55
You can make a contingent offer: "I will buy this house if I sell my own." In a highly competitive environment, contingent offers tend to be ignored. (Another commentator described such a contingency clause as synonymous with "Please Reject Me".)
You can get a bridge loan: you borrow money for a short term, at punishingly high interest. If your house ...
21
Ask your tenant what he wants to get out of this arrangement - NOT the legalese - but:
What end result the tenant wants in plain English (it sounds like free money).
Why does the tenant think he should/must get it? - Note: answering my mum said it was due is not your problem.
Then decide what you should do.
Things not to do:
Engage with his mother - you ...
16
What does he mean exactly? How the heck does it
make sense for a landlord to "buy" a "lease" from his own tenant?
It sounds like they're hoping you might pay them to vacate/end their lease. It could make sense if you were considering selling the property. It could also make sense if they were about to stop paying rent because they think they cannot be ...
15
Generally incorrect.
Some of your mortgage payment is interest, and some is repayment of principal. When it comes to deducting your rental property's expenses against its income, you generally aren't permitted to deduct the repayment of loan principal.
So, no, $1600 rent and $1600 mortgage payment (ignoring all else) is not break-even — rather, you ...
15
The two most common scenarios are:
You put an offer on a house which is conditional on you selling your own house first.
You sell your house with the condition that you will rent it from the new owner until you purchase a new house.
Since you have more control of timing when you are the buyer compared to when you are the seller, #1 is probably more common, ...
13
This option is useful if for any reason you think you will have a lower taxable income in 2015 than 2014, or you can arrange for that to happen. Retirement is an obvious case, but others might include:
Intending to take maternity or paternity leave
Planning on moving to a lower paid or unpaid job (such as home-maker)
Wishing to put the bonus in an RRSP but ...
13
A bridge loan (or bridging loan) is designed for exactly this circumstance. They're short-term loans (6 months is common) designed to help home-buyers to bridge the gap between buying and selling.
MoneySupermarket defines them like this:
Bridging loans are designed to help people complete the purchase of a property before selling their existing home by ...
12
(In my answer, I say "you". I realise you are asking for a friend.)
You say that the lawyer asked for several thousand dollars up-front as a retainer. This is fairly normal.
Lawyers generally charge either a flat fee, a percentage, or an hourly rate plus expenses. Percentages are unusual in a divorce and are banned in many jurisdictions. Flat-fee divorces ...
12
If you can qualify for two mortgages, this is certainly possible. For this you can talk to a banker.
However, most people do not qualify for two mortgages so they go a different route. They make offers on a new home with a contingency to sell the existing home. A good Realtor will walk you through this and any possible side effects.
Keep in mind that ...
11
“Remote” job position plus “bitcoin” = scam. I’m sorry - your best bet at this point is to block them, delete any messages and move on. If you have already given them any of your personal information then you may need to watch your credit report, and definitely change any passwords if you have given those out.
8
Let's say that the lease has a year left to run at $100 per month, and he offers to vacate for $500.
Let's also say that you could lease it right now for a year at $200 per month if it were not obligated by the current lease.
In that case, it could make financial sense to take that offer.
6
The catch is that you're doing a form of leveraged investing. In other words, you're gambling on the stock market using money that you've borrowed. While it's not as dangerous as say, getting money from a loan shark to play blackjack in Vegas, there is always the chance that markets can collapse and your investment's value will drop rapidly. The amount of ...
6
There is no simple rule like "you can/can't spend more/less than $X per person." Instead there is a reasonableness test. There is such a thing as an audit of just your travel and entertainment expenses - I know because I've had one for my Ontario corporation.
I've deducted company Christmas parties, and going-away dinners for departing employees, without ...
6
In Canada, you have the option of claiming depreciation expense, called capital cost allowance (CCA), it is not required. At time of sale, any CCA that you have claimed is recaptured and taxed as regular income (so long as sale price is >= to your original purchase price). If you elected not to claim CCA, you are not subject to recapture.
So you missed out ...
6
The current mortgaged owner would typically not have the right to sell any portion of the house without approval from the bank. The bank doesn't "own" the house through the mortgage, but they do have a series of rights that, in some cases, look similar to ownership.
Remember that a mortgage is just a loan that uses a house as collateral, to reduce the risk ...
