PERSONAL TAXES – All taxpayers in Canada file their own personal tax returns. There is no such thing as a “joint return” as in the U.S. Tax installments are commonly paid by self-employed taxpayers and those with high pension and investment income which is often the case with high earners and senior tax filers who had no tax withheld at source on interest and other investment income. Installment payments for self-employed taxpayers include Federal and Ontario taxes AND CPP self-employment premiums. Tax installments are due on March 15, June 15th, September 15th and December 15th. HST installments are required if you paid more than $3,000 in the prior tax year. The payments are 4 equal amounts made up of the prior year HST paid divided by 4. For example, if you remit $8,400 of HST in 2019, you would owe $2,100 for 2020 HST installments which are payable by April 30th, July 30th, October 30th in 2020 with the final installment payable by January 30th of 2021.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will automatically send notices of 2020 installment requirements based on one-quarter of the balance payable 2 tax years back – – the 2018 tax year – – for the first 2 payments and one quarter of the balance payable in the prior tax year – – the 2019 tax year – – for the last 2 installment payments. This is advantageous for those who had lower balances payable in 2018 than 2019.You can also remit 4 equal amounts based on the “prior year basis” and works if your 2019 balance was LESS than in 2018. The third option is to make instalment payments based on the “current year”. This is advantageous for those with lower taxable income in 2019 than in both of 2017 and 2018. We call this “having a bad year. It requires intelligent guesswork on the part of the taxpayer. The object is to remit the least amount while avoiding installment interest charges. Many Real estate agents with substantially lower gross commissions in 2019 will remit nothing for the December 15, 2019 date if they have made the first 3 payments requested by the CRA if the total of those three payments will be equal to or greater than the actual balance you expect to pay in your 2019 T1 personal tax return. For the highest earners who usually have a lot of taxable income in the highest bracket of 53.53% – – much higher than $135,054 for 2019 we suggest using what we call “the 40% rule“. To illustrate – – and assuming that your expenses remain relatively consistent – – if you grossed $300,000 in 2018 and by the first of December of 2019, you know you will gross $40,000 lower in 2019, then reduce your December instalment by $16,000 which is $40,000 TIMES 40%.

This might result in paying nothing or very little for the December instalment. It is best to keep the money than wait until July of the following year for a refund. You could also reduce your January 30, 2020 HST instalment by $40,000 TIMES 13% or $5,200 based on the same principle that you grossed $40,000 LESS in 2019. Interest is charged on installment shortages from the due dates. You may adjust instalments down to reflect decreased revenues but risk interest charges if you under-remit. [The chart at the top of this section sets out Federal/Ontario tax rates as taxable income rises.]

Those with gross self-employed earnings in 2019 of over $1,500,000 in a year must file HST returns on a quarterly basis declaring HST collected for the quarter LESS HST paid – – “In-Put Tax Credits” (ITCs). Those with less than that amount can elect to revert to annual filings for 2020 and pay instalments but the election must be filed no later than the first 90 days of 2020. The election for a new filing period is Form HST20 E “Election for HST Reporting Period” and can be downloaded at www.cra.gc.ca and mailed to the Sudbury address used for regular HST returns.

Only annual filers make HST installment payments. Instalments were required for 2020 if the HST remitted in 2019 exceeded $3,000 If you exceed the threshold, divide the actual amount you owed – – Line 109 of the HST return entitled “Net Tax” – – by 4 and equal instalments are payable on April 30th, July 30th. , October 30th and January 30th of 2020 for 2020 HST instalments. Thus, pay one-fourth of prior year remittance on these dates.

Personal tax and HST instalments are payable to the “Receiver General Canada” and you use your Social Insurance Number for tax instalments, your Business Number of 12345 6789RT0001 for HST instalments and your Business Number of 12345 6789RP0001 for payroll remittances if you have a spouse or full-time assistant on payroll. For spouses, there is no E.I. premiums withheld, they are E.I. exempt, while for assistants you withhold Federal/Ontario taxes, CPP premiums and EI premiums. As an employer, you match the employee’s CPP premiums and pay 1.4 times the EI premiums. The CRA has a useful feature on their website at cra.gc.ca. Go to “Links for Businesses” then to “Payroll”. Hit “Payroll” and under “TOPICS” go to “Payroll Deductions Online Calculator” (PDOC). Enter here and: put in name of employer and employee; indicate the province of Ontario, indicate pay period frequency. If for a spouse or majority-shareholder of a private corporation, then indicate as exempt from E.I. premiums. Once you enter the gross pay for the period, the program will break out: 1) Federal/Ontario taxes; 2) CPP premiums; and 3) E.I. premiums. In remitting your payroll using your 9-character Business Number with the extension “RP0001”, an employer must match CPP premiums and throw in 1.4 times the EI premiums for those required to pay EI premiums. PDOC is a great and user-friendly program and is upgraded each year.

NOTE: If you pay tax and HST instalments or a payroll remittance at a financial institution, the general rule is that you must pay at least one full business day before the required date. The same rule applies if you are using your Business Number to make a payroll remittance for a spouse providing services or for an administrative assistant. The payment must be made by the 15th of the month for the prior month and do so 1 day earlier if paying at a bank. The penalty for late payroll remittances is 3% of the amount remitted. Late tax and installment payments are subject to only interest charges. But, if installment interest levied exceeds $1,000 then you are subject to an additional penalty of 50% of the amount exceeding $1,000 of interest. The former “HST Number” ended in 1996 and became a “Business Number” used for all of corporate and HST filings and payroll remittances. HST filings use the 9 numbers with the extension “RT0001” while payroll remittances use the 9 numbers plus “RP0001”. Payments for your personal taxes or tax instalments include Federal and Ontario taxes and self-employed CPP premiums which are a maximum of $4,712 for 2016 and you ALWAYS use your Social Insurance Number for those payments. All checks for payroll, HST or personal taxes are made out to the “Receiver General of Canada”.

INTEREST – The CRA sets a quarterly prescribed rate at prime plus 4% for both personal taxes and HST.

PERSONAL TAX AND GST FILERS –  face a 50% penalty on any installment interest which exceeds $1,000.

LATE-FILING PENALTIES – For personal balances including Federal and Ontario taxes plus CPP premiums, on a first late personal tax filing there is a penalty of 5% plus 1% per month for up to 12 months – – a 17% maximum. On a second late filing within 3 years, the base penalty is 10% plus 2% per month for 20 months or a maximum of 50%. Regular filers have an April 30th tax filing deadline while the deadline for self-employed taxpayers including those with sideline self-employed businesses and their spouses is June15th. This latter filing deadline also applies to annual HST filers. It is advantageous to `harmonize’ filing deadlines – – have the same filing deadline for taxes and HST – – as it reduces the amount of time spent on bookkeeping. Do your tax and HST bookkeeping at the same time in the first 3 – 4 months of the year-end. Many self-employed taxpayers who are HST registrants complete and file and pay the calculated balances by April 30th to avoid interest charges which commence running on outstanding balances on May 1st. Quarterly HST filers must also file within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter and face penalties for late filings. If you are a quarterly or annual HST filer, you must enclose payment with your HST filing or it is treated as a late filing subject to penalties. This is not so with personal tax filings. Regular tax filers or the self-employed tax filers with a June 15th personal tax deadline are not subject to penalties on taxes payable if they meet the filing deadline. They pay only interest. So those who have June15th filing deadlines for both personal taxes and HST should pay the full amount of HST payable and then as much as they can, if not all, on their personal tax balance.

As discussed above, under s. 238 (1) of the Income Tax Act (ITA) ,you can be prosecuted in the criminal courts if you fail to file a return after receiving a formal demand to file in person which cites s. 150 (2) of the ITA and prescribes a deadline of from 30 days to 120 days to file the demanded HST and tax returns. ,You are liable, on conviction, to a fine of from $1,000 to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to 12 months. In the last several years, we have had taxpayers come to our firm facing this situation. It is a heavy-handed device by the CRA to force filing and is usually resolved by a quick filing of the returns by the prescribed deadline or when a count is laid in the Ontario Court of Justice for each tax and HST not filed, the Assistant Crown Attorney usually accept a guilty plea with the minimum $1,000 fine for each charge which would be 6 counts if you owe 3 HST and tax returns – – $6,000. If you do receive the notice to file, get your tax and HST returns prepared and filed before the deadline or you may be prosecuted. Our firm knows of an incident where there were convictions and that occurred when the taxpayer essentially told the CRA to take a hike when requested to file. Not smart.

FILING PERIODS/REGISTRATION

You must register if your gross earnings exceed $30,000 in a calendar year. You would be required to register if your revenues for your first 3 months of activity exceed $7,500. If you do not register for a Business Number (BN) – – called a HST Number until 1996 – – you will not recover the 100% of the HST included in your expenses. So, REGISTER even if your annual income will be less than $30,000 to get the full HST Input-Tax-Credits. Many agents often get refunds in their first year of activity when expenses exceed commissions. You can file HST on an annual basis if your annual revenues were less than $1,500,000 in 2008 or later years. You can elect to go from a quarterly to an annual filing period for 2017 but you must elect to go onto an annual filing within the first 90 days of 2017. Monthly and quarterly HST filers must file HST returns within 30 days of the period end or face penalties. This leads to more time spent on bookkeeping and requires you to then `annualize’ your 4 quarters of commissions and expenses to get yearly totals needed to complete your personal tax filing. It reduces time and cost to “harmonize’ your HST and tax filings so that both are the calendar year. Those earning over $1,500,000 of commissions in a tax year must remain on a quarterly filing basis. Annual filers alone make quarterly HST installment payments. The formula is that if you remitted more than $3,000 of HST in the previous year – – see Line 109 of your HST return entitled “Net Tax” – – then you must make quarterly HST instalments equal to 1/4 of the total HST remitted in that prior year during the subsequent year. As discussed above in the section on ”Instalments”, many agents with much lower commissions in 2016 than 2015 will forgo making any tax installment on December 15th and nothing for HST on January 30, 2015 if their first three instalments are sufficient to cover 2016 tax and HST payable.

Remember that:

• HST is removed from both revenues and expenses in your tax returns. You must declare all HST collected. Your commissions and your expenses, after extracting HST, then go in your business statement, the “T2125 Statement of Business Activities”, in your personal tax return.
• Register for HST. It is better to get every cent back of HST as an Input-Tax Credit – – equivalent to cash – – by deducting it against HST collected than it is to not register and leave it in your expense statement in your personal return where it will saves you 0% if your taxable income level is under the personal exemption amount of $11,635 or at only 20.05%, 31.5%, 46.2%, 48% or 53.53% depending on what other income you might have in the year.
• De-register your Business Number if you cease activity. Use Form RC 145. Bank, insurance and government expenses must be entered separately as they do not include HST. See our free column sheet which automatically extricates HST from HST-subject expenditures and shows a black box on the globalized sheet for expenses which do not include HST.
• Once you register for a Business Number and charge the HST required on your commissions, the vendors are paying the 13% HST on your commission and you use that money to recover the HST paid on your expenses. You are a tax collector. You must collect and remit HST and file an HST return.

