Special Report: Accounting Playbook, Tax-smart strategies

Our special ‘Accounting Playbook’ highlights plans and insights you may or may not have considered that will better your clients’ chances at meeting their financial goals.

For the details, read on:

Let’s talk about tax – By Vikram Barhat
Against the backdrop of the personal wealth lost in the financial crisis and subsequent attempts at recovery, tax and financial planning are more important than ever.

Plan confusion: RESP, RDSP, RRSP or TFSA? – By Jamie Golombek
With so many plans to choose from, how do we best advise our clients on the optimal tax-preferred savings strategy?

Incorporation tax benefits for professionals – By Bruce Ball
As a professional, significant tax planning opportunities can become available when you incorporate. These include splitting income with family members, taking advantage of low corporate tax rates to defer tax and possibly the capital gains exemption if you sell your corporation.

Lump sum cash receipts and the RRSP – By Blair Corkum
It is a great day when you receive a large sum of money. Perhaps you just sold a business; maybe you received an inheritance from your parents; it could be an award settlement from a legal claim; possibly a divorce settlement; or, maybe even a lottery winning. And for most Canadians, it’s not unusual to have lots of room to deposit a large sum to their RRSP.

Income Tax in Quebec: Main Changes for 2011 – Staff
The government of Quebec has made it a priority to rapidly restore fiscal balance. To get there, it prefers raising sales taxes rather than income taxes.

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Related Stories

Beware those missing tax slips
Tax slips — whether T4s for employment income, T3s for trust distributions or T5s for investment income — are the CRA’s way of ensuring taxpayers don’t forget to report all their income under Canada’s self-assessment tax system.

TFSAs: Who has them and why
Recent RBC survey data shows how many Canadians have TFSAs, and what they’re doing with them. Looking at the Canadian public as a whole, an overwhelming majority – 77% – have heard about TFSAs, but less than half of this group has actually opened one.

Tackling tax-efficient investing
While tax-advantaged vehicles such as RRSPs and tax-free savings accounts are a sure bet for most investors, they are limited by the investor’s contribution room. Once that has been exhausted, investing in taxable accounts is the next step. However, at that point, the tax impact of making such a move must be investigated.

REITs escape new tax rules
It’s 2011 and the new distributions tax relating to flow-through entities, including income trusts that existed on October 31, 2006, now applies.

Taming the retirement tax bite
Tax efficiency is the key to managing portfolio volatility in retirement, Winnipeg-based financial advisor Douglas Nelson told the Distinguished Advisor Conference 2010 in Orlando, Fla.

U.S. estate tax certainty begins in the New Year
ast Friday, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was passed and signed by President Obama. Since U.S. lawmakers seem to like to use acronyms a lot, I thought I’d give this one a try myself. How does TRUIRJCA sound? Don’t quote me on that. Let’s just call it the 2010 Act.