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Highlights from the 2020 Ontario Budget


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Highlights of the 2020 Federal Fall Economic Update


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Our COVID-19 Newsletter


When the taxman has a few questions about your return (August 2022)

By the beginning of August almost every Canadian has filed his or her income tax return for the previous year and has received the Notice of Assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) with respect to that filing. Most taxpayers, therefore, would consider that their annual filing and payment obligations for the year are now in the past.


Application process for business pandemic relief programs still open (August 2022)

Canadian businesses should be aware that, while many programs which provided payroll or expense supports for businesses during the pandemic ended on May 7, 2022, there is still a program in place to help employers with payroll costs. As well, even for programs which ended on May 7, applications can still be made for relief for claim periods prior to that date.


Managing debt in a rising interest rate environment (August 2022)

Since 2009, Canadians have been living (and borrowing) in an ultra-low-interest-rate environment. Between January 2009 and January 2022, the bank rate (from which commercial interest rates are determined) was (except for a brief period in 2018) never higher than 1.50% – and was almost always lower than that.  Effectively, adult Canadians who are now under the age of 35 have had no experience of managing their finances in high – or even, by historical standards, ordinary – interest rate environments.


How to respond to a first Instalment Reminder from the Canada Revenue Agency (August 2022)

By the time August 2022 arrives, virtually all individual Canadians have filed their income tax return for the 2021 tax year, have received a Notice of Assessment from the tax authorities with respect to that return, and have either received their refund or reluctantly paid any balance of tax owing.


Claiming a deduction for summer child care costs (July 2022)

As pandemic restrictions ease, the option of sending kids to summer camp is once again a realistic one and, for both kids and parents, the possibility of doing so must be particularly welcome this year.


The start of a new federal benefit year – claiming your child and family benefits (July 2022)

At a time when Canadian households are coping simultaneously with rising interest rates and an inflation rate which recently hit its highest point in nearly four decades, every dollar of income counts. And where that income can be obtained with minimal effort, and received tax-free, then it’s a win-win for the recipient.


Paying the piper – the CRA starts collection of pandemic benefit overpayments (July 2022)

When a public health emergency was declared in March of 2020, the focus for the federal government was getting pandemic benefits into the hands of eligible recipients as quickly as possible, to help mitigate the sudden financial crisis faced by so many Canadians. To that end, three decisions were made with respect to program administration. First, eligibility for benefits would be determined by “self-attestation” – in other words, applicants would certify, based on the information provided to them online, that they met the eligibility criteria for a particular benefit. Such self-attestations were accepted at face value, without documentation or other verification methods. Second, application for the same benefit – the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB – could be made to either the Canada Revenue Agency or Employment Insurance/Service Canada, depending on the circumstances of the applicant. Finally, in at least in the initial round of CERB payments (which were received by over 8 million Canadians), no income tax was withheld from payments issued, although the CERB itself was taxable income.


Creating cash flow from home equity (July 2022)

If Canadians have the feeling that they are being squeezed from all sides when it comes to household finances, it’s because they are. In 2022 Canadian consumers have been hit by a double whammy of three successive interest rate hikes since March (with more increases almost certainly on the horizon) while dealing at the same time with increases in the cost of everyday goods to an extent that has not been seen, in some cases, for as much as forty years.


Making sure your taxes for 2022 are on track (June 2022)

Many, if not most, taxpayers think of tax planning as a year-end exercise to be carried out in the last few weeks of the year, with a view to taking the steps needed to minimize the tax bill for the current year. And it’s true that almost all strategies needed to both minimize the tax hit for the year and to ensure that there won’t be big tax bill come next April must be taken by December 31(the making of registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions being the notable exception). Notwithstanding, there’s a lot to recommend carrying out a mid-year review of one’s tax situation for the current year. Doing that review mid-year, instead of waiting until December, gives the taxpayer the chance to make sure that everything is on track, and especially to put into place any adjustments needed to help ensure that there are no tax surprises when filing one’s tax return for 2022 next spring. As well, while the deadline for implementing tax saving strategies may be December 31, the window of opportunity to make a significant difference to one’s current year tax situation does narrow as the calendar year progresses.


