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Should I Take Salary Or Dividends?
If you operate your own business through a corporation in BC, you are probably already doing tax planning each year to minimize the tax you pay. Let’s see what is the best thing to do in British Columbia right now. Even though no changes were included in the 2023 Federal… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Have You Been Mistreated By The Canada Revenue Agency?
Have you been treated badly by the CRA? Have CRA employees been rude to you? Have CRA employees treated you unfairly? Have they bullied you? I am getting more and more clients coming to me with their “horror stories” about mistreatment at the hands of the CRA. It seems to… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
The Problem with Penalties
The Canada Revenue Agency seems more and more willing to impose penalties for all sorts of perceived transgressions. We've talked about penalties in a previous blog post ( https://www.taxdisputehelp.ca/2011/10/fighting-the-imposition-of-gross-negligence-penalties ). One that seems to be a trap for the unwary and can be very unfair is the penalty for… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Income Splitting Strategies with Family Trusts
There are many types of income splitting strategies which are used in Canada. All of them are based on the fact that in Canada each person is taxed separately. As a result, you create anomalies where the total tax paid by a family is higher or lower depending on how… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Are Adjusting Journal Entries Legally Binding?
If you are not familiar with accounting, adjusting entries are commonly made by accountants and bookkeepers to fix entries that were previously made with were incorrect or which adjusted the wrong accounts. For example, a payment by a business of a Visa bill might have included an airline and hotel… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Big Problems with Shareholder Benefits
Many small and medium sized businesses are incorporated. And most of those incorporated businesses are owned by one person, one family or a small group of owners. We call these closely-held private companies. When the Canada Revenue Agency audits a closely-held private company, they pay particular attention to transactions involving… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Is Your Trust Valid?
Trusts have become very popular over the last 20 years. Many families have established trusts to take advantage of income splitting or multiplying the $750,000 lifetime capital gains deduction so that each member of the family can take advantage of it. Living trusts, alter ego trusts and joint spousal or… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Tax Problems with Salaries for Spouses and Children
Businesses are only required to pay income tax on their net income, which allows businesses to deduct expenses including wages, salaries and benefits. Family-owned and operated businesses will often pay salaries to family members for services provided to the business. In some cases, the business owner will use salaries as… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »
Fixing a Mistake
One of the main jobs of the Canada Revenue Agency (Revenue Canada) is to ensure that the proper amount of tax is assessed on transactions such as a sale of property or a sale of shares. But what happens if Revenue Canada misinterprets the transaction and thinks that you have done… more »
About Thomas Fellhauer
Tom’s practice includes a wide range of tax law matters including tax planning, company law, corporate reorganizations, trusts, estate planning and succession planning for family businesses for clients. more »