Tax Shock Adds to Family Heartbreak

Last month the sad story of an Ontario family who suddenly lost both parents in 2024 was shared in Burlington Today.  The tax outcomes were just as shocking as the two deaths from unrelated causes.  There was a cottage, a large RRSP and a big tax bill.   Some of the outcomes could have been mitigated with some planning.   I sat down with CTV’s Pat Foran to discuss the outcomes – with a message important to family planning.  

New advisors have an opportunity to set the tone for a positive transformation in the financial services industry, despite fears that a new digital economy continues to replace certain positions. In fact, digital disruption offers up-and-coming millennial advisors a great advantage if they use their strong technical skills along with emerging technology to embellish on relationship building at a critical time of demographic change.

CIBC will be showcasing a new digital banking platform at the Knowledge Bureau’s CE Summits in four cities. The bank has collaborated with industry-leading cloud accounting software companies Intuit Canada and Xero, and payroll software company Ceridian, to integrate accounting and payroll with its powerful online cash management services.

Knowledge Bureau and Evelyn Jacks are proud to release the 2019 edition of Essential Tax Facts: How to Make the Right Tax Moves and Be Audit-Proof, Too on May 24, 2019. Featuring invaluable Audit-Buster Checklists and the latest from the March 2019 Federal Budget, Essential Tax Facts will help you position yourself for greater success with up-to-date information in an ever-changing tax environment.

To incorporate, or not to incorporate? It’s a timely question, considering recent corporate tax reforms. However, it’s also a question that existing business owners and aspiring business builders should think about post tax season as they discuss business growth planning with their tax specialists. It’s an important strategy that can save thousands of dollars that helps build family wealth over the long run.

The federal government announced last week that the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) will be increasing for the second consecutive year as of this July. Unfortunately,  many families are subject to a clawback of the generous benefit when their family net income rises. Worse, many Canadians don’t realize how critical an RRSP contribution can be in generating more of this lucrative tax-free benefit. Tax and financial advisors can add high value by helping to connecting those dots.

If you pay interest on money borrowed to earn investment income, you can claim a deduction for the interest paid as a carrying charge. That’s quite lucrative as the deduction offsets all other income of the year and can help to reduce net income, the figure upon which certain government benefits, like the Canada Child Benefit, are based.  But, the claim is not as straight-forward as you might think.