It’s June, and we’re all recovering after April’s tax–submission-frenzy. For professionals or those with corporations, you may still be knee deep in tax forms as you read this.
Whether you owe more to the government than expected, or if you’ve received a refund, most of us now tend to fall into the same springtime pattern: kick back, relax, and forget about taxes for a while as the summer unfolds and life makes other plans.
Stop right there. Taxes don’t rest, so why should you?
Start planning your tax strategy today. Simply put, starting today, pays. Delay doesn’t. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
For many professionals, it’s not a lack of income that prevents them from effectively sheltering their savings from taxes or from avoiding hefty amounts owed; it’s a lack of time and preparedness. Think of the old story of the grasshopper and the ant: while the grasshopper relaxed and basked in the summer sun, the ant carefully allocated its earnings and planned how to optimize its investments, allowing income to be sheltered when the winter rolled around. Soon enough, the grasshopper was left out in the cold with a large amount owed to the CRA, while the ant’s planning skills gave it a nice refund without any unpleasant financial surprises. (Or at least this is the story wealth managers tell their children… The Ants & the Grasshopper)
Did you take full advantage of RRSPs, tax-free savings accounts, individual pension plans, permanent life insurance, or other gifts the CRA gives us? If so, you can grow on a tax-advantaged basis. However, if you received a slew of T3s, and T5s flooding your mailbox and email inboxes last year, there may be some room for optimizing. If the extent of your tax planning consists of last-minute rushes to retrieve these documents to send to your accountant, it likely means that there is more you can do in advance to enhance your after-tax rate of return and overall wealth.
We know the last thing anyone wants to do when springtime rolls around after a long winter is to sit down and think about taxes. So, let us do the heavy lifting for you.
We’ll learn your financial situation and future plans, and work together to create a sound strategy to optimize your tax efficiency.
There’s no better time to start preparing than now. Utilizing tax strategies today creates greater financial success in the future.
While what we earn matters, what we get to keep matters more.
Tax on tax off, grasshopper.
