In Canada, income is taxed at different rates depending on your income. For 2025 for example, the first $57,375 in income is taxed federally at 14.5%, while the next $57,475 above that is taxed at 20.5%..

When you’re close to the end of the year or the beginning of the year, we can review your income to determine an effective amount to contribute to your RRSPs and take immediate advantage on the tax savings. as you have an extra ~60 days after the end of the year to contribute to them.

Often in families, there’s one person who earns significantly more than the other, which results in a higher proportion of tax relative to the income in the family. Splitting or allocating income from the higher earning spouse to the lower one can easily save thousands.

Common techniques include: Spousal RRSPs, pension income splitting, hiring a family member for your business, incorporating and allocating investment income to the spouse through low-interest loans.

As you near retirement, having a clear financial strategy can help you maximize your income and minimize taxes. Canadians can benefit from a mix of tools such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), and strategic withdrawals to balance taxable and non-taxable income.

Coordinating Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) benefits with personal savings can extend the longevity of your funds. Pension income splitting with a spouse, timing RRSP conversions to a RRIF, and maintaining a diversified investment portfolio are also key steps to ensure a comfortable and tax-efficient retirement.

Tax-loss selling is a year-end investment strategy that allows Canadian investors to reduce their taxable capital gains. By selling investments that have declined in value, you can use the realized losses to offset gains from other investments, potentially lowering your overall tax bill. In Canada, unused capital losses can also be carried back three years or carried forward indefinitely to apply against future gains.

This approach can be an effective way to manage your portfolio’s tax impact while staying aligned with your long-term investment goals.

Bear in mind, the CRA has special rules in place that deny superficial losses through buying and selling investments too quickly. It’s best to reach out to us for professional advice before making major trades.

Claiming medical expenses is a common deduction for taxpayers. We usually know we can claim prescription and dental and the premiums we might pay to a private health insurance plan. But the scope of actual medical expenses are far more reaching than most realize.

Did you know, for example, you can claim the travel medical insurance for your trip abroad? How about your medical equipment like a CPAP machine? Even gluten-free food can count in specific circumstances.

Medical expenses also do not need to be based on strictly a calendar year; there are ways to readjust the period to make more sense over the long term.

For apprentices, the federal government has recently got rid of apprenticeship incentive grants and replaced with an interest-free loan option. However, in BC and many other provinces, there are many tax credits available on your tax return for red-seal and non-read seal trades, including the training tax credit, tradesperson tool deductions, relocation expenses, etc.

Employers, whether a sole proprietorship or a corporation are eligible for training tax credits, job creation credits, wage subsidies and co-op education credits.

Funding and investment grants also exist from a local and minority based level, so it’s great to see us to see what programs you could be eligible for. If we can’t help you directly, we will always point you in the direction of those who can.

When we look at the perspective of saving money, we normally look at structuring our finances to minimize the immediate tax we need to pay.

However in some situations, this can backfire and the type of income we have now reduces government benefits by as much as 70% of our reported income, effectively being a stealth tax, sometimes much higher than the tax rate itself.

A counterintuitive or bold strategy may need to be considered in order to receive the maximum in government benefits. This could be things such as investment allocation, timing RRSP/RRIF withdrawals, manging cashflow through a formed corporation, and so on.