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or sneak a peek at other bookkeeping pages to book mark to come back to later when you have more time. Notice to Site Visitor I initially developed this page as a handy reference for myself. While I do my best to ensure it is accurate and complete, I make it available for your use with the understanding that I cannot be held liable for errors and/or omissions. Please make yourself familiar with my site policies prior to relying on any of the information on this site. Tax Compliance Reminders and Quick Links
Here are some links to economic and market data which may be useful when putting together your business plan. All the Canadian banks have economic newsletters you can subscribe to as well. Canadian Business Daily Market Wrap highlights the days news, US dollar close, S&P/TSX Composite close and more. Once there, you will find economic indicators on the "Markets" drop down box. CanWest Global Communications Business page (Financial Post, Global TV) has a lot of information including a Market Summary and very useful financial tools. Trading Economics Canada Stock Market Chart - S&P/TSX Composite gives you the monthly historical values. They also have a banner quoting the interest rate, growth rate, inflation rate, jobless rate, exchange rate and more. I like the historical value chart because I can visually see trending. Here are links to the Bank of Canada Currency Converter and a World Currency Converter. Canadian Business Deposit Rates for financial institutions. President's Choice, ING Direct, Outlook Financial and Citizen's Bank are some of the high-interest* choices. *While I'm discussing banking, a great book by Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick is How to Pay Less and Keep More for Yourself - The Essential Consumer Guide to Canadian Banking and Investing. Because it's a few years old now, I'd probably just borrow it from the library. Do you have a favorites Market Watch resource you use to help you prepare your business plan? Why not share it with other small business owners and bookkeepers in The Bookkeeping Forum - Favorite Bookkeeping Resources. Business financial calculators, websites, where to find federal budget information and the Income Tax Act (ITA) are all found in this forum. General News ... for Small Business BookkeepersWise WordsFour things you can't recover: The stone ... after the throw. The word ... after it's said. The occasion ... after it's missed. The time ... after it's gone. Author Unknown September 3, 2010 Password Protection September is here and days are getting shorter. Summer went by way too quickly! With vacations over and everyone back at work, now is the time to review your current passwords. I've chatted about passwords and online protection before ... last summer and this spring. Well PCMag.com has recently published a helpful guide on How to Create Strong Passwords by Eric Griffith. The guide deals with common password problems and how to avoid common passwords. For example, never use passwords that include "letmein", "love", "monkey", "money", "god" or "password". Mr. Griffith recommends you use different passwords everywhere and change them often. He gives a method to create strong passwords ... and a link to a site where you can test your password strength. The most interesting part of the guide, for me, was how long it takes hackers to crack a password. Here is his example: "... cracking "kroywen" would take 13 minutes, "kr0yw3n" would take about 2 hours, "Kr0yw3^" 15 days, and "MA7ApUp#" about 3 years. You can tell from these results that more capitals letters are better for strength and more characters (eight instead of seven) also make a huge difference. Adding a single capital letter to the end of "Kr0yw3^," such as "Kr0yw3nZ," boosts the crack time to 3 years. Throw another special character in ("Kr0yw3^Z!") and it jumps to 237 years." Then he wraps up the guide explaining why you might want to flaunt conventional password wisdom. You can find the guide at pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368484,00.asp .