HST ON SALE OF NEW AND “SUBSTANTIALLY RENOVATED” HOMES

Good news. In information about the Excise Tax Act which relates to HST. It was announced that the definition of a “substantially renovated” home is more liberal. After HST was introduced in 1991 the Tax Courts set the test of a “substantial renovation” as the removal of more than 50% of inside walls. The CRA has announced that the new test is the removal of more than 90% of inside walls. This means that a complete ‘gut’ of the inside walls of a home will still subject the sale to HST as it will bring the home within the definition of a “new home”. The issue is one of definition.

If there is a substantial renovation bringing the property under the definition of a “new home”, the only way to avoid charging HST is for there to be a short period of bona fide personal usage – – the owners must move back in after renovations are completed. This would also apply to a residential rental property where you would have to place new tenants after completion of the renovation. An MLS listing before or immediately upon completion of renovations will trigger HST. Advise your clients to resume living in the home for at least 6 months after the completion of renovations or place new tenants and wait 6 months before listing on MLS. This short period of personal usage or of tenant occupancy takes the home out of the definition of a new home. Get advice as there is a fine line. There will need to be a few court rulings to clarify the issue.

THE “NEW”, & “TENANT” HOME BUYER REBATES ON NEW HOMES

In Ontario, there is a two-stage rebate calculation to reduce the HST paid on new homes bought for personal usage or as rental properties after June 30th of 2010. The rebate is ,identical for both personal usage and rental properties BUT the FEDERAL portion of the rebate for properties – – a maximum of $6,300 – – reduces to NIL as cost rises from $350,000 to a NIL rebate at $450,000 or HIGHER. This unfair rule does not apply to the maximum of $24,000 of the Ontario rebate on the first $400,000 of home cost. ,You will get that rebate no matter the high cost of the new home purchased. The rebate for properties used for personal usage is called the New Home Buyers Rebate (NHBR). ,The rebate for rental properties is called the Tenant Home Buyer Rebate (THBR). Follow this closely since the forms to be completed, for each rebate are different. The HST rebate on new homes applies to the 13% paid on the first $450,000 of cost.

In situations where the CRA forces a repayment from investors of rental properties under the NHBR, the CRA does not tell the investor that there is a “Tenant Home Buyer Rebate” (THBR) available to investors. You must file for this rebate within 2 years of acquiring title to the rental property and you must prove that there is a minimum of 1 year of tenant occupancy which means that you provide a copy of a Landlord-Tenant lease for at least a 1-year term. This is an area where you should get professional advice from a real estate or a tax lawyer who is familiar with the Tenant Home Buyer Rebate.
The rebate is calculated as follows and we are providing a table as the calculation is complicated. ,Remember that if the purchase price exceeds $450,000, the investor is disqualified from claiming any Federal rebate. With both the New and Tenant Home Buyers Rebate, you will pay the full 13% HST on the provincial amount over $400,000 due to the $24,000 maximum Ontario rebate and you will get no federal rebate for a new home costing $450,000 or more. The maximum $6,300 federal rebate on a home costing $350,000 reduces to NIL once the cost rises to $450,000.

NEW & TENANT FEDERAL & ONTARIO HOME BUYER REBATES

Buyers for personal or rental usage thus get a maximum of $6.300 of the former 5% Federal GST and a maximum of $24,000 on the former Ontario 8% provincial tax. Purchasers of new homes get a maximum of $6,300 of the former 5% Federal GST on a home purchased for $350,000 at which cost the rebate reduces and is lost if the cost of the home is $450,000 or higher. THUS the formulas guarantee that no applicant will get $6,300 plus $24,000 or $30,300. Under each of the “NEW” and “TENANT” rebates, the maximum is $24,000 of the former Ontario 8% provincial sales tax in each case for homes costing over $400,000. A home purchased for $400,000 will get the maximum $24,000 Ontario Rebate but will lose half of the $6,300 Federal Rebate. At a new home cost of $450,000 or higher the Federal Rebate will be NIL. Odd and complex.

HST ON COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL & RETAIL PROPERTIES

Commercial/industrial/retail purchases are subject to HST. When dealing with properties with both business and residential uses, the allocation of value must be done precisely as ONLY the business component is HST-taxable. With either of the ‘mixed-usage’ properties – – zoned both commercial and residential – – or properties used exclusively for business on which the FULL 13% HST is payable, you can elect to exempt the purchase from HST as a “Going Concern” if the purchaser vouches to continue 90% or more of the existing business. Think of stores, restaurants and properties charging commercial rents. The election “Form HST 44” is filed by the registrant purchaser but must be signed by both the purchaser and the vendor. It reduces the cash needed to close. An extra 13% is a lot of cash. Have both the vendor and purchaser sign Form HST44 which exempts the sale from HST on the basis that the purchaser is going to continue 90% or more of the business activity of the vendor. Since the sale will result in a continuation of the vendor’s usage – – e.g., collecting rent on a commercial building, the purchaser would recover the HST paid as an In-Put Tax Credit ,- – ,a wash but one that avoids the purchaser from having to pay 13% on the amount related to business.

METHODS FOR FILING HST

The three methods are as follows:

1. QUICK METHOD

This method cannot be used by accountants, lawyers, financial consultants, actuaries, audit services and tax preparation firms amongst others. You can use it if your total of income PLUS HST – – called the ‘blended amount’ – – is less than $200,000 per year. You can elect to use this method after the first full calendar year of operations but, generally, it is only useful to computer `techies’ and others working a home-based business with low expenses such as only cell-phone, vehicle and home-office expenses. This method will not be beneficial to real estate agents whose expenses exceed 32.3% of commissions for the year. Those with high broker transaction fees and high advertising costs will not benefit from using the Quick Method. Once the blended amount exceeds $200,000 annually you are required to revert to the Simplified or Detailed method depending on whether your income for the year excluding HST is above or below $1,500,000.You can use this method ONLY if your `blended revenues’ of fees/commissions total up ,to $200,000. Pay 8.8% of the blended amount. On a blended amount of $113,000 – – $100,000 of commissions plus 13% HST – – you would remit $113,000 X 8.8% or $9,944. You can then claim the HST on capital expenditures ONLY such as computers, equipment, furniture and vehicles as an In-Put Tax Credit. If you bought a car for over $30,000 – – the ‘luxury cap’ – – you would reduce the $9,944 by the $3,900 of HST paid on the first $30,000 of the car price. Again, the Quick method rarely works for real estate agents due to the blended cap of $200,000. Those agents earning a ‘blended amount’ up to the $200,000 ceiling are likely to have expenses exceeding 32.3% of commissions so this method is unfavourable to most agents but if you have an historically low percentage of expense and stay under the $200,000 ceiling, it could be beneficial. ,Be careful here as you can only convert to the Quick Method by selecting it when registering or converting to it within the first 90 days of the current year. ,

2. SIMPLIFIED METHOD

This is the most common method and used by about 95% of personal self-employed HST registrants. This is used by those with gross commissions or earnings from other business activity of up to $1,500,000. You declare the total amount of HST collected which is then reduced by claiming “In-Put Tax Credits” or “ITCs” where an expense is subject to HST. Payments to banks, insurance companies or governments are HST-exempt. So, such expenses as licences, interest costs, car and liability insurance are not subject to HST. [ These exempt services are indicated by a black box on the middle column of our free Excel column sheets. ] You then multiply the expenses upon which you claimed HST by 11.504% to extract the HST and claim the exact amount of HST paid on the first $30,000 of a car purchase and on any computers, software, equipment, furniture or other capital expenditures. Remit the balance if HST collected exceeds your ITCs or claim a refund if the reverse is true which is common for real estate agents in their first or second year of activity – – those in their first year selling real estate often get an HST refund especially where a large number of commissions close in the next year.

3. DETAILED METHOD:

Is for those with commissions or other business revenue over $1,500,000. This is a slightly more complicated method as you must make dual entries. You must enter the exact base cost and the exact amount of HST separately and total the two amounts. Claim HST paid as an ITC against HST collected then complete the HST filing. The reality is that even CRA auditors find the accrual method as being too complicated so USE the “Simplified Method” and the CASH BASIS on a calendar year basis if revenues exceed $1,500,000 for the year and the CRA will accept this.

This is a `basket’ heading. It includes all monthly fees, desk fees or any other charges. Break out the broker split of commissions if it is included in Gross Income in a T4A slip in Box 20 as we have discussed several times and do the same if the annualized statement of commissions earned in the year shows the full 100% of commissions before breaking out the contractual portion of commissions due to the broker. Always deduct any ‘pass-through’ expenses billed to you by the broker. The broker may incur expenses on behalf of an agent such as a major newspaper advertising then `pass through’ the agent’s share of that expense. This will be the case for every expense paid by the broker on the agent’s behalf and will show on the industry standard annualized “Statement of Commission and Expenses” prepared by virtually every broker.

Keep the amount in the broker statement under this heading and DO NOT break it out to the headings number 3 and on. Our firm enters the expense under “Realty Broker Administration Fees” and uses the specific amount noted by the broker as paid for HST since the broker statement will include a mixture of expenses some of which are subject to HST and expenses not subject to HST. Examples of the latter include E.& O Insurance, Provincial Licence Fees and any interest costs such as fees charged by the broker if they advance money on commissions. The rule is that the broker statement serves as your receipt for any ‘pass-through expenses as they are always clearly laid out and totaled so leave the figures for the total for expenses paid and HST paid intact and do not break any expense out to the other headings. Note that this method is much simpler than breaking an expense out to one of the specific headings below which will confuse your preparer and any CRA auditor.

Include all professional fees including bookkeeping, tax preparation fees, CRA audit and appeal fees and legal fees where a lawyer’s opinion might be needed on the legal aspect of a sale. This occurs on complex issues such as how to allocate HST payable when involved in the sale of a “divided-usage” asset such as a property zoned and used for both commercial and residential purposes. The residential component is exempt from HST. This might include a mortgage discharge fee paid by you at the request of a client but such an expense could as easily be entered under the “Advertising, Promotion & Gift” heading. Do not agonize over semantics. Put it in a heading that is comfortable for you but do not make the mistake of putting an expense like a business dinner or event under the advertising heading at full deductibility when the ITA at s. 67.1 (1) limits such expenses to 50% deductibility. [See the discussion on the Stapley decision under the dinner/event heading where gift certificates to restaurants were limited to 50% deductibility.] Professional fees paid for audits and appeals at CRA Tax Service Offices or for full appeals to the Federal Tax Court if you are so unlucky to end up there may be deducted under this heading and you will recoup the 13% HST paid for those fees. Taxpayers who are not self-employed must deduct such expenses at Line 232 of their personal tax return under “Other Deductions” and the specific heading “Legal and Accounting Fees” and they will not recover HST.

