May 1 is a special day for Canadians of all types (since it’s the day after taxes are due here), but it’s very special for accountants who’ve spent the past few months first up to their necks in audits (there are many businesses that operate on a calendar year end) and followed that up withContinue reading “Spring has sprung for Canadian accountants”
Category Archives: Taxation
Bizarre taxes to put our situation into perspective
We like to complain (and for good reason) about the litany of taxes imposed on us by various levels of government, but this post on Neatorama details some bizarre taxes through history that make current ones seem tame. Peter the Great, czar of Russia, imposed a tax on souls in 1718…meaning everybody had to payContinue reading “Bizarre taxes to put our situation into perspective”
Income trust foreign takeovers may be a good thing
There’s been a lot of activity lately on the income trust front. Foreign firms are making bids left and right to acquire the Canadian entities, in the wake of the 31.5% trust tax introduced by the Conservative government. Jack Mintz, a professor at Rotman, the business school at the University of Toronto, discusses in aContinue reading “Income trust foreign takeovers may be a good thing”
Simplifying VAT in the UK compared to GST in Canada
This recent post on the SME Blog talks about the recent changes the UK has made to VAT, in that they are now offering small businesses the ability to account for and remit VAT on a cash basis, rather than accrual: The VAT cash accounting scheme allows you to account for VAT (output tax) onContinue reading “Simplifying VAT in the UK compared to GST in Canada”
AMT woes south of the border – what about us?
The Alternative Minimum Tax is getting a lot of coverage in the US since changes made by Reagan in the 80s are causing it to affect 80% of “families with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 to $100,000,” in other words, a lot of frickin’ families. When the tax was first introduced in 1969, itContinue reading “AMT woes south of the border – what about us?”