Rubach Wealth Toronto

While various government programs have helped the country through these challenging times, this support has been incredibly expensive. Sooner or later, the government will need to take proactive steps to tackle an enormous deficit. Unfortunately, this means tax increases may be on the horizon. If you are concerned about the prospects of a rising tax bill and want to stay ahead of the curve, we highlight some tax strategies that may help. Strategies for optimizing your taxes Effective tax planning is highly dependent on your personal situation, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution. However, here are 4 strategies that may be useful in optimizing your tax situation:

  1. Estate freeze. An estate freeze can be used to defer the realization of taxable capital gains in the value of a family business. After a properly structured freeze, any further growth in the company’s value will accrue not to the owner, but rather to their successors or to a discretionary trust set up as part of the freeze.Estate freezes have many potential benefits, including locking in probate tax liabilities, locking in a purchase price for a business, providing retirement income and strengthening creditor protection.
  2. Capital losses. Stock markets around the world have plunged during the pandemic, and despite some strong rebounds, many investors have stock portfolios with unrealized losses. It some situations, it can be beneficial from a tax perspective to sell holdings and trigger capital losses to offset capital gains.Capital losses can be applied retroactively up to three years and carried forward indefinitely. However, there are restrictions on how such losses can be applied, so any decisions should be made with advice from a tax professional.
  1. Prescribed rate loan. A prescribed rate loan allows individuals with high marginal tax rates to transfer investment income to family members with low marginal tax rates.Under this strategy, the high-income earner makes a loan to a family member or a family trust, which invests the money and earns investment income. The high-income earner receives interest payments at a rate prescribed by CRA (currently 1%) while the remaining investment income can be distributed to the family member(s) and will be taxed at their lower tax rate.
  2. Spreading corporate losses. Owners with multiple businesses are not allowed to directly consolidate their profits and losses across their corporate group to minimize their overall tax bill. However, there are permissible tax strategies that can be used to spread at least some corporate losses and achieve similar outcomes.Management fees are one example, although there are restrictions on how this strategy can be applied.

Being proactive ahead of potential tax increases Nothing is certain about how the government will navigate these challenging times, but one thing is clear: tax increases are a real possibility as the government determines how to pay for its extensive pandemic relief programs. Whatever happens in one month or one year, there are steps you can take now to proactively optimize your tax exposure and extract any corporate surpluses in a tax-efficient manner. To discuss how tax strategies can help to strengthen your financial situation, contact us at info@www.rubachwealth.com to schedule a call with a Rubach Wealth advisor.

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