6
There is nothing confusing about this though it may feel unfair.
First, there is no such thing as a "primary property" in Canadian tax law. You seem to feel that if you only own one property, it's your primary property, and thus exempt from capital gains taxes. This is not correct.
There is a "principal residence." You can tell right away from the name ...
5
Firstly, the cost of getting to or from your normal place of work is NOT a deductible expense in Ontario. Unless you can show that you use that transit pass for travelling to work OTHER THAN to and from your normal place of work, you can't claim it.
Who deducts the cost of travel in other circumstances depends on who pays it. If the corporation pays, the ...
5
There's also the option to put most of your stuff into storage and rent an apartment or go to an extended stay hotel. Some apartments have month-by-month options at a higher rate, though you may need to ask around.
I've known some people to use this as their primary plan because it was easier for them to keep the house clean and ready to show when it's ...
5
There is no penalty for filing a tax form late in Canada if you do not owe any taxes.
The penalties are all in terms of percentages of the taxes you owe. So if he genuinely never earned more than the personal minimums then there is no downside to filing.
If he is going to claim RRSP contributions he is going to have to document his earnings for those years....
5
There is a process in rental property colloquially called "cash for keys" where the landlord pays a tenant to terminate a lease.
Usually it comes up as a kind-of win-win for both sides where the tenant has lost their income or the landlord wants them out with less fuss, so instead of a drawn out eviction process with no guarantee of getting paid back rent,...
4
Get an accountant. Now. There are many subtle things that you do not know especially if you are just starting with your own corporation. There is also an issue of corporate tax return that you will have to face pretty soon. You should be looking for accountant that does accounting for corporations, there are companies specializing in small business.
I do not ...
4
How would the RRSP know where the money came from?
You have two separate financial operations going on:
You invest some money, within the limits set by the law, in a Tax Free Savings Account. Near the end of the year, you take the money, plus interest, out of the account. As you may guess by the name, you need not report the interest as income. There are ...
4
The "Pensionable Earnings" referred to in box 26 means the amount of your income that counts towards determining your CPP (or QPP for Quebec) contributions. For many this will be the same amount as box 14, but if your income exceeds the maximum pensionable earnings amount ($52500 for 2014 tax year) then you will instead just see $52500 in box 26.
Read more ...
4
If your business name is your name, you are automatically considered a sole-proprietorship and any income you generate and expenses you incur can be calculated on your personal tax return. You can use QuickTax Home & Business tax software to lead you through the steps; you don't even need an accountant.
One drawback of a sole-proprietorship in your name ...
4
Yes, it's normal. If you "buy" your own disability insurance with after tax money, any payout you get is non taxable. If your employer "buys" your disability insurance with their own money, any payout you get is taxable. Since the payout is not 100% of your pre-disability income, most folks strongly prefer that the payout be non taxable.
To achieve this, I ...
4
The CRA gives this example How do I calculate my charitable tax credits? - Canada.ca
Danielle lives in the province of Saskatchewan and donated $400 in 2013 to registered charities:
The federal charitable tax credit rate is 15% on the first $200 and 29% on the remaining $200. Her federal tax credit is therefore (15% × $200) + (29% × 200) = $88.
...
3
Prop (proprietary) traders trade using huge amounts of a bank's money (i.e. other people's money) so the reason why they have such low commissions (and they certainly do) is that the firms for which they work negotiate low commissions as the quantities and volumes (as they also trade very frequently) will be high and so the total commission will be very high....
3
The CRA's GST/HST information page links to a page titled "Income Levels", which states:
If your family net income amount is equal to or exceeds the amount indicated in the table below, you will not be entitled to a GST/HST credit payment.
For a single person, you aren't eligible for the credit if your income exceeds $42,641, per the table in the second ...
3
In Ontario, common law marriage requires 3 years of cohabitation, and doesn't give rights to property (which remains separate). I'd say in your situation you can still file as single, but I'd suggest asking your tax accountant to be sure.
3
You need not "absorb" the GST/HST you pay but aren't recovering from your non-Canadian end clients.
You should be able to claim input tax credits for GST/HST your corporation pays to a supplier. Your input tax credits can exceed the GST/HST collected by your company, resulting in a net refund paid by CRA to your corporation. This would typically be the case ...
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