Text Box: Text Box: Cindy Derzai is joining our practice on a fulltime permanent basis. She will be heavily involved as our income tax services manager this Spring and will also be assisting in the training of our other fulltime staff to take over that job in the future as she focuses more and more of her time on our ongoing bookkeeping and management practice. Her extension is 222 and her email is Cindy@ADAMSandAssociates.ca I am continuing to expand my practice. If you have been satisfied with my services in the past, please feel free to recommend me to your friends or associates. If you have not been satisfied, please let me know how I can improve my services to you. Once again I will be E-FILEing your return unless you specifically tell me not to. The Canada Revenue Agency requires that I obtain a signature from you, after your return has been completed, to authorize me to E-FILE for you. Please remember to get to the office and return the signed E-FILE forms ASAP as I cannot E-FILE for you until I receive those signed documents. This is especially true of returns completed in the last week of April. It is your responsibility to get to my office to sign your documents. They will NOT be filed without your signatures. FAXED authorization forms will allow me to efile your return but they are no longer acceptable to CRA. If you fax your forms to speed up my processing please remember I MUST have the original signed documents delivered or mailed ASAP. Parents are only allowed to sign for children under 16 years of age. Please bring in your tax papers as soon as possible. I would like to get things completed and filed or E-FILED for you as early in 2008 as possible. Please remember that I cannot guaranty that your return will be filed by April 30th if I have not received all documentation before April 21st. All returns received after April 21st will be put into a separate box and will be prepared on a first in, first out basis after all returns received in a timely manner are completed. WHAT'S NEW FOR 2008 - 2010*** The Home Renovation Tax Credit To be eligible, expenditures incurred in relation to a renovation or alteration to an eligible dwelling (or the land that forms part of the eligible dwelling) must be of an enduring nature and integral to the dwelling. The expenditures must have been incurred after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2010, according to an agreement entered into after January 27, 2009. The expenses are eligible when they are incurred in relation to renovations or alterations to an eligible dwelling (or the land that forms part of the eligible dwelling) and are permanent in nature. As a general rule, if the item you purchase will not become a permanent part of your home or property, it is not eligible. There are items, however, that have been explicitly excluded (see below). Due to the large number of expenses that can qualify, it is not possible to provide a complete list. If you own a condominium as your residence please make your board aware of the FACT that the certain Common Area Charges qualify for the HRTC and is available to be shared on a pro-rata basic among the owners. I have included an Envelope and a CRA form for your convenience. Please save your receipts in the envelope and fill out what you can on the form. There is also a new non-refundable tax credit for first-time home buyers. Please remember in order to qualify as a first-time home buyer neither the individual nor the individual’s spouse or common-law partner may have owned and lived in another home in the calendar year or the four preceding calendar years.  The qualifying home must also have been purchased after January 27, 2009. Selling on E-Bay Please be advised that as a result of a Federal Court of Canada decision, eBay Canada has provided CRA with the names of Canadian eBay sellers as well as their contact information and sales records. CRA can use this to determine if the eBay sellers properly reported their income. If you currently sell on E-Bay you need to start declaring it regardless of the amount or be prepared to face possible problems with non-declared income. PROPOSED CHANGES Currently individuals wishing to claim CPP benefits early must either stop working, or have reduced earnings, for two months. The proposed changes in 2012 will allow individuals to take their CPP benefits without any of these current work interruptions. CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY INTER FAMILY MEMBER TRANSFERS CRA appears to be moving to allowing joint filing of family member returns. This is shown by the appearance of more and more credits that are claimable by parents, children, grand-parents, caregivers and so on. Most of these credits can be claimed by either spouse, parent or child but can only be claimed to a maximum amount between all family members. Just a few of these optional credits or transfers or deductions are: Pension Splitting Medical expenses between family members Medical expenses, in some circumstances, for parents or other supported individuals Tuition Fees transferred from children or spouses Fitness Credits Amounts for Children Child Care Expenses and Public Transit Passes, just to name a few. I have filed a number of your returns since the early 80s and some of you since the early 70s. The above changes make it necessary for me to start requiring that we file the returns for all family members if there are any transferable credits. We have been forced to spend a tremendous amount of time repairing returns for clients when we have filed for credits based on returns done incorrectly by other tax preparers or family members. I know I have always said I am not looking for work but not requiring that I file all the returns is actually causing me more work than it would if I took on all of the necessary jobs and filed them from here. We cannot do a good job unless we prepare 100% of the information. We cannot guaranty that returns filed by spouses, children or other tax preparers are correct or complete. Taking these two statements into account, we will no longer perform any services when we aren't doing 100% of the filings unless we have a signed letter on file from you stating you understand that any CRA changes brought about by this will be at your expense If this confuses you, please give me a call and I will be happy to spend the time necessary to explain. Every Year I keep pounding away at the following and every year I have clients who have need for a will and didn't get around to getting it updated or done. Read the following PLEASE. DO YOU HAVE A WILL? Does your will still reflect your current wishes, family circumstances, financial situation and so on? Yes, you can do it yourself, but, I know I wouldn't even attempt completing such an important document myself. The knowledge that the future of my family has been properly and legally looked after with a will, living will, power of attorney and estate review (at least bi-annually) is more important to me than a few hundred dollars. Is it to you? If you have a lawyer you use and trust, please get to them ASAP and see to it that your affairs are in order. I have had numerous clients pass away without wills or with really old out-of-date wills and the grief and cost of repairing that damage was unbelievable. DO YOU HAVE A LIVING WILL? Every adult human being should have a "Living Will" combo. Also known as "A Power of Attorney for Personal Care" and "A Power of Attorney for Property". These legal documents help you and your family deal with the problems dealt to you when you or a loved one is incapacitated through accident, injury or advancing years. The Personal Care POA allows you to appoint someone to make health care choices on your behalf if you are unable to and The Property POA allows someone to pay your bills and collect your assets and funds to be able to afford your care while you are not able to do so yourself. If you do not currently have a lawyer you are dealing with, Rich and Andrew Wilson or Michelle Perry of Wilson Law Partners LLP in Manotick 613-692-3547 have been my business and personal lawyers forever and I'm sure they would be happy to assist you with your personal and business legal requirements. I am expanding my services to include estate management and executor services. If you feel you have the need for an impartial, local executor or just want to sit down and discuss the plans for your estate I would be happy to help. We are continuing our pickup service this tax season. For any of our clients who are shut ins or who are finding it more and more difficult to get to Kars during the winter we will arrange to drop by your home and pick up your tax information and we will also deliver the documents back to you when they are completed. If you are interested in this service, please give me a call and book early. We are planning to do pickup and delivery on Friday afternoons starting on February 8, 2008. There may be a small charge. Once again this year I would like all of you to take a moment to ensure that everyone over 65 years of age is receiving everything they are entitled to from our beloved government. I am more than happy to sit with any senior client or their children to go over the details and application process to help them ensure they are getting all they are entitled to. Canada Pension retirement pensions can be combined and split. This should be done if one spouse is over 65 and the other is at least 60 and the spouses' incomes are different by $5,000 or more. This is legal, government sponsored income splitting and can save you up to 30% of the income we can transfer to the lower income spouse. The family will not be out one penny for as long as you both live and when either of you pass away, the payment plan the surviving spouse receives will be exactly the same as if you had not done the CPP splitting in the first place. A number of clients have visited my office this year to discuss estate planning. The most often asked question is: "How do we keep from paying too much income tax on the family cottage". There are a number of options available to reduce income tax if the plans are made early and are followed up on. The best way to keep your money safe from the taxman is to plan early and often. The only great plan is a current plan. WE ARE NOT INVESTMENT ADVISORS As always, I remind you that I am not an investment advisor and I choose never to be. I prefer to stay independent of the investment houses and feel that no accountant should profit directly by "selling" an investment to a client. Investment advisors should advise on investments and accountants should help you find out how much you made or lost. Everyone has their own purpose and unfortunately, the "Jack of all trades", especially in financial matters, should be a treated as a myth. Please talk to your investment advisor about which investments are best for you. If you have no investment advisor, my investment guy, Ralph Neumann, at 613-736-0782, will be happy to assist you. Please remember that if you have mutual funds or any investment that could be considered "in trust" you probably won't receive your information slips (T3) until the beginning of April 2010 Thank you for taking the time to read this, see you in the spring Norman Adams & Amanda Chartrand ADAMS and Associates Ltd We accept Cheques, Cash, VISA, INTERAC, or MASTERCARD for payment of your account

