Insights
Plain explanations of the questions that come up most often in tax, business and employment matters.
Tax
- Salary or dividends: why tax is rarely the deciding factor The tax outcome is broadly similar either way. What usually decides the mix is RRSP room, CPP, and what you need to be able to prove about your income.
- Personal services business: when incorporating costs more than employment A personal services business loses the small business deduction and most ordinary expense deductions. How the rules work and what can be done.
- Permanent establishment: when one person creates a tax presence A single employee working in another country can create a taxable presence for the business there. What triggers it, what follows, and what reduces the risk.
- Crypto and tax: more disposals than people expect Every trade, swap or purchase made with crypto is a disposal. What that means for reporting, whether gains are capital or income, and prior years.
- Selling your business: the tests that matter years before the sale The exemption on qualifying small business shares depends on conditions measured over the two years before a sale. By closing it is usually too late.
- When the CRA asks a question: what to do first Most CRA contact is routine and answerable. What matters is responding on time, answering what was asked, and knowing which stage you are actually at.
Business
- US tariffs and Canadian surtaxes: what applies to your business How the measures work and who pays, what is in force, how to tell whether your goods are caught, and what can be recovered.
- When incorporating is worth it, and when it is not Incorporation is not automatically right for a small business. What it gives you, what it costs, and when waiting is the better answer.
- Promissory notes: the short document that decides whether you get paid A note is evidence of a debt, not security for it. Demand terms, the interest wording and the limitation clock decide whether it can be enforced.
- A shareholder agreement is for the day you disagree Articles and by-laws say how the corporation runs. A shareholder agreement says what happens between the owners when something goes wrong.
Employment
- Contractor or employee: why the contract does not decide The contract does not decide it. What the CRA and the courts look at instead, and what it costs when the answer turns out to be wrong.
- Non-competes and non-solicits: what still works in Ontario Ontario prohibits most non-competes in employment agreements. Non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses are unaffected, and are usually the better tool.
- Working across a border: what changes, and for whom Cross-border work changes the employment, tax and reporting position of both the company and the individual — and not in the same way for each.