July 28, 2010 The Employer's Adviser The Employer's Adviser is a free newsletter published by The Employer's Advisers Office. Their purpose, at no charge to you, is to provide advice, assistance, representation and training on all aspects of Workers' Compensation. Their summer newsletter is available on their website at www.labour.gov.bc.ca. Go to Ministry of Labour> Employer's Advisers> The Employer's Adviser Newsletter. Click on the issue you want to read. Read more about their services here. July 4, 2010 
For this teabreak, I'm finally posting my favorite dance routine on last week's "So You Think You Can Dance" ... Alex and Twitch. I had two other favorite dances last week too ... Ashley and Ade ... Adechike and Lauren. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxpHyT0hf0I
June 14, 2010 Carbon Tax Increases The BC carbon fuel tax is set to rise July 1. It annoys me that they raise the rates at the beginning of the vacation season instead of waiting for the fall ... For anyone interested, you can find a schedule of all carbon tax increases by fuel type on the BC government website www.sbr.gov.bc.ca at http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/documents_library/shared_documents/ It is a pdf document so you can save it to your desktop for future reference. May 25, 2010
On the lighter side, I hope Erin and Maks win Dancing With The Stars this season. Their freestyle was my favourite dance of the night. ... and as this is a tea break, Maks recommends Dr. Tea as a herbal medicinal drink that is an all round remedy for everything. You can find out more about it in the book "The Ultimate Tea Diet". I'm marking this down for my next book purchase. You can watch Erin and Maks here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeiSmovrP6E April 6, 2010 How to Protect Yourself Online Canwest News Service published an article by freelance journalist Steve Makris that provides a few tips on how to protect yourself online. He suggests: September 27, 2009 Coming Inflation ... Do You Need to Protect Yourself? Patrick McKeough writes daily tips for Canadian investors. In his September 22 tip, he talks about the coming inflation. He says, "Governments have dramatically increased spending in order to pull their economies out of recession. Moreover, central banks have cut interest rates to record lows. These moves will likely help solve the financial crisis. But the cost will be much higher inflation, possibly starting in the next decade. This will have an impact on all stock sectors. Higher inflation would come as a result of the large increase in the amount of money in the global financial system. Inflation can be defined as a persistent rise in consumer prices, or a persistent drop in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in currency and credit that is out of proportion with the amount of available goods and services. In other words, if at some point more money is chasing the same amount of goods and services, it will push up the prices of those goods and services." He gives advice on how to protect your investments. You can find the whole article at TSI Network Daily. The Advice Hotline for September 23, 2009, a free newsletter published by MPL Communications, feels there are five factors working against inflation even though governments are running large deficits, have falling tax revenues and placed more money into our economy through infrastructure spending.
While this post does not pertain directly to being a bookkeeper or bookkeeping, it's a reminder not to forget about managing your personal assets while you are running your business.
July 19, 2009 Commonly Used Passwords This is not new news. In PC Magazine's May 8, 2007 issue, they posted the 10 most commonly used passwords. password A strong password should contain and combine a minimum of 8 characters that include small and UPPERcase letters, numbers, and special characters. It should not contain words found in the dictionary or be based on personal information. Always keep sensitive passwords for online banking unique and private. Consider using different passwords for the different sites you visit to keep them secure. Not changing your passwords for various sites increases your risk of a hacker obtaining access to your information and accounts. I read one blog (can't find where though) that says a good way to create a strong password is to take a word you know and insert numbers/special characters that you have designated to represent SOME letters. Combine this with a numerical sequence that you know but when you type it in, hold the alt key down. For example: bookkeeper2009 would be b()()KkeEpEr™ººª. In another blog there was a suggestion that instead of creating a strong password, create something long and memorable ... such as "This summer the weather is COLDER than normal in Canada." Another suggestion I came across a while back was to create a phrase and use the first letter of each word as your password ... so if we used "This summer the weather is COLDER than normal in Canada.", the password would be TSTWictnic. Whatever you pick, I hope it isn't one of the ones listed above! As a bookkeeper, you are responsible for ensuring financial information remains confidential. This is especially important when you work from home. One way to protect the information, is to