Our office, at 6733 Rideau Valley Drive South in Kars, is open from 7:00 AM through 4:00 PM Monday through Friday starting April 7th. For the rest of the year we close at NOON on Fridays. We do not take evening or weekend appointments but almost anytime after 5:00 AM is fine in order to help you get to us without losing time at your work. I still live in the log house at 1586 Old Wellington Street in Kars and would appreciate it if you would continue delivering all after hours drop off items to the Teal Blue Mailbox outside my kitchen door.

 

We have a toll free number that doubles as our fax line. The  number to note if you are long distance is 1-888-877-2505.

 

Amanda Chartrand is continuing the long and arduous task of obtaining her CGA degree.  She did very well with her 6th year studies and is now finishing her Honours Degree. Amanda is always accessible at extension 225 or by sending her an email at Amanda@ADAMSandAssociates.ca

 

Natasha Chambers is our office manager and the person in charge of our rapidly expanding contingent of monthly accounting and bookkeeping clients.  She is easily accessible at extension 223 or by sending her an email at Natasha@ADAMSandAssociates.ca

 

Stephanie Dewan has been with our firm for over a year now.  Her skills have advanced rapidly and we feel she is now capable of taking on more responsibility in both our management business and our tax services business.  She will be in control of booking review times and appointments for you if they are needed.  Stephanie is continuing to upgrade her business and clerical skills at Algonquin College and is learning fast. She is accessible at extension 221 or by sending her an email at Stephanie@ADAMSandAssociates.ca