Choosing an accountant for your business is always a delicate endeavour. It’s incredibly important for your accountant to understand your business thoroughly, inside and out, backwards and forward. So, for some non-traditional businesses (i.e. professional blogger), this can be tricky to say the least. A post titled How to pick an accountant for your online [...]

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In Canada, there are no hard and fast rules in the Tax Act that help an individual determine whether they are an employee or an independent contractor. There are three tests, which have evolved through court decisions, that are used to assess the relationship between an individual and his/her employer. They are: Economic reality or [...]

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Continuing the series of “quick facts” posts (see prior ones about the capital gains exemption and the new financial instruments standards), today is all about the principal residence exemption in Canada. Any residence may be designated a principal residence as long as you “ordinarily inhabit” the home. Ordinary inhabitation includes seasonal living such as your [...]

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Generally when a disposition of capital property occurs, a gain or loss is recognized. Occasionally the disposition results in no real change to the economic interest of the property, like when an individual transfers property to a corporation they own. A rollover provides a way to defer the gain or loss. Section 85 of the [...]

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Yesterday I was visiting my parents back home on the farm and enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon away from the big city. In exchange for some really great ice cream, my Mom asked me for some tax advice related to the lifetime $500,000 capital gains exemption. Long story short, she was under the impression she [...]

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