unclespacejam

ur dad’s brother

Valued Contributor

Taxes + Canada = Fuck

what's up my fellow canucks? need help from the folks who put the north in North America

aside from the obvious shit (RRSP, TFSA, FHSA, etc) what the fuck do you guys do to try and bring your tax bill down?

I'm fine to pay my share but I'd be lying if it didn't make my heart sink into my asshole every time I see the amount of deductions that hit my cheque every month.

what's a beaver boy to do?

🍾 Commission

11

25 comments

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jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

I think you got most of them. Try an accountant used to working with sales folks f you haven't done that and are looking to maximize deductions.

Only other thing you can do is cry when you see your pay slips, while also smiling knowing that if you slip and fall you won't go bankrupt fixing yourself back up...

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Also having children gets you a ton of tax benefits and write offs, but they cost even more. Not a good reason to procreate though....

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

Lmao fair enough. Yeah trying to come up with solutions that don’t involve funding diapers and RESP as an alternative ahah

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

Do you happen o know of any of this type of accountant off hand?

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Unfortunately I don't. Haven't had to use one myself, everything of mine has been straightforward enough to use use TurboTax. Always done well that way.

I've just heard people talking about it pre-covid. Mostly 100% commission guys that pull TONS of levers.

Not H&R Block though.

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

Fair enough. Yeah I’ve always done my own taxes online and get a decent chunk back, I find it fairly easy. I’m not 100% commission either so I may be shit outta luck then.

I’ll keep digging

SADNES5

Politicker

2

down voters are marketing spies

Simple Tax is the best free software I used. Self employed, contract, employee it does it all.

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

Been using it for years! Works like a charm

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

I just get Turbo Tax from Costco. Don't mind paying the ~$30 and I've been using it for years so it carries a lot forward.

snacks

Valued Contributor

2

AE

What the beaver version of Uncle Sam? Aunt Maple?

Unfortunately you're spot on my friend. Would love to get advice on this as well.
The only couple things I can add is at taxes time, any capital losses will offset things a bit and if you rent doing the WFH deduction (if you own, apparently it's not worth it).

unclespacejam

Politicker

1

ur dad’s brother

Definitely do the WFH deduction but it doesn’t count for much.

snacks

Valued Contributor

1

AE

The loonie don't count for much these days indeed.
They used to have a flat rate vs detailed. I think they completely did away with the flat rate so it's a moot point but if you tally up like the actual full office room, the bathroom, internet, hydro, etc it was very worth it for me personally ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

It was nice while it lasted dog. Apparently there are deductions afforded for church ministers. So maybe I’ll go get ordained? I’ll report back

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

Ayyy

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

There’s this thing called tax evasion. 🤫

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

Or Buy/invest in real estate. Not sure on Canadian tax laws though and I’m also not a CPA. So I’d suggest consulting with one to see your options.

unclespacejam

Politicker

0

ur dad’s brother

Not too sure we get the same kind of benefits you guys get (bonus depreciation, cost seg, etc)

Could be wrong though.

Sending out the 🍁 signal

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

1

Bad MFer

Just walk across the border and claim asylum in the US. Apparently you’ll get everything you need in life for free 😳

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Oh dear. Would that that was true.

unclespacejam

Politicker

0

ur dad’s brother

Lmfao I’m still happy staying this side of the border but damn it is tempting some times.

BigShrimpin

Politicker

1

Account executive

get a rental property or another method for writeoffs i went from getting a refund so small it barely covered the cost of filing to 6 g's last year.

unclespacejam

Politicker

0

ur dad’s brother

I suppose that might be my only option. Ideally I’d want to be able to not have to do “more work” outside of work to keep more income from my main gig

BigShrimpin

Politicker

1

Account executive

it definitely can be more work but depends entirely on your tenants, most months its 0 extra work for me but whenever theres an emergency it can definitely pile onto work for sure

SADNES5

Politicker

1

down voters are marketing spies

Not much you can do.Car milage - keep a log book or app tracker of when you use your car. You can claim some kms. Sq. Ft in house. You need to have a dedicated space and you can portion off a percent of your internet, heat, mortgage as a deduction BUT the WFH benefit is usually more. Office supplies, they are cheap though...
Max out tfsa/cpp/ei as soon as you can. TFSA will bring down total taxable income. Cpp/ei will just give you bigger paychecks when you reach the cap. A few hundred every pay.
Other than that, appreciate the health care. As a canuck in USA - I will never complain about that. My employer pays over 1500 every pay for healthcare and I pay 500. It's a Gucci coverage for the family, but damn. Health is tied to employment here and it sucks. (But the quality of care is crazy, you get a copy of everything! You can get blood drawn and results back in hours, you can just get an MRI, X-ray, whatever within a day - no waiting.) Had to learn a whole new language - in network, out of network, deductible, out of pocket max etc etc.

unclespacejam

Politicker

2

ur dad’s brother

For sure. I’m all over those pieces. Tbh I’ll have maxed out my CPP and EI by end of February.

Strongly considering starting some form of side business to be able to write off some personal expenses

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