Can You Trust Your Business Advisor To Help Your Business Function Within A Budget?

Running a business successfully, notwithstanding the size, is one of the toughest jobs and being the owner of a business, it is your responsibility. If you are wondering about the ways in which the business can be run smoothly, then professional help is an effective solution. There are various types of professional help available for a business, including outsourcing some areas. If you are not keen on the concept of outsourcing, then hiring experienced professionals to manage certain areas will be the smartest decision. Choosing one of the most capable Business Advisors to help should be at the top of the list.

The Responsibilities – It is the job of a business advisor to help a business in various ways including financial matters. One of the most important things about a business and it’s financial is running things within a budget. The general consensus regarding running a business is that the budget is not that important to run it. You need some money to start the process and then it is all about selling the products or services and earning the money. If you are thinking in the same vein, then it is time to gain a better understanding of the subject.

Gathering Information and Understanding – This way, you will be able to understand the importance and requirement of budget in a business. Apart from the initial and recurrent funding, another source of money for a business is the profit earned by selling products and services. If proper planning is not done and implemented, then managing the business and continuing its success will become quite tough. If you do not want to face such complications, then it is time to hire someone who will be able to create an effective budget under which your business can function properly and profitably.

When you are hiring one of the available Business Advisors to help your business, he/she will need to gain a clear idea about the business. This will include knowing about the financial details as well. If not given the information, it will be quite impossible for the advisor to help the business effectively. So, when the hired professional is already aware of the financial details of your business, allowing him/her to create a suitable and effective budget will make sense. The professional in question is both capable and experienced to provide the services you require. So, you can trust your business advisor to create a budget to help your business.

Things to Know for Claiming Tax Benefits Related to Vehicle Expenses

How do you use your vehicle? Do you use it both for personal and business purposes? If yes, it is imperative that you record the information related to your vehicle so you can refer to it while filing your taxes in future.

The CRA’s approach with regard to the official use of vehicles for business purposes is simple: it classifies the use under two heads namely, incorporated business and unincorporated business.

Incorporated Business

It is possible on the part of an incorporated business to write of motor vehicle expenses provided its use is reasonable. The reasonable use of a vehicle refers to its utilization by either an employee or a shareholder of a company for non-official or personal purposes.

In these scenarios, a taxpayer is eligible for a taxable benefit which is usually added to their income. At the time of considering or reviewing a request for a tax benefit, there is every possibility that the CRA will examine the relevant documents. So, it is strongly recommended that you should keep all the documents handy so as to produce them, if required, in a timely manner.

Unincorporated Business

There is a slight variation in the rule in the case of unincorporated businesses. If the motor vehicle expenses linked to business use appears to be reasonable in the eye of the concerned authorities of the CRA, it can consider deducting or writing them off.

There is an additional condition, though. In view of the likelihood that a vehicle can be used for both business and personal purposes in this form of business, the CRA will only write off the part which is linked to the business use. The following example will make it clear.

If 30% of the usage of a vehicle was for personal purposes and 70% of it was for business-related activities, you would be allowed to claim a tax benefit on the latter.

What Is Allowed In The Tax Expenses?

If you have taken a loan to purchase an automobile or have spent on capital cost allowance, fuel oil, maintenance, insurance costs, repairs, car washes or operating expenses, you are eligible for claiming motor vehicle expenses.

As far as the parking costs are concerned, the CRA takes only the expenses related to business use into consideration.

Get In Touch With Us For Help Regarding Vehicle Expenses

It can be a little tricky to work out the vehicular expenses on your own by factoring in all the permutations and combinations. Let our business advisors in North York, Ontario help you with this.

When it comes to tax, timely action can save you time, hassle and money. Do not keep it unfinished for future. Reach out to us for help or assistance in this regard.

The Queries You Need To Make Before Hiring A Business Advisor for Your Company

Starting a business may seem like a very tough job, but in reality, it is one of the easier ones associated with the matter. Surviving in the market is one of the toughest jobs for a small or medium-sized business and so is growing. Hence, to cross that hurdle, you need proper professional help which will start with the formation of an effective and helpful strategy. It is the job of the business advisor to create the strategy and help implement it as well. So, it is quite clear that the role of a business advisor in a small or medium-sized business is pretty important.

