Came across a great little tax-related book written by David Voth for Canadians. It’s not a long book (just over 130 pages) and doesn’t take the place of your personal tax Adviser but it’s chock full of great tax saving tips any taxpayer or entrepreneur should take advantage of if they aren’t already. Especially if you don’t like paying taxes - I mean, who does really? And the tips Mr. Voth talks about are legal and simple. Take for example the tip on the “reasonable expectation to make a profit” test.

According to Mr. Voth, Revenue Canada disallowed many investors deductions over the years by applying a test called the “reasonable-expectation-of-profit” test. Essentially, the Rev Can agent would disallow an expense against your business’s revenues (or non-revenues) if you didn’t expect to make a profit in your business. That all changed in May of 2002 when Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that Rev Can was misusing the “expectation of profit” test. They can only use the test now to distinguish when an investment is related to a hobby, personal activity or personal use. Consequently, if your venture is clearly commercial in nature, your business investment judgement is not questionable. Yay! Write off anything related to your business. How about fines, tickets, levies, penalties, etc.? You bet if they were incurred for the purpose of earning some kind of income!!! In fact, if you have the records and the guts you might even want to go back through your old company tax submissions and reclaim those deductions you were told were inadmissible. It’s your money!

Anyway, Mr. Voth has lots of great stuff in short, easy to read and understandable bits you could arm yourself with before you go to your accountant. I bought Mr. Voth’s book at Costco a while ago but I’ve also included a link to his site for you to order directly from him (didn’t see it at Costco last time I was there). Try out his book, you’re halfway to next tax season already, so don’t delay.