You cannot see my hips, but you can certainly have all my little tips LOL. Ready? Let's go!
I took care of my tax return a little way back and it's recently got completed and sent. For the first time in years, instead of having to pay more tax, I actually got a little return, less than $200, but still, I was happy. For 2019, I make closed to $60 000, which is less than for 2018. However, in 2019, I didn't trade much, which help to reduce my income. Back in 2018, I had a capital gain of over $10 000, and in 2018, it was less than $300. Also, in 2019, I took care of some problems with my teeth, which I will have to continue with later on this year or in 2021 when this pandemic will be over with. I don't know that much tax income tips, but for those that I know, if you hold stocks outside a registered account, you'll have to pay taxes on those. Your broker will provide all the taxes form you'll need. If you hold dividend stocks or have trade stocks inside a TFSA or RRSP account, the good news is, you don't need to declare anything, as they are tax-free safe heaven.
If like me you have a margin account debt link to your non-registered broker account, please note that you can declare the TOTALITY of the interest earned on that margin as financial fees. For this, you'll get the amount of the total of interest on your broker statement on the month of December 2019. You can declare that amount in the box 22100 of the federal tax declaration and if you live in Quebec, the Revenu Quebec boxes concern is the 231. So the interest earned on your margin account for 2019 needs to appear on boxes 22100 (federal), and 231 (for Quebec resident).
Once you get your tax return done - if you get it file by an income reporting service, make sure you review it before they send it. Last year, I discovered a bunch of mistakes in my declaration, it wasn't even funny. This year, I found one mistake - my financial fees were not declared, but I got it to fix. Here in Montreal, professional services are extremely poor quality, and that being in evert fields, you got to verify absolutely everything, double-check EVERYTHING. There's a reason why Quebec province is the most affected by the coronavirus: it's because it's the province that is less well organized. Here, people are hypocrites and offer the worst services and health care system ever. On top of everything, Quebeckers don't give a damn about their seniors and have neglected them for years. Countries like Germany, South Korea have good sharp leadership with a willingness to fight correctly this pandemic.
Also, when you are getting all your papers ready to have them send over to an income reporting service, make sure you cover all stocks' name that you still own, all of your account broker numbers., and all, all information related to your broker, like the name, address etc. Your accounting doesn't need to know about the stock that you own, your account numbers, and the name of your broker. This year, I use a free trial of Adobe Reader to do so. What I did is that I used my original PDF copies, cover in black - I don't exactly how the name of this feature on Adobe but you should be able to find it quite easily. After, I converted the PDF in Word, and got it back converted in PDF format. This is an important process because if you only cover in black the account numbers, stock names and broker name info alone - the person who's getting that copy could easily remove those black spots. If, once you are done, you convert your PDF that contains black spots in Word, and reconvert it in PDF - that way - and that way only, you are sure that no one will be able to see the info that are under those precious black spots. Protecting your personal information is certainly the best financial tip that I can provide you.
If you contribute to an RRSP through your work, make sure you declare it, no matter how little the amount is, this will really help you to reduce the amount of taxes you may have to pay at the end of the year.
You can also declare any dental care that hasn't been covered by your insurance - make sure you declare!
This is all for my tax return tips for now.