The Queries To Be Made – Being a business owner, if you are looking forward to make things work out, then hiring such a professional is required too. There are a large number of Business Advisors in the field and you are free to choose any of them. As the hired advisor will be an integral part of your business and its growth, choosing someone competent and reliable is important. Therefore, it is wise to make sure that you have hired the right person for the job. To ensure the capability and effectiveness of the professional, you need to make a few queries. The questions you need to ask are:

  • Though a business advisor work for the business as a whole, he/she is bound to specialize on one or two areas. You need to know about the specialization of the advisor you are about to choose for better outcome.
  • For the betterment of your business, it is crucial to hire an experienced person. Only someone with considerable experience will be able to help the business properly. Hence, you need to enquire about the relevant experience of the Business Advisors being considered for helping your business.
  • Knowing about the achievements of the business advisor you are about to hire is another important thing to know about. This way you can gain an idea about the effectiveness of the professional which will help the decision-making process easier.
  • Along with having a clear idea about the market, the advisor you are thinking about choosing needs to have a deeper understanding of the area of your business, the organization you own and your competitors. So, asking about these topics will be required to.

Once, you have made the queries and found the answer, finding the most suitable of the Business Advisors to help you will become easier than ever before.

What Qualities Should You Look For In A Business Advisor To Hire?

Small and medium-sized business owners require professional help to manage their organizations, when they are starting or are growing. This help is required because, handling these different aspects of a trade without knowledge and experience is not easy. Moreover, chances of making mistakes and rectifying them are almost not existent in smaller businesses. So, to ensure success and prevent financial loss, you need professional help and Business Advisors in North York Ontario will be able to provide that.

Qualities You Should Know About – If you want what is best for your business and dream of making it successful, then proper help will be able to help. The only problem will be choosing the most suitable one of the available options, and to make things easier, you will need some pointers. When you are choosing one of the Business Advisors, the ensuring that they have the following qualities will provide a nice chance to finding a capable and competent professional. So, the qualities you need to look for are:

  • One of the biggest qualities of the business advisor will be his/her coaching mentality. Just because, he/she is getting hired to help a business and getting paid doesn’t mean the business will continue to remain dependant on him/her. A really good advisor will not only manage the process, introduce factors required for development, along with training the business owner to achieve the skills that will help to handle the business long after the hired professional help is gone.
  • As most of the advisors, tend to work with larger business, they may lack understanding of the unique hurdles faced by a smaller-sized business. If that is the case, then choosing him/her won’t be a smart decision. So, the professional you are hiring must have an in-depth understanding of small and medium-sized business structure.
  • For success, a business needs to plans for years to come. If long-term planning is not done, then the business will lack goals, which will mean lacking the tools to reach that goal. So, the business advisor must have long-term thinking capacity, the skills to achieve the set goals.
  • Finding someone who shares similar values will help your business to grow effectively, because there won’t be any conflict between the goals and the ways of achieving them and between the business owner and the advisor.

These are the qualities you need to look for while choosing one of the Business Advisors in North York Ontario and doing so will help both you and the business.

How to Find The Perfect Advisor for Your Business?

It is the job of a business advisor to find the drawbacks in a system and provide effective solutions for them. This way, a business, mends from within, and start their confident journey towards better and bigger success. Keeping this requirement of businesses, there are loads of Business Advisors working in the market and choosing the best of them can turn out to be a tough decision. To deal with this confusion, you need to do some research and make an informed decision and a few tips can help with that endeavor.

