Personal Finance

You might expect a tax professional like myself to defend the annual ritual of filing tax returns, but I don’t because it has become a necessary evil that serves almost no one well, especially with the shortage of accountants and increased complexity. Most would rather visit the dentist than complete their tax return. Adam Smith, […]

New anti-flipping rules for residential real estate (including rental properties) that came into effect in 2023 were designed to “reduce speculative demand in the marketplace and help to cool excessive price growth.” The rules essentially prevent you from claiming the principal residence exemption (PRE) to shelter the capital gain realized on the sale of your

Tax season officially ended on April 30, which was the general deadline for most Canadians to file their 2025 personal tax returns. (Those with self-employment income, and their spouse or partner, have until June 15 to file.) For the most part, it was smooth sailing, and the 2026 filing season didn’t pose any extraordinary hiccups

Former Citicorp Inc. chief executive Walter Wriston once said “ capital goes where it’s welcome and stays where it’s well treated.” The line has become tax-policy wallpaper. It is, nevertheless, the most useful sentence for thinking about what is unfolding in some jurisdictions, including certain states south of the border. In late April, the SEIU

Guy Lafleur, who passed away in 2022, was my childhood hero. Watching the Flower fly down the wing for the Montreal Canadiens — that mane of blond hair, the goals that made you leap off the couch — was as close to magic as a kid in Alberta could get. Rest easy, No. 10. He

I was standing in the Cathédrale Saint-Vincent in St. Malo, France, with my 82-year-old French mother and sister on the day the federal government’s spring economic update was released. The plaque over the tomb of Jacques Cartier there, in translation, reads: “Here rests Jacques Cartier, native of Saint-Malo and the first discoverer of Canada, who