Dollars and Sense

What do you want to happen to your Gmail or Apple account when you die? You aren’t alone if that question hasn’t crossed your mind.

How would you like to play a game where there are two sets of rules? And where you’re never really sure which set is going to apply to you?

Doesn’t sound like my idea of either fun or good sportsmanship. However, that’s what Canadian taxpayers go through every year, whether they know it or not.

Every tax return filed each year is also subject to an alternate calculation, with a different set of rules. This is known as the Alternative Minimum Tax or AMT calculation.

The AMT takes a variety of completely legal and policy-endorsed deductions — like the capital gains exemption on the sale of a qualifying private business, which was recently increased in the 2024 budget — and then reduces their effectiveness to see if the taxpayer can be charged more under the alternate calculation.

The calendar reminds me it is time to remind Canadian snowbirds there is a June 15 deadline for a United States IRS tax filing.

OK, spring is officially here (at least on the calendar), so it’s time to get serious about income tax preparation. Pay attention, as new rules may affect you in ways you never imagined.

Please consult your tax professional if any of these items might apply to you.

Complying with these changes — though foreshadowed for more than two years — will be challenging. CRA has acknowledged that fact, saying last week that they will not impose the new onerous penalties on innocent taxpayers (while reminding us that they could), unless a taxpayer’s inability to understand these Byzantine new requirements is considered “egregious.”

Don’t stop reading simply because you aren’t a trustee or beneficiary of a formal trust. Starting with the filings for 2023 — due April 2! — you may very well be one of those taxpayers who now must file a T3 return, to your complete surprise.

If you’ve spent any time on any social media platforms over the last few weeks, you have probably been inundated with advertisements for “Quantum AI” or similar stock trading platforms, promising risk-free high returns.

Many of these are introduced by a supposed video of Elon Musk himself claiming to have spent $1 billion of his own money developing this perfect artificial intelligence stock trading algorithm. My investigations showed that any connection to Musk and his companies is bunk.

Be very wary before even investigating such a platform. I found out the pitfalls myself when looking into this on behalf of some clients, and I am getting 10-15 phone calls a day now trying to get me to finish my registration, from dozens of different area codes. (And if I call back, the numbers are not in service…)

The pitch goes like this:

If you’re feeling stressed about money these days, you are not alone. Money is the No. 1 source of stress for Canadians, according to the sixth annual Financial Stress Index (FSI) survey.

What is the FSI?

The FSI is a survey conducted each year by Leger, the largest Canadian-owned market research and analytics company, on behalf of FP Canada, the group that licenses the CFPR financial planning designation. The goals are to uncover how money and financial matters impact Canadians’ stress levels, explore the primary factors causing that stress and identify behaviours that help reduce that anxiety.

The FSI also examines the effects those stressors are having on peoples’ lives.