A Few Helpful Pointers – The points you should know, remember and apply are:

  • You should always find an advisor who will be able to fill a gap. Hiring professional help doesn’t mean paying someone to do the job you can do yourself. Seeking a professional should always fill a gap in a business. While going through the list of Business Advisors in North York Ontario, you need to remember this point.
  • Hiring a friend for doing this job is normally not a good decision, unless you are sure that said individual will be brutally honest and will do anything and everything in their power to help the business, instead of taking a weaker stance.
  • As soon as the professional is hired, you should set up goals for the business and decide on a time limit and reasonable expectations within said time. This way, you will be able to gain a clear idea about the competency and effectiveness of the professional and the decisions he/she is making.
  • Like any other area of life, clear communication is crucial here too. To help your business grow bigger and better, you need to clearly state the expectations and desires. The hired professional should also freely talk about what is wrong with the present system. Any disagreement should be mentioned clearly and both the parties should work to solve the problem.
  • The one you are hiring from available Business Advisors in North York Ontario, should have long-term thinking capacity and should understand small businesses properly. It will be for the best if the professional you are hiring is from a small-business background as well.
  • For any business-relation to work successfully, reaching a middle ground is crucial for both the parties. To that end, hiring someone with similar mentality or at least a clear understanding of your thinking will prove to be most helpful.

By following these points, you will be able to create a short list of potential Business Advisors in North York Ontario and then choose the best possible option. It will take some time, but the result will clearly speak for itself.

The Ways in Which a Business Advisor can Help

Every business starts with various goals and agendas and over the years, they keep on changing, but the aim of growing bigger and better is one that never changes of stops. To attain the goal of growth, a business needs to bring in some reinforcements, because despite the changes in the initial stage, there comes a stagnant period where any kind of transformation seems difficult and sometimes impossible. It is not always possible to break that lull and reaffirm the goal without professional help. Hence, your business requires assistance from one of the best Business Advisors in North York Ontario.

The Beneficial Points – There are a number of business advisors available in the market and you need to choose the most suitable one. Once hired, the advisor will help you to understand the business process better and the organization to grow bigger. It is the job of such a professional to check the plans and financial situation of the business, before deciding on the advisory agenda. The ways in which one of the most suitable Business Advisors in North York Ontario can help are:

  • With the vast experience and knowledge about the subject, an advisor is capable of understating the present condition of the business, along with the future possibilities and all the problems there are.
  • After gaining an in-depth picture of the business, the professional can review the short and long-term goals which in short will help the business to focus on the required areas and make certain decisions with ease.
  • Knowing about the financial situation will mean, the advisor will now be able to work on different areas including tax, business valuation, employee benefits, insurance and protection, business succession, investments, marketing and many more. Based on said information, the advisor can make important financial decisions, secure more funding and concentrate of the marketing efforts.
  • Additionally, the hired one of the Business Advisors in North York Ontario will have the knowledge to analyse the reports and then make the most effective and beneficial decision which in turn will help the business to grow better, stronger and further.

The Benefits for Your Business – If you are the owner of a small or medium-sized business and it is not performing as well as it should, then hiring a business advisor will prove to be a wise decision. With the help of this professional, you will now be able to diagnose and identify the problems and find the perfect solutions to them. Therefore, investing in one of the competent and renowned Business Advisors in North York Ontario will be quite beneficial for the business.

Why Does Your Business Need Comprehensive Financial Planning?

Introduction – Running a business successfully, requires a plethora of things, and a constant supply of money is one of them. If you have secured the required finances, the next step will be using it in a responsible and effective way. If you are looking for someone local, reputed and competent, then choosing from the array of Business Advisors in North York Ontario will be the logical thing to do. Seeking the help of a business advisor will not only help you to manage the organization more proficiently, but understand it better as well.

