Canadian Dental Care Plan Renewal Deadline Approaches

Know Your Client!   It’s a daily commitment and requirement, especially in the work that financial advisors do with their clients.   It’s imperative that you ask about any significant changes in their lives. Has there been a significant new event:   a move to take a new job or go to university, a marriage or divorce, a new birth, a disability or a death? And, in the case of income tested benefits such as the Canadian Dental Care Plan, (CDCP) do they qualify?  Did they file their tax return on time to get it?  Do you know the deadlines for doing so?  Do you know when coverage ends if your client now longer qualifies?

“Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master.” Alexander Dumas

Do you know what one of the most missed credits on the personal tax return is?  It’s the Disability Tax Amount, a substantial non-refundable tax credit valued at $7899 in the 2015 tax year; 8001 in 2016.  It can be claimed by someone who is markedly restricted in the activities of daily living on a permanent basis, or by their supporting individual.

Dividends of taxable Canadian corporations enjoy preferred tax rates, but some complexities in reporting can plague unsuspecting filers. Here are some tips for last-minute filers:

Income splitting is an excellent strategy to reduce a family’s tax load and it is even easier when you are self employed. Consider Steve, who currently makes $84,000 in his small unincorporated business in B.C. He wants to pay his new wife, Carin, half this amount, as they work together in the business. Can he do it? How much can he save?

Statistics Canada released new unemployment numbers for February on April 21, 2016, and unfortunately, on a year-over-year basis, there were close to 35,000 more EI beneficiaries this February than there were in the same month a year ago—an increase of 6.7%.

Over the past 12 years the Distinguished Advisor Conference (DAC) has set a high bar for leaders in the professional financial services by encouraging strategic thought in their provision of wealth management advice.