing reason is uncertainty. Those who will be hiring won’t be doing so before year end but are busy making training plans now.  Here are some of their thoughts on preparing for tax season 2022:

New! August Updates to EverGreen Explanatory Notes

Tax pros need to stay up-to-date all year long!  Knowledge Bureau’s Evergreen Explanatory Notes should be your go-to reference for answers personal, corporate and GST/HST questions. It’s your own top notch tax research library that seamlessly links you to CRA publications and forms while providing educational notes and examples. Best of all it is included in all certificate courses or as a stand-alone subscription.  Here are the topics updated in August:

Claiming Quarantine Hotels & Testing Costs

It’s a frustrating time:  the fourth wave is upon us, and soon too will be tax season 2022.  While the need to stay in quarantine hotels ended on August 9, many Canadians expended significant sums to come back to Canada from abroad during the pandemic.  Are those costs deductible?  The answer depends on the taxpayer profile and circumstances of the expenditure, according to recent CRA interpretations.

Long Term Care:  Turning Grief and Rage into Change

It’s an issue that made devastating headlines for months: the suffering and death of vulnerable seniors before our very eyes.  All the worse for the raw fact that they lived in deplorable conditions of neglect.  According to Karen Henderson, Founder of the Long-Term Care Planning Network, planning for our own aging is a critical element of tax and financial planning discussions with advisors.  But it should also be a key issue in today’s national discussions to enable responsible change.  Her passionate story is Knowledge Bureau’s Special Guest Report this week:
 
 
 
Knowledge Bureau Poll Question

Does the new government’s promise, expected soon, to cut the lowest personal income tax rate by 1% to 14%, go far enough to help Canadians impacted by high costs? What are alternatives in your view?

  • Yes
    13 votes
    10.24%
  • No
    114 votes
    89.76%