Advertising is a very general type of expense and give yourself wide latitude in entering an expenditure under this heading. Any expense is fully deductible. This expense heading should include all promotional expenses such as newspaper and other advertising, circulars, gifts including cash gifts, giveaway items and distribution costs paid by you to third parties other than the broker. You should put names on all gift, dinner and event expenses to make the `business connection’ and do it when you incur your expense. If you don’t do so and get audited, you will have to rebuild the names from your diary and trade record sheets to enter on the receipt before submitting your receipts and vouchers to the auditor. The rule is: no name, no deduction. Our firm recommends, in the name of thoroughness, that you also note an address such as that of the property sold, property bought or even a property on which a failed offer was made. Every extra detail helps. If you pay a client rebate from a commission that is FULLY declared in your Gross Income, but agreed to prior to close, enter the client rebate as “Client Rebate” as a business deduction and do not pay nor deduct HST. Again, you can only deduct it if it is included in the T4A slip Box 20 and/or in the annual summary of commissions provided by your broker.

A common expense, not understood by CRA auditors, is that for “dressing or staging”. This relates to purchases and such as storage and moving/cartage costs for items to be placed in more expensive homes to `dress them up’ to be more presentable to purchasers. If you buy furniture, rugs, carpets, art etc., any item over $500 should be capitalized under our expense heading # 24 to Class 8 for “Equipment & Furniture”. For purchases under $500 enter them under this advertising/promotional heading for full deductibility. Any cartage costs for these items, to and from your home or rented storage space, even if for more than $500, should be entered here for full deductibility.

The general rule on the part of the CRA which we believe is reasonable restricts an agent to 2 conventions per fiscal year. The costs of the RECO Continuing Education courses is not caught by that restriction and those costs may be entered here and are fully deductible. Often the broker pays for those courses and passes the cost through to the agent in which case it will be included in the “Real Estate Broker Administration Fee” under expense heading 2. Deduct under this heading the costs of any of those courses that YOU pay which would always be the case for such courses taken by you on the internet. Regarding conventions, pick the better ones held in Vancouver or Los Angeles if your international broker or an international real estate body is putting it on. You can get the convention deduction plus airfare, hotel and one-half of your own dinners as a deduction. Note your own meals during a conference are better entered under our expense heading 14 “Travel Dinners” which includes your meals when you are more than 12 hours away from your “regular place of business” which we interpret as travelling outside the GTA area overnight. If you attend a conference in Vancouver and then take a 1-week side-trip to Whistler, keep the receipts for the side-trip for the rental car, hotel, meals etc. to show a CRA auditor that you did NOT deduct them in your return as they were personal in nature. Have fun with the limitation. Special real estate training courses offered by such as “Robbins”, “Hobbs/Herder” or any other sales training courses go here. We have gotten payments of from $10,000 to $25,000 here for our clients. On audit the CRA will try to invoke s. 67 of the ITA which gives a general discretion to disallow an expense as not “reasonable in the circumstances” and try to disallow the expense as TOO HIGH!!!!! This is contrary to the correct legal position and defies common sense. The CRA can use the s. 67 test to challenge almost any large expenditure but since these sales training seminar expenses are incurred for business and are customized expressly for the real estate industry we have NEVER lost this expense on a CRA audit. We make the argument that since they are customized for real estate that they meet the “business connection test” and the size of the expenditure is irrelevant. We are usually able to show to the CRA that there was a substantial increase in commissions in subsequent years which shows that it was money well spent. We have also succeeded in preserving these large expenditures by arguing that they are part of “trade and industry practice” and specially tailored for real estate agents.

This heading is self-explanatory. Note the business connection on the receipt such as “Delivery of Agreement of Purchase and Sale for Signing” etc. Again, every extra detail helps.

And any other professional organization fees which include HST. Leave these expenses under “Broker Administrative Fees” if paid by the broker and billed to you. Recreational club membership fees including curling, health clubs and golf fees are strictly disallowed. You can deduct visitor green fees and business dinners at your golf club subject to the 50% rule if you keep clear itemized records of such expenses.

Enter the full amount of each of these expenses in the appropriate column. The spreadsheet will then break out 50% of the HST component as a cash credit in the form of an In-Put Tax Credit (ITC) in your HST filing. The reminder of the expense including the ½ of the HST expense not claimed as an ITC is then halved for deduction purposes in your tax return (In other words the column sheet `adds back’ in to the expense the HST not claimed for refund purposes in your HST remittance). The costs of business dinners, cultural and sports events and groceries and drinks bought for open houses have been restricted to 50% deductibility since Feb. 22, 1994 under S. 67.1 (1) of the ITA. The Stapley decision of February 2006 ruled that gift certificates to restaurants and events were caught by this provision and subject to the 50% deductibility limitation. Give gift certificates to Home Depot or the Bay but avoid those for restaurants or events. The CRA has not yet tried to apply the s. 67.1 (1) limitation to LCBO or BEER Store purchases if gifted to a client so continue to enter those expenses under heading #4 as “Gifts” for a full deduction. NOTE: the ‘business connection’ test requires all employed and self-employed agents to put a name and address – – where bought, sold or an offer tendered – – on all dinner, event and gift items. Make the notation on the credit card chit and/or invoice from the venue, store or restaurant at the time of purchase to be smart. If you do not and are audited, you will have to engage in that exercise relying on your diary, trade record sheets and memory which can be a grueling task.

For such expenses as leases of computers, faxes, phone systems, furniture and other equipment used directly in the course of your business. Short-term car rentals- – a day up to a month or more – – may be deducted in their entirety so long as the vehicle was needed to continue your real estate sales.

Again, a `basket’ category which includes all expenses connected to such supplies e.g., computer, software, furniture and equipment expenditures under $500 for which you get full deductibility. With a capital expenditure – – items over $500 – – you deduct half of the normal rate in the year of purchase, known as the “half-year rule”. To illustrate, a $3,000 Class 10 computer purchase with a rate of 30% for that class will give you only a $450 Capital Cost Allowance deduction in that year – – ½ of 30% of the cost; thus, $450 of the $3,000 in the first year then 30% of $2,550 or $765 in the next year, then 30% of $1,785 in year three etc. This is an example of the “declining balance basis” used under depreciation rules for capital expenditures.

Are 100% deductible. This includes single parking fees, business parking paid on a monthly basis at your broker’s place of business, or for Highway 407 usage related to business. Remember our rule that agents are at work 24/7. Be aggressive. Residential tenants who pay a segregated parking cost should pull that amount form the amount for residential rent entered for the “Home/Office” calculation and enter it in the detailed auto calculation headed “Parking – Apartment”. This will give you a 90 to 95% deduction under the auto heading versus a 20% deduction if one-fifth of your apartments is used for business under the home-office calculation. Downtown apartment parking can be $100 to $125 per month but it will be ‘buried’ in your rent payment. Break it out and enter it under the area for vehicle deduction. NOTE: Parking tickets or moving violation costs have not been deductible since May of 2004 after the Income Tax Act was expressly changed to prohibit deductibility on such fines and penalties even if incurred in the “course of earning income”.

These include payments to anyone doing business and charging HST. It includes invoiced services such as the `computer guy’, a promotion/advertising consultant and even a fellow agent who bills you for covering an open house or whom you pay when a commission is split and the full amount is declared in your Gross Commissions. We enter the latter as a “Sub-Commission” in the tax return which signifies that you made a payment to another agent. Enter the amount split out of your gross commissions and paid to the other agent by you and claim the HST on the sub-commission as an Input-Tax-Credit.

Segregate out the business long distance charges on your home phone and claim the full cost of fax/internet and dedicated business lines. The basic cost of your first residential telephone land-line is deemed to be for personal usage and thus non-deductible. We feel this position is reasonable. Our firm deducts a figure of $30 a month or $360 a year from the annual total for telephone as a ‘tip of the hat’ to this position on the part of the CRA. Any extra features such as call forwarding or second lines plus the full internet costs – – essential to use the MLS service – – and business long distance are deductible. Some agents rely solely on their cell-phones and have no telephone at home they are probably unmarried with no children – – and can safely argue their full telephone costs are deductible and any personal usage is inconsequential for an agent working 60- to 80-hour weeks in real estate. As a general rule, our firm deducts 100% of cellphone charges on the basis that any personal use of the cell is inconsequential in the context that ages are on their for hours each day conducting business.

You must be 12 hours from your “regular place of business” such as the GTA. This expense refers to your own cost of dining. You need not be with a client. Enter the full amount in this column and the software will break out ½ of the HST as an ITC and limit deductibility to 50% as with business dinners and events.

As above, you must be 12 hours away from the GTA – – the CRA usually expects you to be away overnight – – but these expenses are fully deductible. The costs of your two allowed conventions each year should not be entered here. Deduct air fares, hotels, car rentals where you are out of the GTA – – Hong Kong or London, England or even London, Ontario will do – – if you stay overnight to meet with clients or scout for rental properties and homes suitable for purchase by your clients as their residence. Note the purpose of the trip in your diary to make the “business connection”.

You can modify this box for other HST-Included Expenses. Enter anything not expressly covered elsewhere but keep records and name the box so that you, your tax preparer and a CRA auditor will see the business nature of the expense. If you pay regular sub-commissions to a partner or adult child who is licenced in real estate and to whom you pay regular percentages of commissions, this line should be titled “Sub-Commissions” and used for that purpose. Remember to go to the columns on the right and put the title “Sub-Commissions” in the top box.

Where you have set up a business checking account and draw on lines-of-credit directly into the account to ensure full deductibility. Deduct such all bank service charges/fees and over-draft interest costs. This is also the column where you should enter all fees and interest charged on brokered commissions – – where you borrow on a future commission. The black box on columns 17 through 21 show that there is no HST in these expense headings. Do not commingle business expenses in a separate account from your primary chequing account or pay for expenses out of a joint account with your spouse. The CRA will disallow the entire interest cost as ”commingled with personal banking”. You then have a fight as to what percentage of interest relates to business expenses paid out that account. Further reason to set up a dedicated business account matched with a dedicated credit card used exclusively for business expenses.

No HST here. Enter here if you pay these expenses directly where they are not paid by your broker and billed to you. It covers professional liability insurance, errors and omissions, RECO or other licences. Do not include life insurance premiums since they are not deductible. Also, do not claim disability income replacement premiums or the latter will be taxable if you claim under the policy. They remain tax-free if you do not deduct the premium.