The Elements of Proper Financial Planning – When you are deciding to go for professional and comprehensive financial plan along with assistances like Accounting Services for business, it is wise to have a basic understanding of what to expect and what is needed. This way, the transaction will be smoother and save time, money and energy, which in turn will be quite beneficial for the business in question. The points that make a comprehensive financial plan effective are:

  • Business goals and objectives, both short-term and long-term
  • Statement of net worth of the business
  • In-depth tax analysis
  • Effective risk-management analysis
  • Cash-flow analysis and summary
  • Expense strategy

The Benefits for Your Business – A capable team of Business Advisors will ensure that your financial planning is truly comprehensive and include the best possible strategies for your business. At this point, you may think, why such planning needs to be done by a professional and why your business needs it in the first place. Exploring the topic further will not only provide the answer, but put your doubts to rest. Once a complete and comprehensive planning is done for your business and put to use, the changes and benefits will become quite apparent. Starting from proper use and distribution of funds, to achieving short-term business goals, better risk-management and tax-management, your business will have a real shot at long-term improvement and success.

The Expense is Worthwhile – If your business is running successfully for some time now, then you may think that additional expenses like Business Advisors or Accounting Services are not required, but that will be a mistake. In this age of speed, specialization and convenience, where the whole world is considered to be a village and reaching a point furthest from another point takes a few hours, every organization, business needs to have an advantage and exploit it too. Proper planning is one of the best ways of identifying that edge and exploiting it completely to ensure a secure, long lasting and successful future for a business. Hence, investing in Accounting Services in North York Ontario or Business Advisors in North York Ontario will be worthwhile.

Are True Business Losses Tax Deductible?

At the present time, there is no dearth of people who aspire to start their own business. A majority of them plan to do so with the intention of earning a profit. That is to say, they invest their money with the aim to earn a greater amount of money.

However, every business is a risky venture – it involves a number of risks. While sometimes it may pay dividends, it may also result in lesser income than the expenses associated with it. What happens when your business expenses far exceed your business turnover? Are you required to pay taxes even as you make losses for months? Read on to get the answers to these pertinent questions.

What Happens When You Run Into Business Losses?

Whether it is start-up costs or a reduction in sales due to a slow down or a loss associated with the expansion of business operations, monetary losses are a part and parcel of small businesses. Every small business owner meets this fate at some point in time in their career.

Speaking of losses, it is generally believed that small business owners face two kinds of losses – non-capital losses and losses linked to business investment. These are discussed below.

Non-Capital Loss

When the expenses of a small business owner surpass their income in a particular year, the losses related to it are called non-capital losses. Such losses also include the losses incurred from a business, a property of employment. These losses can be used to offset the income from various sources like a commercial enterprise, retirement, job and other sources.

Depending on whether you had this kind of loss in a year post 2005 or prior to March 23, 2004, there are two different procedures to apply and forward it in the subsequent year. While in case of the former you can carry it 3 years before and 20 years down the line, in the latter case, you can carry it three years back and seven years forward. Also, you can forward it 10 years and place it three years preceding the date if you encountered a non-capital loss after March 23, 2004.

Consider applying your non-capital loss to a preceding year if any of the following conditions or all the conditions are applicable to your case:

  • You think the tax in the preceding year was higher than the tax in the subsequent years
  • You do not anticipate making a gain in the upcoming years
  • You are thinking about merging or selling your business in a few years down the line
  • If you think rolling the non-capital loss of the current year to a previous year will bring in the desired cash flow which can stage a recovery to your business.

Here’s an important tip in this respect: if you wish to file a non-capital loss alongside previous year’s return, it is necessary to do so in the year of suffering the loss, otherwise you will only be able to forward it thereafter.

Business Investment Loss

In the eyes of the CRA, making a loss from running a business and doing so after making a monetary contribution to a business are two different things. In other words, the CRA counts only those people as business owners or partners who alongside spending a considerable amount of money also devote their time to business operations.

The losses resulting from an investment into a business venture is a business investment loss, according to the CRA.

Thus, it can be concluded that actual business losses are always tax deductible. They serve as a strategic way to reduce the tax burden on you. On the flip side, if you file losses after losses for several years, it can backfire as in such a scenario, you could be at a risk of an audit by the CRA. Furthermore, the CRA can also deny the loss claim filed by you under the impression that your business is more of a hobby than a serious venture aimed at generating a considerable income.

If you have tax-related questions regarding business losses, do not hesitate to contact our business advisors in North York, Ontario. They are happy to help you with it.

