Koroll & Company Blog

The end of the month is fast approaching, which means that your information returns are coming due.

If you are the proactive type, you have likely already filed you returns and mailed the documentation to the recipient, which means you are free and clear.

However, for those of you who have not filed your information returns, you want to be sure to by February 28th, 2017, otherwise, you could be in for some hefty fines. 

If an employee has insurable employment, Employment Insurance premiums are deducted from their insurable earnings.

The Employment Insurance premium rate for 2017 is 1.63%. This percentage is taken from each paycheque.

Ontario corporations are expected to maintain specific records and books under the Ontario Business Corporations Act (OBCA). This includes articles and by-laws, shareholder agreements, meeting minutes and registers of directors and corporate securities. Excluded from these records, is a registry of real property ownerships held by the corporations.

While this record is often maintained informally by Ontario corporations, new laws are now making it mandatory.  

At the end of last year, new land registration requirements were set forth for Ontario corporations, under the OBCA.

The budgetary cycle of the federal government follows a regular schedule. The Budget for the upcoming fiscal year (which runs from April to March) is brought down by the Minister of Finance in late winter or early spring.

About six months later, or half way through the fiscal year, the revenue, expenditure, and deficit/surplus numbers, announced and projected in the budget (for both the current and future fiscal years), are updated by the Minister in the Fall Fiscal and Economic Update. On occasion, the federal government will use the Fiscal and Economic Update to announce new taxation and expenditure measures.

The incorporation process is relatively simple whether you incorporate provincially or federally.

As a sole proprietor, you may be looking back at last year’s results and ahead to the time you have to pay your taxes, and wondering whether you might not be better off incorporating to control the income tax expense on earned income. In Canada, a company may be incorporated provincially or federally. Federal incorporation has some advantages:

Generally speaking, and absent extraordinary circumstances, the federal government issues two major economic and fiscal documents each year. The first is the federal Budget, which is usually delivered in the late winter or early spring, and outlines the government’s plans and projections with respect to federal government revenues and expenditures for the upcoming (April 1 to March 31) fiscal year, along with any new tax measures which the government intends to implement. About halfway through the fiscal year, usually during month of October, the federal government releases its Economic and Fiscal Update. As the name implies, this release updates the information announced in the federal Budget, especially with respect to revenue and expense projections, the overall state of the Canadian economy, and whether a change is required to the surplus or deficit projection provided in the Budget for the current fiscal year.

The time of year is approaching when many Canadian employees look forward to something “extra” from their employer such as a Christmas or Hanukkah gift, a year-end bonus, or an invitation to the annual employer-sponsored holiday party. While it doesn’t necessarily fit well with the holiday spirit, it’s a fact that many such gifts (even, sometimes, attendance at the annual employee holiday party) may have tax consequences, sometimes in unexpected ways.