Of course different things work for different people, but these steps could probably apply to most of our busy, distracted, multi-tasking, first world lifestyles. In a Harvard Business School survey, 94% of working professionals reported working more than 50 hours per week and nearly half said they work more than 65 hours per week. What…
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Pinnacle has the good fortune of having a new team member join us this month (welcome Melissa). Something we have learned over the years as we’ve grown and shrunk and grown again, is how important a robust orientation for new team members is. We know that the best people can choose to take their brain…
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“Living Out Allowances” or “Subsistence Expenses” are a great way to get funds out of a corporation and into the shareholder’s hands on a tax free basis. A number of our clients work in the resource sector – support services for mining, forestry, oil & gas, etc. These clients can spend lots of time away…
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Another personal tax filing deadline has come and gone. Now is the time when you receive an unexpected letter from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), notifying you that they will be conducting a review of some of your expenses. The CRA reviews or audits hundreds of thousands of Canadians’ tax returns in a given year,…
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As a non-resident investor in Canadian real property, you are required to advise the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) within 10 days of selling your investment. Normally, this takes the form of an application for a Clearance Certificate since the person who bought the property from you is required to withhold tax and you want to minimize…
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Funny?…but we don’t love tax returns (we don’t even like them) Accountant = tax return. Right? Wrong. We don’t love tax returns. I’m talking about the personal returns. The ones due at the end of April. With endless slips and receipts and schedules and forms and ever-changing rules. These returns are the “necessary evil” of…
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When the PMO announced the new family income splitting initiative there was a lot of excitement among families. You’ve probably heard a fair share of criticism as well (which is to be expected when there’s politics involved). But what’s really going on with the family income tax splitting? Is it going to benefit you? Maybe. Here…
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I have a client who for years has held the Annual General Meeting for her corporation on Maui. She and her husband are the sole directors of the corporation (although I’m not sure her husband even knows where the office is, but that’s another matter). Every year she asks me the same question……”Can I write…
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We are often asked by clients whether they should own rental properties personally or own them through a corporation. Our advice is usually to own properties personally when rental income is nominal and when there are only a small number of properties. The advice usually changes as more properties are added to the rental pool…
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I thought we were going paperless. So why were we still using so much paper? Almost 10 years ago our office implemented “paperless” files. The decision arose partly out of a concern for the environment but mostly from the realization that we were spending a lot of money on: Storage – physical filing cabinets, office…
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