James D. Peros C.A. C.P.A

TAXATION   For the Record  Complete, accurate and readable records will make a CRA audit less onerous.  Regardless of whether your business is a proprietorship, a partnership or an incorporated company, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires the business to maintain financial books and records. Here are a few of the CRA’s record-keeping requirements you should know. Only in Canada, eh?  The CRA requires that records must be kept in Canada, either at your place of business or your residence. If your head office is in Canada and your books and records are stored electronically outside the country and accessed by your Canadian-based operation, these records are not considered to be maintained at your head office. Thus, if you are currently running cloud-based accounting software that is storing data in a foreign jurisdiction, your business is in violation of CRA requirements. If you wish to keep records in a jurisdiction other than Canada, you must seek w...

Where Am I Headed?  Make time for strategic planning.  Strategic planning is not usually a strong suit of most entrepreneurs. They have a great initial idea and know how to turn it into a business. But then, they become too involved in day-to-day affairs and do not take the time to plan where they have to be in five, 10, or even 20 years to stay competitive. No one should start a business without a vision of what their company should be at some point in the future. Unfortunately for many businesses, the intermediate stages do not get planned, goals get forgotten in the details of everyday life, and suddenly the calendar reads 2036 instead of 2016. There is no magic formula that will provide specific steps to achieve personal and business goals; each individual and each business has different needs and abilities that must be factored into the desired results. The starting point, however, is the same for everyone since there is a symbiotic relationship between a business ...

Protecting Your Future  Simple precautions will protect your personal and corporate information if natural disaster strikes.  The fires in Alberta show how quickly natural catastrophes can totally disrupt personal and business life. Technology is now available to protect you from losing important information when disaster strikes. On a Personal Level  Financial institutions need tangible evidence of your existence. Even if the originals of documents are destroyed, you can reassert your identity with photographs. Take pictures of the front and back of all credit cards, debit cards, health cards, social insurance cards, driver’s licences, vehicle insurance cards, etc. Keep all original birth certificates, passports, change-of-name documents, adoption papers, copies of power of attorney, living wills or other caregiver instructions as well as appraisals of jewellery, artwork, collectible or other valuable insured items in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box. S...