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.

An interesting decision was delivered last month in a Tax Court of Canada case (Marion Sotski v. The Queen (2013) TCC 286) in Edmonton regarding the deductibility of the cost of hardwood floors in the home of a person suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

According to a recent Stats Canada National Household Survey, Canadians are very industrious: collectively, 27.3 million of us earned $1.1 trillion, and two thirds of Canadians pay taxes. 

A good argument can be made for a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) deposit before year end to maximize government support for the disabled in the family.

An effective year-end tax strategy is to donate to charity. Investors can do so by transferring qualifying shares to their favorite charity and avoid capital gains taxes by doing so. 

The Tax Court of Canada recently allowed aspects of an appeal of one prominent real estate agent in Winnipeg from reassessments made by the Minister of National Revenue (MNR).

If you have a client who has a Registered Disability Saving Plan and is receiving disability assistance payments from the plan, a portion of these payments will be shown in Box 131 of a T4A slip and added to income on the 2013 return.