On your to-do list for 2019
Have you taken advantage of the Home Buyer’s Plan in the past 15 years?
If you’ve used the Home Buyer’s Plan in the past – (borrowing from your RRSPs to buy a house), make sure you’ve made the appropriate RRSP contribution before March 2, 2020. If you don’t, the amount of the payment you should have made gets added to your income and you’ll be taxed on it, anywhere from 25% to 45%.
You should also know that even if you have a great year and make a double payment, the government won’t parse that out over two years, it will simply lower the total amount you owe, reducing future payments. You may think of it as a lump sum but they do not.
You don’t have to do anything special for this repayment. Simply contribute to an RRSP with any company or your local bank can open an RRSP savings account for you and you can make a deposit.
Receipts
We have good news for people who don’t want to keep files full of receipts: The CRA doesn’t require you to keep the original, but you do have to have a digital copy and be able to reproduce the scans upon request.
One of the ways we help is that we’ll often ask for copies of receipts for expenses that the CRA commonly asks about. Medical expenses are one example. It serves two functions – we make sure the receipts are easily available and we also confirm that the receipts you’re claiming are a legitimate expense.
Another way we can help is that you can upload these documents to your portal – whether it’s a tax receipt for a Movember donation or a receipt for medical expenses, we’ll hold onto it and add it to your file when we do your taxes.
if you have any questions about your 2019 taxes, now is the time to be asking because:
- A: We’re not as busy as we’ll be during tax season
- B: Many questions tend to apply to the calendar year and if we can help with something for 2019, we can better set you up for 2020.
If you’ve got questions, we’re available year-round, reach out and ask.