No HST here. Any taxpayer for whom gross commissions make up 90% of working revenue – – that does not usually include part-time agents – – can deduct the full cost of individual or family private health premiums such as Blue Cross and including any travel health insurance during the year. This can provide up to 46.4% tax savings to the highest earners. The medical schedule disqualifies an amount equal to 3% of Net Income in their personal tax return then gives tax savings at less than 21% on the balance. This 1998 change was a huge tax-saver for high earners and CRA auditors are often not aware of this rule even though it has been in place for 10 years. Send the auditor to our web-site and refer them to S. 118.2 (2) (q) of the Income Tax Act if they threaten to disallow it. It is deductible as a current expenditure in your Business Statement.

No HST here. These are fees paid to persons not registered as agents. The province says you ought not to pay them but the Income Tax Act is federal and they are seen as deductible by the CRA if they are both “documented and receipted”. Keep a two-sentence standardized invoice for such payments or get a full and formal receipt on payment clearly showing the purpose of the payment. Our firm moves these fees from Line 20 in the column sheet up to Line 4 under the advertising, promotion heading in tax returns to avoid using the term “Referral Fee” in a tax return. The use of that term might attract CRA attention as they will jump on that type of expense and require strict proof of a connection to business and strict proof of payment.

No HST here. Spouses providing administrative support must be put on payroll with deductions for tax and CPP premiums but not for EI. Your cost here is the gross pay made to a spouse or other employee PLUS your matching share of the CPP as an employer AND the matching EI premium if paid to someone other than a spouse such as a full-time administrative assistant. Children working more than 15 hours a week for you should be put on payroll with taxes and CPP withheld plus EI premiums if they are 18 or older. You match CPP equally and pay 1.4 times the employee’s EI premium payable. For your children working less than 15 hours a week, they may be paid on a “Casual Labour: basis which means no HST. They should give you a detailed monthly invoice identifying dates and hours worked and the rate of pay. It is recommended that you pay them by cheque or get a full formal receipt if you pay cash.

Payments to family members are scrutinized more closely by the CRA. Dealings must meet the `business efficacy test’. You must pay them on a Fair-Market-Value basis for services rendered and in the same manner that you would deal with a third party. So for casual labour payments with family members or strangers, the rule is a detailed invoice and a formal receipt if paid by cash and a cancelled check if paid by check. You make payroll remittances by the15th, of the each month for the prior month using your Business Number. You match the CPP and pay 1.4 times EI premiums payable for your children or third parties. No HST is charged on salaries and payroll costs. The test for “employment status” is generally 1) work provided for fixed hours on a regular basis; 2) at a fixed location; 3) with equipment such as computers and desks provided by the employer; and, 4) a level of supervision and delegation of tasks. If your spouse is not put on payroll you will face an outright disallowance of payments to the spouse.

This has always been the most contentious issue on audit and the rules have been dramatically changed with recent developments. Our Bulletin on the auto and home-office deduction shows that there are entirely new ground-rules since the CRA announced that maintaining an auto logbook is mandatory. Read it again. The CRA is hoping that 95% of agents will be too lazy to maintain the manual logbook designed by the CRA; with 75% being the maximum business driving allowed by the CRA when you have no logbook, only the very highest-earning agents will get that figure. Those with commissions above $400,000 will get 75%, those in the $150,000 to $400,000 range will get 65% while lower earners might get only 55% business driving. The point is that the CRA is on the verge of setting up a punitive downward sliding scale for business driving. Agents should not let this happen. Agents can go on the offensive by getting the computerized GPS logbook program provided by Odotrack and for which the cost is fully deductible. Go to their web-site at odotrack.ca. You will set yourself up for claiming an unchallengeable 90% or more business proportion of driving. Your data is saved on a server and you can push a button and print out a detailed list of 5,000 trips or more, business and personal, in a year if a CRA auditor is dumb enough to ask for a detailed breakdown of driving.

Your vehicle deduction carries over from the “Detailed Vehicle Expenses” summary in your T2125 Business Statement and includes gas & oil, repairs, washes, CAA fees, lease costs and depreciation on owned vehicles. Keep all receipts including the credit card ‘chit’ for gas purchases and repairs. Remember that a typical audit is frequently referred to as a “receipts and vouchers” review. Claim the full amount of vehicle HST as an Input-Tax-Credit if you drive 90% or more business and the actual proportion of HST if less than 90%. This is the “90% equals 100% rule”. Note that car insurance and licence costs do not include HST. They along with the interest on car loans are deductible depending on the business proportion of driving.
Canada Revenue Agency auditors will now demand production of the CRA-prescribed automobile logbook. The very few real estate agent clients who use our firm and keep a log-book routinely do about 90% and up to about 95% or more business usage from their log entries. Our firm will go up to 95%, and occasionally higher, for high-earning agents.

The Watt case of the Federal Tax Court was an appeal from an audit where only 10% of vehicle usage was allowed expressly because no auto to logbook was provided. The appellant got no increase on appeal and the Justice ruled that “the taxpayer could have easily logged any business driving.” The Justice in this case stated that any taxpayer who wanted more than 75% business driving had the onus to keep an auto logbook. This was a terrible decision. The reality in Watt was that the taxpayer was an employee with only a small side-line consulting business with ONLY 2 clients. Of course this taxpayer could log his business driving. This is not true of real estate agents who might do 5,000 car trips in a year. Neither audit officers nor Justices understand how much driving is done by real estate agents.

The October 2010 announcement by the CRA that formal auto log-books are required as of January 1, 2009 makes all of the case law moot. The new reality is that any agent seeking to claim more than 75% business driving needs to maintain an auto logbook.

Our firm urges all agents to get a computerized logbook program and we routinely claims 90% to 95% business usage of the vehicle if the real estate agent has two or more vehicles at home, doesn’t golf or ski, does not have access to a cottage and explains to us that they work long hours seven days a week. We know that only 1 in 50 agents will get audited annually – – this figure will rise with the new logbook rule – – as the Audit Divisions have small staffs. If an auditor drops the business usage down to 75% or lower, our firm usually gets that figure back up to 85% to 90% from a CRA appeals officer on an internal appeal within the CRA. Appeals officers will disregard the logbook requirement and are more receptive to strong evidence of extensive business driving and they allow a higher proportion to close the file. Those with computerized systems will get every percentage point of business driving and the auto expense will be virtually unchallengeable by the CRA.

An example of “deduct and don’t blink if challenged” is our firm’s practice of deducting 90% to 95% business driving on the agent’s primary car and a high percentage on a second luxury vehicle used when soliciting a listing from owners of the most expensive homes. The proportion of business usage is based on distance driven – – a “usage test”. If the Mercedes used for special appointments is driven only 3,000 km. a year and 2,400 km. relates to business, claim 80% business usage. Log the driving of both vehicles. If the agent uses the less expensive car to the bulk of business driving, we will go 90% to 95% on that primary vehicle. Note that if you have a spouse on payroll as an administrative assistant, you should put the spouse’s car in your name and pay all of the purchase and operating expenses. Our firm will then deduct the business driving on the assistant’s car in YOUR business statement where you might save at your higher tax brackets of 46.2% and 46.4%. We do this with many of our high-performing agents and have maintained the deduction on audit. Keep in mind that it is common on an audit to have to explain basic real estate trade and industry practices to CRA auditors. Most auditors do not know the difference between an `agent’ open house versus a ‘public’ open house that groceries need to be purchased for open houses and what “dressing and staging fees” are.

1. CAPITAL PURCHASES

Also known as ‘capital expenditures’ are used to claim the HST on up to $30,000 of car value in the period acquired. If starting self-employment, claim the HST on the Fair-Market-Value (FMV) of the car at commencement of self-employed activity. Use the Undepreciated Capital Cost (UCC) as an acquisition figure if moving from employee usage to self-employed activity. For items costing less than $500 including taxes, we enter them as fully deductible under the “Office Supplies” heading. This threshold we use has always been accepted by CRA auditors. If starting self-employment, use the FMV of computers, software and office equipment such as printers, faxes, telephones, furniture and decorations used in the area of the home used exclusively for business. Once starting self-employment enter the exact cost on the invoice and the exact HST paid as shown in the invoice. So, use actual invoices to get the exact HST to be claimed as an Input-Tax-Credit in your HST filing. In other words, do not use the “Simplified Method” for capital purchases which breaks HST out at 11.504% of the total cost.

2. OFFICE-IN-HOME

Our bulletin on the auto and home-office deductions shows that the CRA must now acknowledge that EVERY agent gets the home-office deduction since, with industry changes, the home is “the primary place of business”., The home-office deduction is an area where CRA auditors demonstrate that they are not sufficiently well-trained to understand common trade and industry practices in the real estate industry. It has been our experience that CRA auditors will seek to contrive a reason to disallow the home-office expense without understanding what the correct law is for deductibility of this expense. Too often we have seen auditors, without ever speaking to the agent or the agent’s broker, disallow this expense by citing “space for office usage is provided by the broker” or no evidence has been provided that “the taxpayer fails to meet clients at their home on a regular basis”.

The first reason involves disallowing the expense without seeking evidence to support it and is unprofessional. The second ,reason ,relating to ,“fails to meet clients” demonstrates incompetence since 1) they are not familiar with the practice in real estate sales; 2) they have failed to obtain evidence to support the position AND 3) that they are ignorant of the correct law. The requirement to meet clients at your home on a regular basis applies to those taxpayers who pay commercial rent to a landlord AND who, additionally want to claim a home-office deduction – – what we call the “lawyer- doctor rule”. This is set out in s. 18 (12) (a) (ii) of the ,Income Tax Act. For self-employed real estate agents, even if they pay their broker for inside segregated space, they have an automatic right to claim a home-office expense if the home is used as their “primary place of business”. That is the correct law and is set out in s. 18 (12) (a) (i) of the ITA.

The movement to a home-based industry is directly related to the change by TREB and other real estate boards around the year 2000 which required all registered agents to subscribe and pay for the MLS service. That service was previously only provided to the broker and explained the line-up of agents at computer terminals at the broker’s office. CRA auditors are unaware of the change made by TREB as regards the MLS service being charged to EVERY agent and that all agents have set up this service from their home computer. Agents can deduct a home-office using a room-by-room basis or square footage basis for areas in the home used exclusively for business. [ Do not have a guest bed or television in the room you might claim for this deduction.]

Since agents are hooked up to MLS at home and use it through-out the day, book appointments from home, keep their business records, computers, equipment and furniture in their office area, do administration, correspondence and bookkeeping at home including doing their banking from home, it is clear that the home is the “primary place of business”. Both the automobile and home-office deduction are governed by the “usage test”. You must give evidence of usage with a logbook and describe what tasks are performed at home to get the home-office deduction.

