Insights

Why did you owe taxes after your first year of retirement? If you retired recently and were shocked by a CRA tax bill — you’re not alone. In this video, I walk you through a real-life example of two retirees who earned the same income but had very different experiences at tax time. You'll learn why many Canadian retirees face unexpected tax bills, how your decisions about withholding taxes affect your final tax return, and simple steps to avoid CRA surprises and sleep better at night.

Today we're going to talk about a mailbag question that came in from a viewer asking about how to treat the proceeds of a RRIF that fell into their deceased parent's estate. I'm going to step you through the question, some of the considerations that the viewer asked me to cover, and I'm going to walk through the answer that I provided to them in email.

n this video, I am going to talk about the risks of selling assets to your kids at a discount - specifically, the potential for double taxation. I will begin with introducing a hypothetical situation. Then I talk about how double-taxation occurs then give you 3 alternatives that may make the transfer of that asset to your children more smooth and tax efficient.

In today's episode, I answer your questions, including answers to the following: 1) CPP vs OAS deferral 2) Income investment strategies 3) Inflation 4) RRSP or TFSA for children - which one is better? 5) TFSA's in Retirement 6) RRSP Meltdowns

A couple that I spoke to last week are considering selling their country home that sits on a large property. They understand that the gain on principal residences is sheltered by the principal residence exemption. But because of the size of their lot, they are concerned that there may be taxes owing when they go to sell the property. In this video, we will dig into a fictionalized situation based on this tax scenario and determine if, in fact, our sample couple Jack and Jill have a tax bill owing when they decide to sell their country home

On April 16 the Minister of Finance delivered the 2024 Federal Budget in the House of Commons. The budget contained a long list of new spending initiatives and also included new tax measures that will have a big impact on individual Canadians and businesses. In this video I am going to focus on several items in the budget that I believe will have an impact specifically for retirees and their families. 1. The New Capital Gains inclusion rates 2. Amendments to the Home Buyers Plan 3. New RESP rules 4. Automatic Tax Filing 5. My personal thoughts on the budget to close

On March 28th, 2024 the CRA announced that Bare Trusts are exempt from the new trust reporting requirements for the 2023 Tax Year. While on its face this may come as a relief - the announcement has created a significant amount of frustration with taxpayers and their professional advisors. In this video, I will explain the announcement from the CRA last week, the impact on taxpayers who may have had a bare trust reporting requirement, and the reasons why I think the government needs to take notice of their mistakes here and make changes to the way that they roll out new tax policy to avoid more pain and frustration for taxpayers in the future.

The CRA has introduced new tax rules that take effect for your 2023 tax filings. The most significant changes come in the area of trust reporting. You may be thinking to yourself “I am not a trustee or a beneficiary of a trust, so I have nothing to worry about”. Not so fast. The new rules may put requirements on far more Canadians than most people realize. The impact of non-compliance can be significant fines and penalties, so you want to make sure that you remain on the right side of things with the CRA.

This week, the government of Canada announced their 2023 Fall Economic Update. The update included a number of measures that are going to impact the finances of Canadians. And the document itself was over 140 pages long. So I went through it and I pulled out the four items that I believe could have the biggest impact on people who are either already retired or who are getting ready to retire. We're going to walk through those four items and I'm going to explain them in a clear and concise way.