My name is Mark Goodfield. Welcome to The Blunt Bean Counter ™, a blog that shares my thoughts on income taxes, finance and the psychology of money. I am a Chartered Professional Accountant. This blog is meant for everyone, but in particular for high net worth individuals and owners of private corporations. My posts are blunt, opinionated and even have a twist of humour/sarcasm. You've been warned. Please note the blog posts are time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

Monday, January 4, 2016

The T1135 Form – Yet Again! & Hiring The Blunt Bean Counter

This will be the fifth time I am writing about the T1135 Foreign Income Verification Statement since September, 2013. Today I am discussing the implementation of the April, 2015 Federal budget proposal in which the Conservatives promised to simplify the reporting requirements where your cost of foreign property is less than $250,000.

This proposal has now been implemented and a new T1135 has been released. Here is a link to the new form.

Qualifying for the Simplified Method


The basic requirement to file a T1135 form is still in place. That being, if you own specified foreign property with a cost of more than $100,000 at any time in the year, you must file the form. However, now where you own specified foreign property with an adjusted cost base of more than $100,000 and less than $250,000 throughout the year, you can file using the simplified method (or you can still use the detailed reporting method if you wish, but why you would is beyond me). Note, if your cost exceeds $250k at any time during the year, you cannot use the simplified method.

The simplified method is reported on Part A of the form. While this method is less onerous than the detailed reporting requirement, you will now be required to report the top three countries based on cost during the year under the simplified method. This determination will require some work if your broker does not provide such, or you are a do-it-yourself investor. 

Filing Online and Reassessments


It should be noted you can now file the T1135 online for 2014 and subsequent years. The CRA has also re-iterated that the period for reassessing your return is extended by three years if you have failed to report income from a specified foreign property on your return and Form T1135 was not filed, was not filed on time, or was filed inaccurately.

While the simplified reporting method is better than nothing, I would suggest that most accountants and taxpayers still don’t understand why the T1135 form is required at all, where all you are only reporting is foreign holdings held with your Canadian institution(s).

Hiring The Blunt Bean Counter


I am often asked by readers if they can engage me for various income tax, accounting and wealth management services. Although I rarely if ever, self-promote on the blog, today, I am going to make an exception. Below I’ve listed the various services my national accounting firm and I can provide to you.

Corporate Income Tax Planning


To help you minimize your corporate income taxes, we provide tax planning services including but not limited to: corporate reorganizations, estate freezes, purifications for the capital gains exemption, assistance with indirect taxes such as HST, in-bound and out-bound foreign tax planning, R&D claims, transfer pricing and valuations.

Corporate Financial Statements


To ensure all your corporate compliance needs are met, we typically provide the following services to owner-managed businesses: financial statement preparation, corporate tax return preparation, corporate and personal income tax and estate planning and personal tax return preparation for the business owner.

Estate Planning and T3 Estate Tax Returns


Many people are concerned about ensuring they minimize their taxes upon death and/or leave a legacy to their family. To assist you, we provide estate planning, which typically involves determining your estate tax liability and then trying to minimize and/or manage this liability through tax planning and will planning (with your lawyer). In addition, where you have had a family member pass away or are named executor to an estate, we can assist you in filing the required estate tax filings (which are often very complicated in the year of death, especially if the assets do not pass to a surviving spouse, due to the deemed disposition rules).

Wealth Management and Financial Planning


Most people are concerned with ensuring they have enough money for retirement. I am involved with quarterbacking my client’s wealth and retirement planning, typically starting with a financial check-up and financial plan. As financial quarterback, I try to ensure your investment advisor, lawyer, insurance agent, banker, business consultant integrate their advice into one efficient, optimum, coordinated plan, taking into account your investment, retirement, income tax and successions needs.
 
If you do not have an investment advisor or are looking for a new advisor, we recommend you meet several to find a fit from both an investment perspective and also from a personal relationship perspective.

Accountants cannot provide investment advice. We do however; work closely with several highly respected investment advisors whom we can introduce you to. The advisors typically require a minimum of $1,000,000 of investable assets (yes, I am aware, this is a large issue for people who are looking for a good investment advisor, but do not meet the minimum asset requirements). 

Personal Tax Planning


To help you reduce or minimize your personal taxes, my firm has several excellent tax people who can assist you with personal tax planning and tax return preparation. Unfortunately, because income tax season has essentially become condensed into one month (since the T3, T5013 slips do not arrive until early April at best) I now only prepare personal tax returns for my corporate or wealth clients.

If you would like to engage me or my firm for any of the above noted services, or want to discuss your specific situation and obtain a quote for services, feel free to email me at bluntbeancounter@gmail.com or click the hire The Blunt Bean Counter at the top right of the page.

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation.

4 comments:

  1. I have always found Mark a wealth of tax and financial information and very helpful and courteous. I would recommend him whole-heartedly.

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  2. Does the 250,000 cost threshold mean net asset value which includes investment loans or the cost before applying any financing costs?

    ReplyDelete