Canadian Capitalist

According to the CRA, you can deposit Canada Child Tax Benefit or Universal Child Care Benefit payments into a bank account or trust account in your child’s name and have the interest payments treated as your child’s income:
Generally, when you invest your money in your child’s name, you have to report the income from those [...]

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I thought I’d share one of the less appreciated benefits of passive investing after reading Million Dollar Journey’s post on working hard for our money instead of doing the things we value more. Like most Canadians, we work extremely hard - between us we have two day jobs, write a blog, attend graduate school, raise [...]

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It’s an annual tradition for me to write about the Tax Freedom Day (June 25th in 2005, June 23rd in 2006 and June 18th in 2007) and rant about our high taxes. The Fraser Institute estimates that, in 2008, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 14th. The Institue’s report is a useful reminder of the [...]

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If you invest in US-listed stocks or foreign stocks that trade on U.S. exchanges as American Depository Receipts (ADRs), you need to be aware of some tax implications:

If you hold American stocks in your investment account, you will be subject to a 15% withholding tax on dividends (for Canadian residents; Check with your broker that [...]

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I finally completed our tax returns and filed it through NETFILE over the weekend. As I noted before, I finally bid adieu to QuickTax and UFile didn’t cut it for me either. I gave my copy of UFile to a friend and used StudioTax for our taxes this year.
Other than a few minor glitches, I [...]

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The deadline for filing the 2007 tax return is April 30, 2008, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to start working on your taxes (remember the steep penalties when owing a balance and filing late). Apart from the usual T-slips, RRSP contributions, receipts from charities etc., you’ll need to gather monthly transit passes and [...]

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If you are considering switching to UFile (read my review) this year, there is one huge drawback you need to be aware of: the support is really slow. Firstly, UFile does not offer phone support. If you encounter a problem with the software or need some help, the only way to currently contact UFile is [...]

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The T4s and T5s have arrived and you are looking to buy software to do your taxes. Here’s a guide to figuring out if you should stick to the software you are familiar with or check out the competition:

QuickTax: If you do taxes for your extended family, you may want to think twice before buying [...]

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Budget 2008 does have a sting buried deep in the document and barely mentioned in the mainstream media. In page 290, under the innocuous title of Dividend Tax Credit, the budget states:
The 2007 Economic Statement reduced the general corporate income tax rate to 15 per cent by 2012 and stated that consideration would be given [...]

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One of the reasons that I liked StudioTax is that it allowed entering tax information directly into the forms. Admittedly, not everyone is a fan of the direct entry method. A lot of people prefer the interview method where the software asks relevant questions and generates the tax return based on the answers. If you [...]

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