password protect your computer and data files so that family members, friends, or visitors cannot inadvertently obtain access to it. Consideration should be given to using an encrypted e-mail service such as e-Courier for confidential emails. Using such a service meets PIPEDA standards. Inspiration Trust that still, small voice that says, "This might work and I'll try it." DIANE MARIECHILD I found this quote on page 133 of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Something about it makes me exhale ... and I didn't even know I was holding my breath! More Inspiration "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars." Les Brown April 2009 Self-Employed Parents - Here's a tip Do you have kids attending post secondary school? My recommendation for students needing to prepare their tax returns - Online QuickTax Student Edition. It leads you through an interview and is free if your income is $20,000 or less. It's good for your kids to learn how they are being taxed and how to reduce the tax they are paying while their return is still simple. Maybe they will be future bookkeepers! Canadian Business Magazine and KPMG have a 4-part series on Sustaining Value in a Changing Economy. Part 1 Staying ahead of the storm It is available in podcasts or downloading at canadianbusiness.com/kpmg "Endurance is like tax, [he said]. "You're silly to pay more than you have to, but you can't always escape it." from the fictional novel Risk by Dick Francis The Bookkeeper's Reference to CRA NewsLooking for 2009 and 2010 Canadian Mileage Rates from CRA? Here are your options:
September 3, 2010 Retiring Allowances ... T4A Slip Redesign Deloitte's Weekly Tax Highlights newsletter mentions that retiring allowances will be required to be reported on an employee's T4 slip. The current practice is to report retiring allowances on a T4A slip. This change is to be effective January 1, 2011 for the 2010 tax year. The retiring allowance will be reported in the "other information" area and the codes to use will be: Code 66, Eligible retiring allowances; Retiring allowances are not considered to be pensionable or insurable earnings and are NOT to be included in Box 14. You will still report amounts pertaining to 2009 and earlier on T4A slips. With this change, there will also be a redesign of the T4A slip ... and it will be available for use in early 2011 for the 2010 tax year. Until the redesign is complete, continue to use the current T4A slip. For more information go to Businesses> Payroll> Completing returns> T4A redesign on the CRA website at cra-arc.gc.ca . July 15, 2010 TFSA Contribution Room If you have a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), be sure you understand your contribution room. TFSAs allow Canadian residents to contribute $5,000 annually (plus indexation) where the investment income or capital gains earned are not subject to income tax ... if you stay away from prohibited investments or excess contributions. Investment income or capital gains earned in the TFSA do not affect your contribution room. 2009 was the first year for this type of tax savings vehicle ... and there was some misunderstanding by some taxpayers of the rules pertaining to unused contribution room. The general rule for TFSA withdrawals is you can withdraw any amount at any time with no tax consequences ... which then creates contribution room. However ... withdrawals made during the year may NOT be added back (deposited to the account) until the following year. The annual contribution room of $5,000 is created by filing a tax return, for those age 18 or older. There is no maximum age limit for TFSAs. Read more about TFSA proposed revisions and excess contributions here. July 21, 2010 Addendum ... TFSA Non-Arm's Length Loans The Knowledge Bureau free weekly newsletter reminds us that a non-arm's length loan made to allow another person to make TFSA contribution is not allowed. The rules deem it to NOT be a TFSA. The newsletter also pointed out that any interest paid on borrowed money for a TFSA contribution (or RRSP contribution), is NOT deductible. June 14, 2010 2010 Payroll Tax Tables for Canada CRA website (www.cra-arc.gc.ca/payroll) has the online 2010 Payroll Deductions Online Calculator available which contain changes for Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia. The rates are effective July 1, 2010. The manual payroll deduction tables (T4032) and the supplementary tables (T4008), effective July 1, 2010 ... and January 1, 2010 for all other provinces and territories are also available. December 18, 2009 2010 TD1 Forms Available 2010 T1 Personal Tax Credits Return Form are now available on the CRA website. The form must be completed by employees and returned to you. You should retain the completed forms on file. You do not send a copy to CRA. A new form is not required every year ... only if there is a change to the employee's personal tax credit amounts. You can find the forms for all provinces and territories on the CRA website at Businesses>Payroll>Calculating deductions>Form TD1, Personal Tax Credits Return . December 18, 2009 Electronic ROE Improvements Two changes were made to the EI regulations back in March, 2009 that affect users who file ROEs (record of employment) electronically using ROE Web. The changes do NOT apply to employers still filing paper ROEs.