Today, brokers only want the agents in the office if they are dropping off a signed offer. Explain all of this to a CRA auditor. In over 26 years, our firm has never lost the home-office deduction on a CRA audit. It amounts to a common sense deduction. On the “Simplified Method” you are entitled to claim the business proportion of HST paid as an Input- Tax-Credit on home utilities, repairs, landscape and yard maintenance. You cannot claim it on condo fees. You can claim a home/office expense and even rent out part of your home so long as such “incidental business usage’ of the home does not exceed 49% of the floor-space. The general rule is that so long as a home is used “primarily” for personal purposes – – read 51% of the floor-space – – the gain on sale of the home is completely exempt under the Principal Residence Exemption (PRE). A caution: The PRE is lost on any proportion of the home on which brick or frame depreciation is claimed against gross rents or in a home/office calculation in a self-employed statement. The rule is thus NEVER claim brick or frame depreciation on any portion of your home used as an office or rented out to a tenant.

The CRA knows that new homes or condos have seen a huge increase in market value between having an offer accepted and obtaining ownership for from 3- to 5-year, years or longer after the original offer is finalized., CRA is catching purchasers who sell their offer before the official close for an amount including their deposit plus an extra amount to reflect the substantial increase in market value. Gains on these transactions are fully taxable.

To catch these transactions the CRA requires developers to keep a registry of all persons who sign an Agreement of Purchase and Sale for a new condo or home and to note the amount of the deposit and of, the purchase price. The CRA will use the Teranet service to check the deed against the developer’s registry of those making the original offer. If the names are different, there will be an audit, and severe consequences. Taxpayers usually treat the gain as a capital disposition and others might not declare the gain at all.

If you do not declare the gain or treated it as a capital disposition, you should consider retaining a lawyer and doing a “Voluntary Disclosure Application”. The application must be: (a), “voluntary” meaning the CRA has not commenced action; (b) provide full disclosure; (c), it must involve the potential of a CRA penalty; and (d) the information must be at least 1 year overdue.,, Our firms’, experience is that the, CRA is happy to get the taxes plus interest and penalties are invariably waived. Those caught not declaring the gain face 50% penalties under s. 163 (2) of the Income Tax Act(ITA) and ALSO face prosecution in the criminal courts under s.239 (1) of the ITA with further penalties of from 50% to 200% of taxes payable and up to 2 years in jail. One or more of these taxpayers will be prosecuted, to send a message of deterrence to the public.

This HST rebate is available to anyone who buys for personal usage a new or “substantially renovated home”. Under the Excise Tax Act which governs HST, the maximum HST rebate is $30,300 on the first $45,500 of HST on a home bought for $350,000. The Courts have identified personal homes as those with a “period of personal occupancy” and also a home where there is a “bona fide period of personal usage”. The period of occupancy required is unclear so the CRA is attacking purchasers who sell quickly. The CRA deems the purchaser to have had a ‘primary motive’ of profit and will demand, repayment of the, HST rebate and will tax the full gain by arguing that the taxpayer did not have the primary intent of personal usage. An ambush

Some investors are ticking off ‘personal” when buying an investment property then renting out the property. They too are being forced to refund the New Home Buyers Rebate and when they do, the CRA does not inform them that there is an almost equivalent Tenant Home Buyer Rebate if you can prove 12 months of tenant occupancy. Contact your investors. If investors were forced to refund the original rebate, advise them to reapply for the tenant rebate. They must do so within 2 years of purchase.

The CRA is using Teranet to identify fast sales of personal homes and rental properties. The questionnaire which they send to taxpayers requires that ALL homes bought and/or sold in the last 5 years be listed. For personal homes, the CRA will demand proof, of occupancy including all bills paid while living in the home and such things as proof of changing one’s driving licence to that address. This started in early 2016 and, the CRA seems to be focusing, so far, on condos but they will likely broaden their search.

Where there is a resale within a year, the trend is for CRA auditors to insist on repayment of the HST rebate, deny PRE status and tax the full gain and intimidate the vendors by threatening to levy a 50% penalty under s. 163 (2) of the ITA which is overkill since this requires that a taxpayer, “knowingly filed a false return”. The CRA is deeming the taxpayer to have had, the primary intention of, so to speak, cashing in their profit and will tax the full gain as an “Adventure in the Nature of Trade” which concept has normally been invoked when a purchaser ‘flips’ a property . Our firm is having success in defending these attacks by citing the provision that these consequences will not apply where the sale was the result of a material change in personal circumstances which can include serious health problems, a change in financial circumstances or the end of an engagement or marriage between signing the offer, taking possession and selling the home.,

The 3 main factors which will lead the CRA to deny capital disposition treatment is where there is an expertise in real estate, secondly, the property was sold quickly and, lastly, where there is a high number and frequency of transactions. If, you assign an offer or ‘flip’ a property, the gain will be fully taxed.

If you are a real estate agent or sophisticated investor and you sell a rental rent property less than 18 months after acquisition, the CRA will reassess and tax the full gain as ‘regular income’., If agents or investors rent their investment property for at least 18 months and preferably 2 years or more, our firm is successfully arguing that the sale should be treated as a capital disposition with half the gain exempt on the basis that, agents and investors should be allowed capital disposition treatment as does the average taxpayer. CRA auditors are routinely demanding that the HST be repaid, taxing the full gain and levying 50% penalties with the expectation that most taxpayers will not appeal or get incompetent representation.,

The limitation on reassessing tax returns more than 3 years after the date of the original assessment is, a safeguard provided to taxpayers and the CRA will need to prove gross misconduct to get around this limitation. The CRA is citing s. 152(4) of the ITA which sets out that the limitation does not apply if a taxpayer has made a “misrepresentation”, in a tax return and auditors are relying on the most trifling of errors to get at statute-barred returns.

The law is that any word must be construed in the context of the surrounding language. Section 154 (2) of the ITA reads: “attributable to neglect, carelessness or willful default or has committed any fraud in filing the return.”, The 3 types of “misrepresentation”, are, “fraudulent”, “negligent” or,, “innocent” misrepresentation with the last involving mere inadvertence. The incorrect position of CRA auditors is that ANY act of misrepresentation is sufficient. Our firm is convinced that the CRA will have to prove fraud, gross negligence or willful blindness amounting to knowingly filing a false return to get around the limitation. A low threshold would open the floodgates for CRA audits and make the limitation period meaningless. The courts will support our position on this issue.

We have discussed this issue at length. CRA auditors will review the two most recent tax returns on the basis of the “sufficiency of receipts and vouchers”. Receipts must be categorized by type and totaled on tapes or spreadsheets. ,Auditors routinely disallow between 20% to 40% of expenses and reduce the business driving to 75% or lower where no logbook is provided.,, Reasons for disallowance include:,, “no proof of payment”, “insufficiently documented”; “not clearly connected to business” and “personal in nature”. You can get a lot of disallowed expenses restored by appealing the disallowances to the CRA Appeals Division.

The law is that all expenses must be: “incurred for the purpose of earning income”. This explains the need to provide names for business dinners, events and gifts. Self-employed taxpayers can pay a spouse for administrative support but the spouse, MUST be put on payroll with taxes and CPP premiums withheld. Any payment to a spouse for “Casual Labor” will be disallowed. Keep all of your credit card ‘chits”. Credit card statements will not be treated as sufficient proof of an expense. .

You may claim a home/office expense based on a square footage or, room-by-room basis whichever is most favorable., Since agents installed the MLS service in their home, and since most tasks are performed at home including, record-keeping, drafting documents, banking, using MLS, booking, appointments etc. then under the “usage test ”as it relates to s. 18 (12)(a) (i) of the ITA ,your home is your “principal place of business”. You do not need to meet clients at your home and you are doing “business driving” once you leave the driveway.

The CRA has set up new vehicle logbook rules and provides a prescribed manual logbook. In the first year, a taxpayer, must log 12 months of driving to get a ,“full logbook” which will give a “base” proportion of, say, 89% of, business use. The logging of each trip must include a) the date; b) the departure and destination addresses; c) the purpose of the trip; and d) the exact distance driven. In any subsequent year, you need to log, ONLY any consecutive3-month period, to get a “simplified logbook”. The agent can select their busiest 3-month period and will likely get a figure of, 90% business driving or higher on the 3-month basis. You need not log the other, 9 months, but should do so if related to business dinners, events and gifts.

The CRA set up the manual system knowing that agents would not want to spend 150 hours a year to track their driving. The good news is that there are a number of computerized programs which are CRA-approved which record all of the data required by the CRA and cut the time for logging down to about 15-20 hours per year which is manageable. Without intending to promote a product, our research shows that the best product available is Odotrack which uses a GPS system and is the only system which stores all of the data required by the CRA on a main server which server is accessed by a password. The system also records business dinners, events and gift expenses, which are the most commonly audited expenses. Once you hit the business button on their dashboard unit, it automatically enters the data. Check out the product at www.odotrack.ca. It will print out the 12 months of data or 3-consecutive months on request. Keep all of your vehicle receipts, and your business proportion of driving will be ‘bullet-proof’ from a CRA attack.

Keep in mind the aggressive CRA challenges of fast sales of new condos discussed in the section above about new 2103 audit practices. This exemption was created in 1972 when capital gains taxation was introduced. This differs from the basic $100,000 Capital Gains Exemption which ran from 1985 to 1994. The PRE has NO DOLLAR LIMIT. [The U.S. version of this exemption allows the exemption of $250,000 for each taxpayer per sale of their home. Some Americans sell and move to restart the $250,000 exemption] The Principal Residence Exemption is often referred to as the most generous provision of the Income Tax Act. Many people use the tax-free status of their principal residence as a `tax shelter’ by buying a larger home and for many, the tax- free dollars in their home is their biggest retirement nest-egg. Each married couple, including common-law spouses since 1993 and same-sex couples since 2001, and their children have only one PRE. The PRE covers the building and up to about 1.6 acres of land unless it can be shown that a larger area of land is required for the “enjoyment and use” of the property. Parents are buying their adult children homes to give them a start in their careers and to give them an asset providing tax-free dollars on sale.

With low returns from cash investments and a volatile stock market, it can be a wise move to sell and `BUMP UP’ to a larger home. Low mortgage interest rates suggest that this is a very, very good time to be buying real estate for any reason. A $900,000 `dream’ home doubling in value gives more tax-free dollars than a $400,000 bungalow or condo doubling in value. Real estate agents recommending this prudent approach will get both a commission on the sale and on the purchase of the new home. Mortgage-free owners will be most interested in this approach especially if they have cash investments giving low interest returns or cottages, stocks and mutual funds with a high ACB through use of the Capital Gains Election form in their 1994 tax return.

Conversely, many home-owners are cash-starved. They have low incomes and over-sized homes. This might include seniors, widow(er)s and those suffering career dislocations. With recent job lay-offs, two-income homes have become single-income homes. These are all candidates for a ‘BUMP DOWN’. This involves selling the current home for TAX-FREE dollars, buying a less expensive home and investing the excess cash for added income. This buying a less expensive home is prudent for those with reverse mortgages under such as the much-publicized “CHIP” program where they lend up to 40% of appraised value and the interest compounds until the owner(s) sell or die. Sell the home, buy a less expensive property and pay off the reverse mortgage. The seller will still have a substantial amount of tax-free dollars to draw on and to invest for an extra stream of income. An agent arranging this is rationalizing and consolidating the seller’s finance. Those who used the CHIP program should have sold and bought down to a more affordable mortgage-free home instead and invested any excess cash.

