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?

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.

Gifts made by you or your spouse in the current year or in any of the immediately preceding five years can be claimed on this year’s return so long as those donations have not already been claimed.