Claiming a deduction for moving expenses (June 2022)

While recent increases in interest rates have put something of a damper on home sales, the Canadian real estate market was booming in the first quarter of 2022. According to Canadian Real Estate Association statistics, there were over 650,000 residential sales transactions in the first quarter (January to March) of this year.


Disputing your Notice of Assessment (June 2022)

Of the 27 million individual income tax returns already filed with the Canada Revenue Agency for the 2021 tax year, no two were identical. Each return contained its own particular combination of types and amounts of income reported and deductions and credits claimed. There is, however, one thing which every one of those returns has in common. For each and every one, the CRA will review the return filed, determine whether it is in agreement with the information contained therein, and, finally, issue a Notice of Assessment (NOA) to the taxpayer summarizing the Agency’s conclusions with respect to the taxpayer’s tax situation for the 2021 tax year.


Rising interest rates and the mortgage stress test (June 2022)

Over the past several years, would-be buyers in the Canadian residential real estate market have been faced with two realities. First, the cost of homes continued to increase significantly in virtually every market across Canada. At the same time, however, the cost of borrowing to finance a home purchase had almost never been lower.


Where things stand with pandemic benefit programs for individuals (May 2022)

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the federal government has provided a wide range of pandemic benefit programs for individuals. In the main, those programs have acted to replace income lost where employment income was no longer available as businesses closed during lockdowns, or individuals were unable to work because of illness or because they were at home with young children when schools closed to in-person learning.


Deciding when to start receiving Old Age Security benefits (May 2022)

Canada’s retirement income system has three major components – private savings through registered retirement savings plans or registered pension plans, and two public retirement income plans – the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security program. The last of those – the Old Age Security program – is the only aspect of Canada’s retirement income system which does not require a direct contribution from recipients of program benefits. Rather, the OAS program is funded through general tax revenues, and eligibility to receive OAS is based solely on Canadian residency. Anyone who is 65 years of age or older and has lived in Canada for at least 40 years after the age of 18 is eligible to receive the maximum benefit. For the second quarter of 2022 (April to June 2022), that maximum monthly benefit is $648.67.


Making home ownership a little more accessible (May 2022)

The difficulties faced by younger Canadians in buying a first home almost anywhere in Canada, owing to both the spiraling cost of real estate and, more recently, increases in interest rates, is a major concern for those individuals and their families. Not surprisingly, then, the issue of housing affordability was a major focus of the recent federal budget, and the following measures to address that problem were announced.


When you make a mistake on your tax return (May 2022)

For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2021 tax year was Monday May 2, 2022. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Wednesday June 15, 2022 to get that return filed.) When things go entirely as planned and hoped, the taxpayer will have prepared a return that is complete and correct, and filed it on time, and the Canada Revenue Agency will issue a Notice of Assessment indicating that the return is “assessed as filed”, meaning that the CRA agrees with the information filed and tax result obtained by the taxpayer. While that’s the outcome everyone is hoping for, it’s a result which can be derailed in any number of ways.


New Quarterly Newsletters (Q1 2022)

Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues.


How to not fall victim to a tax scam (April 2022)

It is a sad fact that, every year, thousands of Canadians become the victims of scams in which fraud artists claim to be representatives of the federal government. Equally sadly, in most cases the money lost is never recovered.


What to do when you can’t pay your tax bill on time (April 2022)

Most taxpayers sit down to do their annual tax return, or wait to hear from their tax return preparer, with some degree of trepidation. In most cases taxpayers don’t know, until their return is completed, what the “bottom line” will be, and it’s usually a case of hoping for the best and fearing the worst.


How to pay your taxes for 2021 (April 2022)

Our tax system is complex and, understandably, its myriad rules and exceptions are a mystery to most Canadian taxpayers – and most are happy to leave it that way. There is however, one rule in the Canadian tax system which doesn’t really have any exceptions and of which most Canadian taxpayers are all too well aware. That is the rule that says individual income tax amounts owed for any tax year must be paid – in full – on or before April 30 of the following calendar year. This year, that means April 30, 2022 – although, since April 30, 2022 falls on a Saturday, the Canada Revenue Agency is providing an administrative concession by allowing taxpayers until Monday May 2 to pay their taxes without incurring any interest charges.


Some last-minute tax filing strategies - what to claim and what to defer (April 2022)

Most Canadians don’t turn their attention to their taxes until sometime around the end of March or the beginning of April, in time to complete the return for 2021 ahead of the May 2, 2022 filing deadline.