You can find the Service Canada announcement at www.servicecanada.gc.ca under publications and reports>records of employment>Changes to Regulations Concerning Electronic ROEs or Pamphlet - Changes to Regulation 19. December 14, 2009 (Revised December 18, 2009) 2010 Payroll Tax Tables for Canada CRA website (www.cra-arc.gc.ca/payroll) now has the online 2010 Payroll Deductions Online Calculator available. The rates are effective January 1, 2010. The manual payroll deduction tables (T4032) and the supplementary tables (T4008), effective January 1, 2010 are also available. The 2010 CPP and EI rates were released in November. I've listed the information on "The Rates" pages. I know this not CRA news but while we are on the topic of 2010 payroll tax tables ... QuickBooks® payroll tax tables for 2010 will be released about mid week this week as well. If you are using the 2010 version, they will also be releasing R2 at this time. CRA has released the 2010 indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amounts in a fact sheet. The chart reflects an indexation increase of 0.6% for 2010 and compares the indexed amounts to the 2009 tax year. December 2, 2009 Proposed Revisions to TFSAs On October 16, 2009 the Minister of Finance proposed technical changes to TFSAs due to recent tax planning schemes involving TFSAs. It is proposed that these changes be effective October 17, 2009.
You can find the announcement and more in depth information on the Department of Finance Canada website - www.fin.gc.ca. Look under news dated 2009-10-16. Read more about TFSA contribution room and non-arm's length loans here. July 21, 2010 Addendum ... TFSA Return The Knowledge Bureau free weekly newsletter listed the forms and return that needs to be filed if you owe tax on a TFSA. RC243 Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) Return 2009 RC243-SCH-A Schedule A - Excess TFSA Amounts RC243-SCH-B Schedule B - Non-Resident Contributions to a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) CRA has extended the deadline date from June 30, 2010 to August 3, 2010. November 21, 2009 Payroll Deductions Formulas for Computer Programs 91st Edition T4127-JAN Draft payroll deduction formulas for computer programs effective January 1, 2010 have been released by CRA. The payroll tables have not been released yet. The publication includes 2010 federal tax rates, income thresholds, and personal amounts in addition to CPP and EI amounts. T4127-JUL Payroll Deductions Formulas for Computer Programs - 90th Edition effective July 1, 2009 is also available on the CRA website. Payroll tables effective April 1, 2009 revised for January 27, 2009 Federal Budget can be found on The Rates page. August 1, 2009 Income Earned Online is Taxable CRA sent a reminder out on July 30, 2009 that Canadian electronic income is treated the same way as traditional commerce income. Both are taxable. You still have time to amend 2008 personal tax returns, if this income was omitted. If a CRA audit uncovers the unreported income, penalties will occur along with the possibility of prosecution. eBay sellers were used as an example. CRA has a list of all eBay sellers due to a recent Federal Court of Canada decision. Beginning late this summer, this information will be used to determine if they properly reported their income on their personal tax returns. Under the Voluntary Disclosures Program, penalties and prosecution will not be applied it the taxpayer takes the initiative to correct returns already filed. eBay sellers can learn about what business deductions they are eligible for in "The Tax" section. Read more here on unreported income and which tax form to use to file your amendment with CRA. You may also be interested in reading information about GST/HST and Electronic Commerce. July 23, 2009 Mandatory E-filing Starts in 2010 CRA announced today, that beginning in January 2010, mandatory e-filing is required for anyone who submits more than 50 information returns. An information return are returns like T3 slips, T4 slips and T5 slips. You can find more information on the CRA website Mandatory Electronic Filing of Information Returns. If you have less than 50 information returns, you can still file electronically. It is quick and easy to do ... and you get instant confirmation for your records that the returns have been received. I found it a lot more convenient and efficient than paper filing the returns. July 2009 Computers CCA Class 52 - 100% Tax Deductible Computer The Tax Detective newsletter reminds us that any business computer purchased from January 28, 2009 to January 31, 2011, is eligible for a temporary 100% capital cost allowance (CCA) in Class 52. This applies to computer hardware and system software but NOT operating software. The half year rule will not apply. This tax relief was part of the 2009 Economic Action Plan to stimulate business investment. If you are interested, there was an update on Canada's Economic Action Plan, released June 16, 2009. May 26, 2009 The Bookkeeper's Reference Bookkeepers and small business owners may be interested to know that changes announced earlier this week will likely push out any plans you had for early retirement ... but will give more flexibility to baby boomers whose retirement savings took a dive over the past months. The proposed changes that will start as of 2012 have been summarized very nicely by the Canadian Capitalist. Here they are in less elegant prose:
