Category — General

GST/HST is a tax associated with the sales of goods and services in Canada. If you are self employed and will have sales in any given year over $30,000, you must register and charge GST/HST on future sales.

As a result, you will be able to claim your GST/HST amounts (called Input Tax Credits or ITC’s) that you have paid out on business expenses.

To register your business, you can vist the CRA website.

There seems to be some debate as to when you should register for a GST/HST, some say you need to in the year you will earn $30,000 or more and some others say you do after the year.
The safe bet is to do so when you first start your business as you can collect your GST/HST that you have paid out on expenses for your business.

There are new rules regarding CPP for employees between the ages of 60 & 70.

CRA has created a new page to discuss this –

There are also new rules for those between the ages of 60 & 70. Some details include, payments into CPP if you are 65 and older and working, as well there are changes to the way you collect CPP if you are over 60 years of age.

More details .

The home buyers plan allows a first time home buyer to use up to $25,000 of you RRSP’s to purchase or build a qualifying house.

Here are the conditions to qualify:

• The RRSP’s must be in your account for at least 90 days, or you cannot use them for the purchase.
• The house must be your principal residence, or for a relative with a disability.
• You or your spouse have to be a first time home buyer (or not owned a house as a principal residence for 4 years – more info).

Repayments

You have 15 years to repay the amount you took out of your RRSP, in this case you must contribute to your RRSP account and not your spouse’s account.

If you do not meet the minimum payment or fail to pay anything into your RRSP plan for the year, the payment amount needs to be entered onto line 129 of the return and you will be required to pay tax on that amount.

CRA source

Here are some dates to remember for the 2010 tax season:

Feb.15 – First date CRA starts accepting Netfile and Efile returns.

Feb. 28 – Last date to mail out T4′s and T5′s.

Mar.1 – Final date to purchase RRSP’s for 2010 tax returns.

Apr.30 – Last day to remit T1′s.

Jun.30 – Last day for filing T1′s for self employed.

Sept.30 – Date for final Netfile returns