Owners fear losing the principal residence exemption if their home is not used solely for personal usage. This is a misconception. You MAY rent out part of your home to tenants – – termed “ancillary usage” or “incidental business usage” – – and even operate a home/office in your house so long as the MAJORITY of floor-space – read 51% – is for personal usage. The exemption is lost on any part of the home on which depreciation is claimed. Never claim depreciation on your own home. Against rent collected, you may claim a PROPORTIONATE share of expenses such as insurance, repairs, utilities, mortgage interest and taxes and often have a NIL or low net rent and thus get the rent `tax-free’ or with little taxes. Complete the Form T776 “Rental Statement” and indicate the percentage of the home used for personal purposes. Revenue Canada will not allow losses in this situation where the proportion of expenses exceeds rent collected. Be content with getting the rent tax-free or, with positive cash-flows, paying taxes and using the rent to pay down the mortgage.

The Ontario government still offers the LAND TRANSFER TAX REFUND to first-time buyers of newly built homes. The maximum rebate of $2,000 covers a home costing up to $200,000 for Agreements of Purchase and Sale signed after March 31, 1998. The city of Toronto exempts first-time buyers from Toronto Land Transfer Tax on the first $400,000 of cost. The Federal government gives first-time buyers a $5,000 credit which saves $750 of federal tax.

Federal government provides the greatest incentive to first-time buyers through the HOME BUYERS PLAN which was converted to a first-time buyers program on March 1, 1994. Each taxpayer can with- draw up to $25,000 with no tax withheld from your RRSP starting in 2009 — the prior limit was $20,000 – – towards a home purchase, whether new or a resale, upon production to the RRSP trustee of a signed “Agreement of Purchase and Sale”. This amounts to an interest-free loan to yourself from your own RRSP. No taxes are withheld on the withdrawal. You, or both taxpayers if it is a joint purchase, cannot have owned a home during the 4 years pre-ceding the year of withdrawal – since January 1, 2008 for a 2015 withdrawal. RRSP contributions must be left in for 90 days to qualify under the plan. RRSP contributions for the tax year 2014 savings may be bought until up to the first 60 days of 2015 and qualify to be withdrawn under the HBP if left in for 90 days. Get your timing right.

The withdrawal is repaid in up to 15 equal instalments starting 2 years after the year of withdrawal – – in the year 2017 for 2015 withdrawals. On $25,000, the annual repayment into your RRSP which is non-deductible is $1,666. Failure to make the prescribed minimum repayment in a year results in the `shortfall’ amount being included in income and an excess repayment will `average down’ subsequent payments. Only make excess payments if your home is mortgage-free and you have used up all of your regular RRSP contribution limit. Otherwise save your cash to pay down the mortgage or make RRSP contributions. If there is an HBP balance owing in the year after you turn 71 which means that you cannot have an RRSP account the balance will be divided by the number of years remaining in the 15-year repayment period and that amount will be included in come each year. Do not sweat it. In your retirement years, most taxpayers are in the first tax bracket at 20.05% and the maximum inclusion is $1,666.

The Home Buyers Plan is often combined with a high-ratio mortgage to get first-time buyers into affordable homes. Those with high residential rents will be most interested in this approach. Many `top- up’ their RRSPs when using the HBP and un-used RRSP contribution limit have accumulated since 1991 – – no more “use it or lose it”. Each spouse including `common-law’ spouses qualify. The higher earner can make a spousal contribution to increase the spouse’s RRSPs to $25,000 and the rule attributing the income to the contributor — normally you need to leave a spousal contribution in for the year of contribution and the 2 subsequent years or the withdrawal is deemed to be income of the original contributor — is not applied for withdrawals under the HBP; but if you cohabit with a spouse who owned a home in the 4 prior years before the withdrawal.

IF NEITHER OF YOU QUALIFY AS FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS:

• You must purchase a Canadian home including mobile homes and houseboats.

• Complete the FORM 1036 for the qualifying withdrawal. No taxes are withheld. Certify that it will be used as your principal residence for 1 year after the close.

• Leave RRSP contributions you want to qualify inside the RRSP for at least 90 days. To meet this requirement, you can make the withdrawal up to 30 days after the close of ownership.

• With $25,000 for each joint purchaser, you could get a conventional first mortgage. This would avoid the CMHC insurance costs which are required of a high-ratio mortgagE.

• Make your required HBP repayment into an RRSP within 60 days of the year-end. If you do not make the minimum repayment, any shortfall is fully taxed as income.

• DO NOT sign a realty offer for a close within 60 days of a `top-up’ RRSP contribution.

• DON’T die. Any balance is taxed unless a surviving spouse assumes the repayments.

• DO NOT emigrate without repaying any balance within 60 days of leaving Canada or it falls into income. (Withdraw RRSPs as a non-resident after repaying the HBP amount and waiting until the year after emigrating when withdrawals are subject to only a flat 25% tax rate.) RRSP withdrawals made in the year after emigrating are subject to ONLY 25% withholding tax. If you withdraw before emigrating, you could end up paying the highest rate of 46.4% on the RRSP withdrawal. Tell the trustee of your RRSP to designate your RRSP account as having a non-resident status before you emigrate if it advantageous to leave your RRSP account intact. Get advice.

• You cannot have an RRSP account in the year after you turn 71. Repay any balance by the end of the year you turn 71. You can then convert your RRSP account to a RRIF account as you are required to do and the HBP balance will NOT fall into income. If you do not repay any HBP balance by the end of the year in which you turn 71, the remaining required annual payments will fall into income until the balance is repaid.

Each individual or married couple and their children under 18 are entitled to one principal residence exemption. This explains the transfer of cottages to 18-year old children until they buy their own home. The home is deemed to have been transferred at Fair-Market-Value and the parent will incur any capital gains tax. The 1994 tax return allowed taxpayers to use a Capital Gains Election of up to $100,000 each to raise the ‘book value’ on second homes and rental properties. The election benefited any cottages and rental properties owned before about 1988.The new higher “elected cost base” — potentially $200,000 higher if joint owners – – will then reduce the amount of the taxable capital gain on sale. As stated above, second homes and rental properties, along with stocks and mutual funds, can provide after-tax dollars to buy new properties or a larger principal residence.

The PRE allowed each spouse to own a home until 1982. If a home and cottage are owned jointly from 1972 to the present, and a couple is selling their city home to move to the cottage, or vice-versa, the use of the PRE designation by joint owners on a property for the period 1972 to the year of sale will preclude the use of the PRE on the other home when it is sold. [Being able to use the PRE for the 1972- 1982 period will exempt from taxation the proportion of the gain made up of 11 over the number of years you owned before selling. If sold in 2009, with ownership of 37 years, you will exempt 11 OVER 37 or 11/37th of the calculated capital gain on the second home. The PRE is a year-by-year designation. You would designate the cottage for the 1972 through 1982 years and save the full PRE for your city home where the dollar gain is higher. There could be substantial tax savings when selling the second home. The answer is to transfer the joint half-interest between spouses so that each owns a home out- right. The transferee assumes the exempt status of the transferor. This reorganization exempts from tax the appreciation from 1971 to 1982 on two properties. The PRE can be used on the eventual sale of the cottage but subject to the attribution of 1/2 the gain on sale to the original joint owner. The Ontario government will not charge LTT for spousal transfers if each appears on the original deed. No downside.

You usually save the PRE for your primary home as it has likely gone up the most in value. Remember that so long as any home you own is used for up to 51% personal usage that it is fully exempt from taxation under the PRE. With cottages or second homes, designate them for the PRE for 1 year – – the PRE is a year-by-year designation – – as the T2091 form “Designation of a Principal Residence” has a bonus year. You get the number of years designated PLUS 1. On sale of your primary home in Toronto, the bonus year fills in the gap for using the PRE on a cottage sale. To illustrate, you own a cottage for 26 years, and designate it for 1 year you will exempt from taxation 1 + 1 over 26 or one-thirteenth of the gain. So, on a $260,000 gain, you will exempt 1/13 or $20,000 of gain. Our firm is possibly the only firm in the city that uses this legitimate technique. Children selling the cottage to get cash to put their parent in a care facility are the types to come to our firm to get this intelligent treatment on the sale of the cottage.

Keep in mind the above discussion of the new 2016 CRA audit practices where the CRA is, tracking fast sales of rental properties. Investors should hold rental properties for at least 18 months and preferably 2 years before selling if they want the sale to qualify as a “capital disposition” in which case one-half of the gain is exempt from taxation. If investors sell too quickly, the full gain will be taxed as “regular income”.

The cardinal rule here is to never incorporate to buy residential rental properties. Ignore anything an accountant or real estate lawyer tells you about incorporating an numbered company to buy a rental property. If the sole income of a corporation is rent, net rental income will be taxed as passive income at a punitive rate of about 46%.

The CRA does not want companies owning rental properties or generating other passive income inside a corporation such as interest, dividends or capital gains. These forms of passive income are taxed at the high punitive rate. You will then pay another 15% and higher tax on the dividends paid out from after-tax dollars. You have thus created the `Frankenstein’ of a corporation where rent is taxes, and eventual capital gains, at a combined corporate/personal tax rate of about 54.64% or higher. The highest personal tax rate is 46.4% and you can use brick depreciation in your personal return to reduce net rental income to NIL which defers taxes until the depreciation is recaptured on sale. This is a form of deferring taxable income like an RRSP, but you will recapture the brick depreciation on sale. Only those in the 46.2% or 46.4% tax brackets should claim brick depreciation. This approach gives the deferral of taxable income until the depreciation is recaptured on sale and taxed, at most, at that highest personal rate of 46.4%. Thus you pay later with dollars devalued by way of inflation.

So, you save a lot of taxes by buying in your name and that of your partner and declaring the rent and capital gains in your personal tax return. So buy in your personal name and that of your spouse or investment partners. You will NOT need the limited liability of a corporation to protect yourself. Simply get your insurance agent to get you enough “slip and fall” and “wrongful death” liability coverage to cover the worst case scenario. Several extra million dollars of such coverage will only cost you several hundred dollars each year for that extra coverage and the insurance premiums are fully deductible against rent. This is a lot less costly than the $1,200 to $1,500 cost of incorporation and the extra $1,200 and up accounting fees to do an annual corporate filing for a numbered company owning a rental property with a combined tax rate of over 54%.

