Canada Revenu Agency Audit is Up This Year

CRA Tax Audit

CRA Tax Audit

Canada Revenue Agency audit is up significantly for tax payers all across the board. And if you are a self employed or independent contractor, you are more likely to be audited to provide proof of certain expense deduction claims. It is very important to have not only sufficient but 100% backups of expense claims with original documents or third party proof. Here are some of the expense deductions that CRA is primarily auditing from Canadian Tax Payers. If you have any of these deductions in your 2012 tax returns, you could be asked to provide supporting documents to support your claim.

1. Education/Tuition fees expense.
2. Transfer of Tuition fees to spouse or parents.
3. Professional Membership dues
4. Donation Claim receipts
5. Medical expense claims
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2010 Holiday Gift from Vancouver City Council – 4.2% Property Tax Increase

The best city on Planet Earth got a little more expensive to live in and owning property. The Vancouver City Council decided to increase Residential Property Tax by 4.2% and Commercial Property Tax by 0.2%.

City’s operating budget stands at $1.03 billion.

In November the city also approved a 2.75-per-cent increase in user fees, primarily related to sewer, water and waste utility services. Some of those services were provided by Metro Vancouver.
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Why Translink Evergreen Line Home Owners Should Pay Higher Property Tax ?

Cities without access to world class public transit system, like Translink Skytrain and Bus network system, want huge capital investment in their cities and make their cities more accessible by public transit.

Translink Evergreen Line is a necessity for vast amount of people, who would love to leave their car at home and take public transit.

Translink does not have enough money to cover the cost of this new skytrain line. To make the dream of Evergreen line come true, along with Federal and Provincial Government, Cities covering the Evergreen line must also contribute to this construction funding.
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Myths about HST and Vancouver Real Estate Market

For Sale

For Sale


Ignorance about HST is causing a chaos on Vancouver real estate market. Every prospective home buyer, real estate agent, mortgage broker have their very own interpretation of HST on real estate transaction.

It’s a myth that housing market is down due to HST. HST could be a great opportunity for everyone involved in the housing market to bring in more sales. HST should not be blamed for a downtrend in housing market.

With the implementation of HST in BC, a new housing rebate program was introduced, to offset the additional HST burden on home purchase. Its an exciting program and it should attract more home buyers in the market.

A prospective new home buyer can purchase a brand new home with no HST, by using BC new housing rebate program. Most of the first time home buyers trying to get their first primary residence are qualified for this program. Beside that, homes for resale are not subject to any HST.

As per the BC new housing rebate program, after implementation of HST, if someone buy a new house valued at $525,000, using the program they do not have to pay any HST. The housing rebate of $26,250 caps off at $525,000. If the property cost more than $525,000, the buyer will pay HST on the additional amount above $525,000.

Also, one very important thing to remember or mention to the prospective home buyer that even Real Estate HST rate is 12%, BC portion of HST rebate of 7%, brings down the effective rate of HST to 5%.

Since HST is a tax on consumption, the higher the property value will be, the more your HST the buyer will pay.

For a property costing $525,000 there is no difference in cost for before HST purchase or after HST purchase.

But for a property costing $1 million after HST purchase puts an additional burden of $20,000, than it would have cost before HST, or 2% of additional tax due to HST.

So, for majority of BC new home buyers, HST does not have any impact at all, with BC new housing rebate program.

For a million dollar home the net impact of HST with BC new housing program is only 2%. And it starts to go up, with the increased purchase price of the housing.

It is well known that Vancouver home prices are inflated and if someone knowingly investing in that market, a 2% additional tax on a million dollar home purchase, should not make a significant difference in their purchasing decision. For high end home buyers its a choice between paying 2% HST now, or wait and pay 5% inflated price for the property few months later on top of more than 2% HST.

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Tax on Income from Real Estate Sale

Tax Bill on Real Estate

With the current market conditions of real estate in Vancouver and so many people buying property for their first home or investment property, it would be wise to take into consideration the tax implication, when you sell the property. Net Income from sale of property can be taxed as a business income or a capital gain, depending on the usage of the property and the primary intention of the owner.
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