Tips to Compute Your Taxes for The First Time

If you are self-employed and are giving it a thought to opening your account of doing your taxes, there are some tools to work out the outstanding amount of money in the form of CRA taxes. Here are the best Canadian tips for the calculation of taxes.

Your Best Bet to Estimate Your Taxes

Regardless of whether you own a small business or are self-employed, there is good news for you. Now, you can minimize the outstanding taxes towards the conclusion of a year by filing a claim for the expenses.

Proper planning will help you streamline the process. Note down your yearly expenses on a spreadsheet and keep it handy so you can use it whenever the need arises.

If you work in an office, your expenses may include advertising expenses, inventory and supplies. In the event of working from home, you need to deduct a percentage of your utility bills and rent.

Having a system in place to monitor your invoices can be of profound importance. If you wish to record the information in a spreadsheet, you can use popular options like Quickbooks and Freshbooks.

After adding up the amounts in the last year, deduct both your expenses and RRSP contributions prior to March 1 of the same tax year. By following this process, you will be able to work out your net income based on which, you can calculate your taxes.

You can further ease your tax burden by claiming certain other deductions. However, the deduction of your expenses plus RRSP contributions will keep you posted with the actual balance you owe to the CRA.

How You Can Calculate Your Taxes

Though the internet abounds with tax calculators, the catch is that they calculate the taxes in the same way as it is done in case of a salaried employee. If you are self-employed, chances are you might not like it to be calculated that way.

Do not forget to take your previous year’s income into account while getting the estimate of your CRA taxes.

If you wish to figure out the taxes without using a tool, bear the following things in mind:
a> Taxes are calculated only on the amount of money which exceeds $11,635 from the earnings of the previous year
b>Federal taxes are charged at 15% on $46,605 of your income
c>For income generated up to $55,900, self-employed Canadian individuals are required to contribute 9.99% to Canada Pension Plan. For the residents of Quebec, it is 8% on earnings up to $55,900

For queries on the ins and outs of CRA taxes, get in touch with our business advisors in North York Ontario.

A Guide to Paying Your Tax by Instalments

If you happen to be a self-employed individual, your wages may not involve taxes. However, according to the tax laws in Canada, every self-employed individual who belongs to the tax bracket is required to pay tax by instalments.

As a matter of fact, there are some vital aspects pertaining to the filing and payment of CRA taxes by instalments which you should know. These are discussed below.

Who are Required to Pay Taxes by Instalments?

People who collect their wages without any tax deductions are required to pay their taxes by instalments. Self-employed earning individuals who generate income from investment or rental, pension payments or from multiple jobs (from two or more jobs) belong to this category. However, an important point to keep it mind is that it also includes people whose taxes are not sufficiently withheld within a year.

How to Find Out If You are Required to Pay Your Tax by Instalments?

Before figuring out whether or not you should pay out your tax by instalments, you should have the following information:

  • Province of residence
  • Net tax owing

With the above information at your fingertips, you are ready to determine if you should pay your tax by instalments. Consider paying your tax by instalments if the below-mentioned factors apply in your case.

  • Net outstanding tax for the current year is above the threshold of your province of residence
  • Your net tax for the last two years were above the threshold for your territory of residence

If your owing for the current year happens to be equal to or less than $3,000, the requirement to pay taxes by instalment does not apply to you. For residents of Quebec, the margin is $1,800. However, some specific requirements exist for those who generate income from farming or fishing. It is a good idea to consult a qualified tax professional to gain a better understanding of tax requirements if you generate income from farming or fishing as it is a little complicated.

The Due Date for Tax Instalments

Generally, tax instalments are due on the following dates:

  1. March 15
  2. June 15
  3. September 15
  4. December 15

CRA Reminders

The CRA sends instalment reminders to select taxpayers. Generally, it sends instalment reminders to select taxpayers in the following ways:

  • February for the tax payments to be made in March and June
  • August for the tax payments to be made in September and December

If you have questions regarding CRA taxes get in touch with our business advisors in North York Ontario.