Corporations whose sole income is rent will have income treated as income from property and thus passive income not equivalent to business income. Only “active corporations” providing goods and/or services to the public get the Small Business Deduction (SBD) and a combined federal/ provincial corporate rate of about 16% on the first $500,000 of taxable income which will rise to $750,000 over the next few years. An example of business activity is the ownership and management of a hotel/motel operation. This is of relevance to investors who might avoid pure rental properties and acquire a hotel/motel operation to qualify as a Canadian-Controlled-Private-Corporation (CCPC) and thus as a corporation in “active business’ eligible for both the SBD and for the purposes of the $500,000 Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption per shareholder who sells common shares in such a corporation held for at least 2 years. That makes sense.

The important thing to acknowledge about rental properties is that in the current market, interest rates are at historical lows — get a fixed-rate with a 5-year term mortgage as a variable rate mortgage will now likely see rates floating up and there are a lot of properties out there. Those with cash and borrowing power rule and can ‘bottom-feed’ in a real estate market where prices have dropped. Acquiring rental properties if prices drop then flatten makes economic sense. There are even a lot of foreclosures and powers of sale at low prices. Rental properties will carry themselves since there is some proportion between cost and revenues. Look for bargains and investors should seek positive cash-flows. Be prepared to put 30% down and hold for 5 years or more or you are not a suitable candidate to be buying rental properties. On sale, gains are taxed preferentially with only 50% of a capital gain included in income.

On sale, taxes can be spread by creating a “mortgage reserve” in the T2017 Schedule where all of the proceeds of the gain are not received in the year of sale. These situations are common with duplexes, triplexes and the like where one investor is selling to another and the purchaser wants to put in less cash. A common arrangement is a 70% first mortgage, a 20% second vendor take-back mortgage with 10% cash. The Reserve is accomplished with a vendor take-back mortgage – – remember the good old days of the 1980s – – which can spread gains over as much as a 5-year period and spread gains into the lower tax brackets in later years. You must declare ALL of the calculated gain received in cash in the year of sale and at least 20% of the calculated gain. You then must declare a minimum of 20% of the gain in each subsequent year until the full gain is declared.

The interest on the vendor take-back mortgage is declared annually as income. Be prepared to give a 5-year term at a rate slightly above that of the first mortgage with a low enough interest rate to attract the new owners into agreeing to a vendor take-back mortgage. This approach defers income and drops it into the lower tax brackets. If you declare the full capital gain in the year of sale, you can easily climb up to the highest rate of 46.4%. This is also why spouses should buy rental properties jointly so as to split any capital gain in half on sale so a lower earning-spouse might pay much less tax. A rental property bought by multiple owners is: easier to borrow against; should carry itself; provides more persons to manage; and, legally spreads taxable gains around to those who pay lower taxes on sale. Get back to basics.

If we have anything close to the real estate crash of 1989-1990, we get a ‘tax-driven’ market where investors who bought at the peak might now sell rental properties to `crystallize’ tax losses. The “terminal loss” treatment on the sale of rental properties cushions the blow from a sale at a substantial loss. The general rule is that depreciation may only be claimed to the extent it reduces net rental income for all properties owned to zero. This is called the “general limitation on depreciation” (CCA) for rental properties. MURBS in the 1970s to 1980s were an exception to the general rule and sold very well since owners could claim the full brick depreciation amount annually in addition to any operating losses – – tax-driven acquisitions. The second exception is a terminal loss which is a final deduction where a property has depreciated more quickly than foreseen in the prescribed rate of depreciation. Section 20 (16) of the Income Tax Act provides for the deduction of a terminal loss upon the disposition of all of a taxpayer’s depreciable property of any prescribed class. This known as “emptying out a class’.

A rental building acquired at a cost of $50,000 or more must be entered in its own class for depreciation purposes [ Regulation 1101 (1 ac) to the Income Tax Act ]. Class 3 brick buildings with a rate of 5% was replaced with Class 1 and a rate of 4% in May of 1988. Frame buildings are Class 6 at a 10% depreciation rate. The rule to put purchases of $50,000 or more in their own class was intended to prevent `pooling’ of rental buildings to both delay recapture of depreciation and avoid taxation on net rental cash-flows by maximizing depreciation. The government wanted to accelerate taxation and did not foresee the 1990 dramatic reduction in real estate values. If you sell a rental property for a loss, you can take a full deduction in your tax return. Condominiums are treated entirely as building and a final DEPRECIATION deduction may be claimed in the rental statement in the year of sale. You can thus claim a loss on operating revenues and a fully-deductible TERMINAL LOSS between what you paid including Land Transfer Tax, legal costs and capital improvements and what you net from the sales proceeds less real estate commissions and legal costs. No one wants to see a drop in real estate values anywhere near what happened in 1990.

Properties composed of both land and building allocate the acquisition cost and proceeds from sale between them. E.g., a 70% allocation to building and 30% to land. Since land cannot be depreciated, any loss would be allocated as a 30% capital loss. For the purchase of a parcel of unimproved land, interest and taxes can only be added to the Adjusted Cost Base of the asset so those expenses are capitalized to apply against any gain on sale. The gain is taxed as a taxable gain.

Any rental loss which `washes through’ the T776 “Rental Statement” resulting from the terminal loss treatment is fully deductible against all other income in the year of sale and any excess – – once “Net Income” for the year is NIL – – may be carried back 3 years and forward 10 years. You MUST file your return by your tax deadline to do a T1A “Loss Carry-Back” to any of the three prior years. Regular tax- payers have an April 30th filing deadline while self-employed taxpayers AND their spouses have a June 15th filing deadline. If any loss remains or you miss the filing deadline, losses can carry forward for up to 10 years. NOTE: If you own MORE than one rental unit in a condominium, any terminal loss deduction may be claimed ONLY when the LAST unit is sold. Tax refunds may be used to buy a better property or blunt the pain of a ‘book loss’ of $100,000. Those in the top tax bracket will save 46.4% on the loss.

A caution. Revenue Canada had used the MOLDOWAN case to argue that some properties had no “reasonable expectation of profit”. Fortunately, the more recent TONN case decided in December of 1995 favors rental investors. The court said to the CRA in TONN that if a taxpayer buys a rental property to rent and later sell at a gain, it is not the business of the CRA to question the viability of the investment. The above points will reveal `tax-driven’ sales or purchases. Real estate remains a sound investment if intelligent and conservative rules are followed.

Rental properties sold at profit – – other than any recapture of previously claimed depreciation which is fully taxable – – are treated as capital gains with a 50% inclusion rate. Realty agents/brokers and sophisticated investors in real estate with a history of buying multiple rental properties must beware of having their own gains from the sale of rental properties taxed fully as “regular income” and not as capital gains. The test of whether a sale qualifies as a capital disposition and thus eligible for capital gains treatment is: 1) similarity to your ordinary course of business; 2) nature of the property; 3) whether there have been acts of sale such as improvements versus acts or expenditures to increase rents; 4) the number and frequency of transactions; and, 5) the period of ownership called the ‘holding period’ where the rule is the longer, the better. The holding period is what the CRA is focusing on in its new 2016 audit practices. The primary intent on purchase to qualify the eventual sale for capital gains must be the earning of rental income. We recommend that if an agent or investor buys a `bargain’ property that they hold for at least 18 months up to 2 years so that they will not be seen as `flipping’ for fast profits in which case you will be forced to pay full taxes with the CRA concluding that the transaction meets the test of being “an adventure in the nature of trade”. This finding means you will pay tax on the full gain. Get advice.

Properties can be converted from personal to rental usage and vice-versa. Properties which are rented out for several years and then used for personal usage for other years are referred to as “mixed-usage properties”. For tax purposes, such conversions are treated as deemed dispositions and subject to taxation. If you move out of a Principal Residence and rent it out, you can file an Election under s. 45 of the ITA to postpone tax consequences for up to 4 years. If you convert a rental property to personal usage, the s. 45 Election defers tax consequences indefinitely or until there is an actual sale. No brick or frame depreciation can be claimed on the converted property during any year of usage. If you move more than 40 kilometers for (self-employment or employment purposes, the s. 45 election is good indefinitely. The s. 45 election is also indefinite if you move into a property previously used as a rental property but, again, you cannot have claimed any brick or frame depreciation while it was used as a rental property as this disqualifies the property from qualifying for the Principal Residence Exemption.

A final point on conversions of usage is that when move into a rental property which has lost substantial value this results in a “deemed disposition” and will crystallize deductible losses including a terminal loss on the building and appliances and a capital loss on the land component. You can sell your home move into a rental condominium where the entire cost is Class 1 “brick” and `crystallize’ tax deductions on the rental property. This is the case even if you took depreciation on the rental property during ownership so long as your Undepreciated Capital Cost – – which reduces as you take brick depreciation is still greater than the market value when you move in. Get a professional appraisal to confirm the loss in the case that the CRA audits the tax treatment on this deemed disposition.

Taxpayers may come forward and correct inaccurate returns or declare amounts previously undeclared and avoid penalties and prosecution. This relates to both personal tax and HST filings. A disclosure is only valid if 4 conditions are met:

1. The disclosure is voluntary;
2. The disclosure is complete;

• That it involve the potential application of a penalty; and,

1. That it involve information more than one year overdue.

A fifth related condition is that the disclosure must be made before the CRA has started any review of the relevant tax filings or issued any demands for filing of the tax or HST returns in question, If the disclosure is accepted, the taxpayer must pay the taxes calculated plus interest but avoids penalties and prosecution. Lawyers at our firm do VDP applications and we know that there is virtually no risk of the application triggering prosecution, fines and jail as some law firms are stating COULD happen. This is a tactic to scare a taxpayer seeking VDP relief into paying exorbitant and unjustified fees. The CRA is happy to get taxes plus interest but you will be in serious trouble if you do not give full disclosure or falsify information which defeats the entire VDP process.

A disclosure is made using the RC199 E “Taxpayer Agreement Voluntary Disclosures Program” by completing it and submitting supporting documentation. You can do a “No-Name” disclosure through a lawyer who can obtain the relief without naming the client based on solicitor-client privilege. If you use an accountant, who lacks solicitor-client privilege, the CRA can then compel the disclosure of the name of the applicant and compel the accountant to give evidence as to any discussions with the taxpayer/ applicant.

You can request a review of a rejected application to the Director of your local Tax Services Office (TSO). If done as a “No-Name” disclosure and relief is refused, you can continue to hide under your bed and hope that the CRA does not identify false information in a return or undeclared revenue.

Defer income and accumulate tax-free. The `lag’ formula is 18% of the prior year’s EARNED INCOME to a maximum of $22,990 by 2015 and then pegged to the Consumer Price Index thereafter. Unused RRSP eligibility may accumulate since 1991 and be carried forward indefinitely. Hope for an inheritance. Those who turn 71 in 2016 will have to convert RRSPs to RRIFs or annuities by the end of the year. The 2009 federal budget raised the amount that can be drawn from an RRSP under the Home Buyers Plan for first- time buyers from $20,000 to $25,000 for each purchaser.