How and when to file your 2021 tax return (March 2022)

Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publishes a statistical summary of the tax filing patterns of Canadians during the previous filing season. Those statistics for last year show that the vast majority of Canadian individual income tax returns — just over 90%, or just over 28 million returns — were filed online, using one or the other of the CRA’s web-based filing methods. About 2.8 million returns — or just over 9% — were paper-filed.


Claiming medical expenses for 2021 (March 2022)

The Canadian tax system provides individual taxpayers with a tax credit for out-of-pocket medical and para-medical expenses incurred during the year. Given that such expenses must be incurred at some time by virtually every Canadian, that credit is among the most frequently claimed on the annual return. Unfortunately, however, the rules governing such claims are detailed, somewhat complex, and frequently confusing.


What’s new on the return for 2021? (March 2022)

While the requirement that Canadians file an income tax return each year never changes, the actual content of that return is never the same year to year. While many of the changes — like inflation-related increases to income tax brackets and credit amounts — happen automatically and don’t require any particular awareness or action on the part of the taxpayer, this is not the case with all tax changes. In some cases, taxpayers who aren’t aware of the changes can miss out on newly available or expanded tax deductions or credits, even if they are using tax preparation software to prepare their return. While the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will usually catch arithmetic errors made on a return, the Agency does not (and cannot) ensure that a taxpayer has made all of the claims which are available to him or her. And perhaps the only thing worse than having to pay a tax bill is paying one that is higher than it needs to be because available deductions or credits were missed.


Figuring out the taxation of pandemic benefits (March 2022)

The list of financial assistance programs that have been provided by the federal government to support individual Canadians through two years of the pandemic is lengthy, detailed, and sometimes confusing. Unfortunately for the Canadian taxpayer, however, every one of those programs has one thing in common — benefits received are taxable income which must be reported on the return for the year in which they were received, and on which tax must be paid.


Responding to a tax instalment reminder from the CRA (February 2022)

Sometime during the month of February, millions of Canadians will receive mail from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). That mail, a “Tax Instalment Reminder”, will set out the amount of instalment payments of income tax to be paid by the recipient taxpayer by March 15 and June 15 of this year.


Taking advantage of pension income splitting (February 2022)

Income tax is a big-ticket item for most retired Canadians. Especially for those who are no longer paying a mortgage, the annual tax bill may be the single biggest expenditure they are required to make each year. Fortunately, the Canadian tax system provides a number of tax deductions and credits available only to those over the age of 65 (like the age credit) or only to those receiving the kinds of income usually received by retirees (like the pension income credit), in order to help minimize that tax burden. And, in most cases, the availability of those credits is flagged, either on the income tax form which must be completed each spring or on the accompanying income tax guide.


RRSPs and TFSAs: making the annual choice (February 2022)

If there is one invariable “rule” of financial and retirement planning of which most Canadians are aware, it is the unquestioned wisdom of making regular contributions to one’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). And it is true that for several decades the RRSP was only tax-sheltered savings and investment vehicle available to most individual Canadians.


Claiming home office expenses for 2021 (February 2022)

As the pandemic continued past 2020 and through 2021, it is likely that employees who were able to work from home spent at least part of the 2021 tax year doing just that. And, as was the case in 2020, those workers may be entitled to claim a deduction on their 2021 tax return for home office expenses incurred.


Employment Insurance Premiums for 2022 (January 2022)

The Employment Insurance premium rate for 2022 is unchanged at 1.58%.


Quebec Pension Plan contributions for 2022 (January 2022)

The Quebec Pension Plan contribution rate for 2022 is set at 6.15% of pensionable earnings for the year.


Canada Pension Plan Contributions for 2022 (January 2022)

The Canada Pension Plan contribution rate for 2022 is set at 5.7% of pensionable earnings for the year.


Federal individual tax credits for 2022 (January 2022)

Dollar amounts on which individual non-refundable federal tax credits for 2022 are based, and the actual tax credit claimable, will be as follows:


Federal individual tax rates and brackets for 2022 (January 2022)

The indexing factor for federal tax credits and brackets for 2022 is 2.4%. The following federal tax rates and brackets will be in effect for individuals for the 2022 tax year.


New Quarterly Newsletters (Q4 2021)

Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues.