The BBC and the Globe and Mail

I would like to thank Roma Luciw and Dianne Nice of The Globe & Mail for featuring me in an article and online chat respectively this past Wednesday.

I really enjoyed Roma's article on Ten tax related things that leave Canadians stumped, as there are numerous income tax provisions and tax policy decisions that really leave one shaking their heads when preparing their personal income tax return.

Do you have any head scratchers in relation to filing your personal income tax return? If so, please provide it as a comment to this post. You will feel better venting and you may provide me with a topic for a future blog post.

Dianne and I discussed Tax Tips for Investors. There were some excellent questions. The link provides a recap of the entire chat. You may want to take a quick read to see if there are any answers that are relevant to your income tax situation.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Tax Tweets of the Day for the Week Ending March 8, 2013

My Twitter tax tips for this week are listed below. My twitter handle is @bluntbeancountr. That's it for my tax tips. I am done for this year. I hope there have been one or two tips that were beneficial.

Online Chat - Globe and Mail

I will be participating in a live online chat with Dianne Nice of The Globe and Mail on Wednesday March 13th at 12:00. The topic will be Tax tips for investors. The link to join the chat is here. Please feel free to join the chat and ask a question. Dianne is taking some questions prior to the chat if you wish to send in a question beforehand. Let me know if you are a reader of The BBC.

If you join the chat, I would appreciate questions that are reasonable to answer online given the time constraints as opposed to "Mark, I have a hedged account in Singapore in U.S. dollars on which I have covered calls in German Marks and I wish to monetize the account. Will it work?

Tips for Week of March 4 - March 8, 2013

If you have a Line of Credit for investment purposes, check your December, 2012 statement for a summary of interest paid in 2012 & claim the interest expense. #blunttaxtip

Did you own foreign property with a cost of over $100,000 at any time during the year? If so, file Form T1135. #blunttaxtip

Note: Check out this post on foreign income reporting by My Own Advisor.

If u sold a US stock in 2012, use the F/X rate from the yr of purchase to determine cost; use 2012’s average or actual rate for the proceeds. #blunttaxtip

Did you sell a REIT in 2012? Reduce the ACB by the return of capital from prior years. #blunttaxtip

Last tip of the year. Don’t file late no matter what! There’s a 5% penalty + another 1% per month up to 12 months. #blunttaxtip

Note: Even if you cannot afford to pay the tax due, file your return to avoid the penalties. You can usually make arrangements with the CRA to pay off your tax liability over time if you provide reasonable terms of repayment.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.

Happy Anniversary to Me

I posted my first blog “Let’s See Where This Goes” on September 20, 2010. One year later I am still blogging away, with some people other than my family reading.

In looking back at my first year, my first break was when Seeking Alpha asked if they could publish Resverlogix: A Cautionary Tale, a blog I posted in late November 2010. Seeking Alpha published this blog in January 2011.

I was also fortunate to be recommended by such noted bloggers as Larry Macdonald, Ram Balakrishnan the Canadian Capitalist, Jim Yih of the Retire Happy blog, Michael James and Mike Holman of Money-Smarts. In addition, Jim was kind enough to provide some initial guidance and Tom Drake of the Canadian Finance Blog and Money Index provided some savvy technical advice. None of these bloggers needed to consider my blog or help me in any way, but they did and I appreciate it.

In addition, the Globe and Mail has also contributed immensely to the growth of my blog. Rob Carrick has mentioned me numerous times in The Reader and Dianne Nice and Roma Luciw have been kind enough to feature me in their columns. I would like to thank all of them for being receptive and willing to listen to some of my ideas.

Finally, I am flattered to have been asked to write guest blogs for Jim, Ram and Boomer and Echo.

Since several of my blog topics are income tax related, the blogs can sometimes be somewhat complex. I have attempted to simplify these topics and explain in non-technical terms where possible, and I hope I have made some of these more complex topics understandable to my readers.

I also strive to write original pieces where possible. Although very few topics are original to financial bloggers, I always write my blogs first, and then check to see what was written previously. In this way I at least sprinkle my blogs with some originality. I have received a few emails complementing me on the original nature of many of my blogs, which reinforces my desire to continue using my current technique. In addition, the Confessions of a Tax Accountant blogs that I posted during income tax season received some kudos for the originality of the concept.

I marvel at some of the aforementioned bloggers who blog three, four and five times a week. I don’t know where they find the time, let alone the constant flow of ideas to write so many blogs. I have settled on generally posting two blogs a week. I do however, have some concern that the income tax blogs have a finite topic list. I also wonder how long I can continue to come up with something useful to say on money, the psychology of money, families and estates and business, all of which I find more enjoyable to write about than income tax.

So as my first year of blogging comes to an end, I would like to once again thank all the people I have noted above, my marketing manager Lisa, who reviews all my blogs and most importantly, my regular readers.

The blogs posted on The Blunt Bean Counter provide information of a general nature. These posts should not be considered specific advice; as each reader's personal financial situation is unique and fact specific. Please contact a professional advisor prior to implementing or acting upon any of the information contained in one of the blogs.