Between spouses, the taxpayer in the higher bracket should use their RRSP eligibility room first. The lower earner should make RRSP contributions only after the higher earner has used up all of their RRSP eligibility. To equalize, the higher earner can make spousal contributions with the higher earner named as the “contributor” and the lower-earning spouse into whose RRSP account the RRSP contribution is made is the “annuitant”. When spousal contributions are made – – say $10,000 – – the money must remain in the recipient’s RRSP account for the year of contribution and the subsequent 2 years. If the taxpayer who received the $10,000 spousal contribution withdraws $12,500 the next year after the contribution, the first $10,000 would be deemed RRSP income to the original higher-earning contributor under the “attribution rules”. The lesson is to leave the money in for the 3 years and then any withdrawal is not attributed back to the original contributor.

RRSP loans are not deductible. Emphasize repayments of non-deductible loans first while leaving deductible loans intact. Sell stocks/mutual funds to buy a larger home or invest in real estate then borrow to buy stocks/mutual funds at a later date which creates a situation where interest costs are fully deductible.

If emigrating, timing is important. If you leave on January 15th your income could be very low although you would only get a pro-rated personal non-refundable tax credit. Nevertheless, you could fall within the low taxes in the first bracket which is to $43,561 for 2016 at a tax rate of only 20.05%. You could make a withdrawal before emigrating to top up your income to the $43,561 figure. Any remaining RRSPs must be designated as “Non-Resident” RRSP accounts and can be left intact. In the next full year after emigrating, RRSP withdrawals are taxed at a flat rate of 25% – – you net 75% as a non-resident withdrawing from your Canadian RRSP. You do not have to file a return on such withdrawals which means you will not face paying taxes at the higher rates of 33.33%, 46.2% and 46.4%. DO NOT withdraw RRSPs if emigrating which would take your income above $43,561. Be patient and after the first full year of emigration you will pay only 25% on RRSP withdrawals and do not have to file a non-resident return.

dor’s lawyer once the Agreement of Purchase and Sale is finalized and we do a quick submission of the T2062 application with the hope that the CRA provides a TCC by the date of the close. This is rare as the CRA is now saying that it takes a minimum of 3-4 months to process the application so it only works with a really long closing date. Usually, the vendor lawyer will hold 25% of the sale price in trust until the Tax Clearance Certificate is received at which point the lawyer will remit the 25% of the ‘book gain” specified in the TCC then pay out the remainder to the vendor client. Unless there is a huge capital gain on sale, there will be a tax refund with or without the Tax Clearance Certificate but if you are forced to send in 25% of the sales price, there will be a massive refund coming and for a sale early in a year, you will wait until the summer of the following year to get the refund.

A section 115 return is due by June 30th and is filed for the year of sale calculating the “taxable capital gain” while a s.216 filing for rental income is submitted for the year covering the period from January 1 up to the date of the sale. The s.115 filing is separate and each owner must file if there is more than one owner and required as a non-resident will pay capital gains tax on a gain on both of a rental property or a personal-use property.

TFSAs allow individuals to avoid taxes on $5,500 of income by putting the funds into a TFSA, which is not taxed. Withdrawals are also not taxed. These are only suitable for those with a mortgage-free home or who have used up their entire RRSP contribution eligibility room bur are preferable to an investment account where any income is taxed. That is, use your cash to pay down your mortgage first and to make RRSP contributions as the interest on money borrowed to make RRSP contributions is not deductible. Many taxpayers setting up TFSA accounts are buying stocks with high growth potential for tax-free capital gains.

Speak to your expert money manager about under-valued stocks. A 3% GIC in a TFSA will give you only about a 1% to 1 1/2% real growth after inflation, while a nice capital gain is tax-free. You can eventually roll all of your TFSA money by cashing stocks or mutual funds to make RRSP contributions or contributing “in kind” which means the actual stocks or mutual fund units are put into your RRSP and you get a contribution receipt for the FMV of the stocks or mutual funds at the time of transfer or ‘rolling over’ to a TFSA and they can continue to grow tax-free inside your RRSP. This approach is limited by the amount of your regular RRSP contribution limit.

This is purportedly to track tax evaders. Unfortunately, those truly determined to hide income off-shore are far more sophisticated than the CRA. It amounts to an extra level of penalties if you fail to disclose or falsify your Foreign Asset Declaration on top of the regular penalties for tax evasion. The threat to tax evaders comes from the new computer system at the CRA. The new computer system at the CRA is efficient at spotting those who ‘flip’ real estate properties and the like or investors who claim the personal usage HST rebate on new homes when they should be filing for the Tenant Home Buyer Rebate. Those hiding income off-shore are in trouble since Canada is busy signing new tax treaties with other countries with major banking systems to disclose the names of Canadians with foreign accounts.

The Foreign Asset Declaration (FAD) requires a “Yes” or “No” on page 2 of the T1 personal tax return as to whether a taxpayer has over $100,000 Canadian of cash, stocks, rental properties, foreign pensions and other assets outside Canada. Personal usage homes outside Canada are excluded from being declared in the declaration. Taxpayers must then complete the T1135 form showing the allocation in dollar terms for these types of assets and the amount of related income declared in their Canadian tax return. It is proving to be a money-maker for the CRA. Late filers who have over $100,000 outside Canada and are required to complete the T1135 form are subject to a $100 per month late filing fee for filing after their tax deadline. We have had a few angry clients who are making full disclosure, file late and are informed of this provision. File on time.

Since 1985, net capital losses are only deductible against capital gains except in the year of death. You can do a net capital loss carry-back to the prior 3 years against taxable capital gains in those years. Business losses and rental losses are deducted against all other income in the year incurred to reduce “Net Income” in the year to NIL and, since 2004, may be carried back 3 years and forward 10 years. You must file by your tax deadline to complete the required T1A form and do a net capital loss or business loss carry-back against taxable capital gains in the 3 prior years for net capital losses and against any income in the case of business losses. This is advantageous if you were in the highest 46.2% or 46.4% bracket in the 3 prior years.

You can claim accounting costs related to tracking investments as a “Carrying Charge” in Schedule 4 of your personal tax return. You can also claim “Investment Counselling Fees” and interest on loans or ‘margin trading’ as a “Carrying Charge” in Schedule 4. Self-employed taxpayers and commission employees can claim accounting/legal costs of a tax preparation in the self-employed statement or Form T777 for employees. The rules on legal costs are stricter. Legal and accounting costs relating to CRA audits and appeals are fully deductible. If you are self-employed, claim the cost in your business statement – – the T2125 statement – – to recoup the 13% HST paid. Legal fees incurred to collect salary owed to you or in action for severance, a retirement allowance or to pension income where your legal fees are not ordered to be paid by the defendant to the action are deductible but only to the limit of the amount that would be treated as employment income or pension income. In a bad result in such a lawsuit, your legal fees could exceed the severance awarded and would be limited to the amount of the severance. The deduction of legal fees is also reduced to the extent that you roll over any retirement allowance or pension benefit to an RRSP so there are many restrictions.

You may also deduct against employment income legal fees related to an action to establish a right to collect insurance benefits for sickness or accident under a policy provided by an employer. You need not win the action to deduct the legal expenses which were set out in the Federal Tax Court decision of Fortin v. The Queen. The Loo decision of the Federal Court of Appeal concluded that legal costs were deductible where the taxpayer failed in a lawsuit claiming higher wages for work performed.

Legal costs to obtain taxable alimony or maintenance payments – – “spousal support” – – are deductible as are fees in actions to increase support. As of December 5, 2000, legal fees incurred to obtain child support payments under the Divorce Act are deductible even though child supports payments became non-taxable from May 1, 1997 and, further, since 1996, legal fees for the enforcement or defense of child support payments are deductible. This area is somewhat gray and the possibility remains that the CRA will fight the deduction of legal fees attributable to issues of child support. There is yet to be a definitive case. The bad news is that legal fees for taxpayers defending against an action for alimony/ support or for increased support and fees related to child support are non-deductible. This seems unfair but clear.

Every transaction may be challenged by CRA as done PRIMARILY for tax reasons and not for business purposes and disallowed under the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR). Get advice before getting too clever in your tax planning. There is a famous Supreme Court of Canada decision which states: “It is the right of every taxpayer to aggressively attempt to minimize their taxes.” Go aggressive on the vehicle and home-office deduction as discussed in our bulletin. Put spouses and children on payroll according to the rules for income-splitting. You can see a discussion of this under the “Salaries, Payroll/Casual Labour” expense heading for self-employed real estate agents.

An important recent change which started with the 2007 personal tax return was the right of spousal couples – – married, common-law or same-sex – – to PENSION-SPLIT. This can be an extremely generous provision. Private pensions, foreign pensions and RRIF withdrawals may be split up to 50-50 between spouses. This is of critical importance where the higher earner is in the top two brackets at 46.2% and 46.4% tax and they can split pension income down to a spouse in the lower tax brackets. The tax savings can amount to almost $10,000. The claw-back zone on Old Age Security payments for 2015 started at $68,562 with benefits clawed back at a 15% rate or $150 for each $1,000 of income over the threshold and the full Old Age Security Benefits are clawed back at $111,667of net income. The maximum OAS benefit in 2015 was $6,511. Your “effective tax rate” for those receiving OAS with high income is $33.3% + 15% or 48.3% for income from $69,562 to $87,123 and on income from $87,123 to $111,667 the total is 46.2% + 15% or 58.1%. THE OAS CLAW-BACK IS A DISGUISED TAX.

The pension spilt can thus take half of the pension income to the lower earner at 20.05% or 33.3% taxation and reduce or eliminate the OAS claw-back for the higher earner. So, lower taxes AND up to $150 saved for each thousand dollars of OAS claw-back where applicable. This is a great provision for pensioners.

Cryptocurrencies or digital art (NFT) in Canada
In general, possessing or holding a cryptocurrency is not taxable. However, there may be tax implications when you dispose of your cryptocurrency. Examples of this could include:

• selling or trading it
• giving it as a gift
• converting it to government-issued currency, such as Canadian dollars
• using it to buy goods or services

Tax consequences in Canada
The types of taxes that apply to your cryptocurrency transactions include taxes on:

• Business income
  • Generally, if disposing of cryptocurrency is part of a business, the profits you make on the disposition or sale are considered business income and not a capital gain. Buying a cryptocurrency with the intention of selling it for a profit may be treated as business income.
• Capital gains
  • If the sale of a cryptocurrency is not for carrying on a business, and the amount it sells for is more than the original purchase price or its adjusted cost base, then the taxpayer has a capital gain.
• Goods and Services
  • Where a taxable property or service is exchanged for cryptocurrency, the GST/HST that applies to the property or service is calculated based on the fair market value of the cryptocurrency at the time of the exchange.

To ensure correct reporting, keep accurate records of your purchases and sales dealing with cryptocurrency, including records that show how you calculated the fair market value.