You can find the Department of Finance Canada Information Paper "Proposed Changes to the Canada Pension Plan" on their website fin.gc.ca. October 1, 2009 addendum Taxtips.ca October newsletter made a good point I missed. The proposed changes will not affect people already receiving CPP or if they start to collect it before 2012. Bookkeeper Alerts - Let Your Friends Know About ThisApril 24, 2010AVG and QuickBooks® 2010 Problem I subscribe to CGA Eileen Reppenhagen's free newsletter. She had a problem with QuickBooks® 2010 yesterday after she updated AVG anti-virus software. Once the AVG update was complete, it wouldn't open QuickBooks® saying a Trojan had been detected. You can find out how she solved the problem at her blog http://taxdetective.blogspot.com/ . Before you follow Eileen's instructions, make sure you read Intuit Support's notice titled AVG has detected a Trojan called Trojan horse Generic.17.BGBU ... at http://support.intuit.ca/quickbooks/en-ca/kb/errors/error-messages/4592.html . Update - Intuit posted solution on April 26, 2010. Just cut and paste the above link to see it. I also went into the AVG forum. Apparently QuickBooks® 2009 users are having the same problem ... you know what this means don't you? It's time to take a day off ... The work will still be there when you come back. I'm going to go do some spring cleaning with my new Norwex cleaning cloth. It's amazing! :0) April 23, 2010 Intuit Small Business Phishing Emails I subscribe to CPA Bonnie Nagayama's free newsletter. She says there are some phishing emails circulating relating to security suggestions. The subject line refers to Intuit Update. As always, do NOT click on the link(s) ... instead forward the email to spoof[at]intuit.com ... then delete it. Intuit never emails "updates" or "update attachments" of any kind through emails. Any action / follow through requires you to be signed into your account or signed into your software program to effect the changes. You can learn more information and see an example of the fraudulent email at http://security.intuit.com/alert.php?a=14. October 29, 2009 Intuit QuickBooks® Security Issue Intuit announced an advisory warning for 2007- 2009 versions of QuickBooks® that could allow hackers to access a user's computer through 2 activex files. Their latest updates fix the problem. Anyone who has already switched to version 2010 are fine. To make sure you have the fix, all QuickBooks® users should make sure they have the latest release. If you have automated update turned on, you should be fine. If you don't, you can do a manual update. To see what version you have, just press your F2 key while in the program. The latest versions that have the fix are: Canada
United States
UK and Australia
Intuit no longer supports 2006 and prior product years so no fix is available for these years. You can find out more details at Intuit QuickBooks Support. May 2009 The Bookkeeper's Alert Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA sent out an alert that there are currently businesses that are actively contacting people to encourage them to adjust up to 10 years of their tax returns for the disability tax credit. The fee they charge for this is a very large percentage of the refund you receive back from the CRA ... and they generally don't review your returns for possible risks, errors or omissions. There are a few problems with this. One - The fee percentage is too large. A reputable accountant will do it for less. They will probably look for other error and omissions on these 10 years so you understand the full implication of filing the adjustment. Two- Adjusting a past tax return opens it up to the possibility of being audited again for the next three years of ALL the parties involved. Normally after three years, CRA is statute barred from auditing those returns unless fraud is suspected. Three - Worst part of all ... if they close up shop after they have been paid and CRA audits you and doesn't agree with the requested changes ... they will want some money back. Problem is ... you don't have it to give back because the business took their cut. Think twice before you give these businesses Level 2 access (on form T1013 Authorizing or Cancelling a Representative) to your CRA account. Best bet, say thanks but no thanks or get a second opinion from another professional like a bookkeeper, accountant or professional tax preparer. Shhhhh ... DIY bookkeepers ... Intuit Canada is giving away free software to Canadian small businesses ... read more Psssst ... small business bookkeepers ... Intuit Community is offering free webinars as a thank you to its customers ... with access to past webinars as well. Sign up.
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