How a Financial Planner can Help You Save Tax
It’s that dreaded time-of-year again – I am not talking about winter, but tax season.
Did you know there is a difference between tax planning and tax preparation?
A tax preparer helps you file your taxes, whereas a Certified Financial Planner® can help you plan and execute a strategy in advance of tax time, helping you maximize your tax returns and cash flow.
Here’s how:
1. Personalized Tax Planning:
A financial planner who has spent some time getting to know your finances has a lot of insight into your current money situation. They’ve also presented you with a plan for achieving your retirement, investment, risk management and estate objectives. Armed with this understanding, they can now match up the strategies available with the ones most appropriate for you.
2. Smart Tax Planning:
Smart tax planning is not just claiming all of the deductions and credits you are entitled to so that you can get a bigger refund. Rather, it involves thinking about and engaging in methods to legally lower your tax burden throughout the year. As a CFP ® professional, they are highly aware of all the legally available tax planning opportunities that are available to Canadians right now. Some of the tools used are RRSPs, TFSAs, corporate programs, investment vehicles, insurance structures, and trusts. A situation may often warrant the use of multiple programs and may require working hand-in-hand with your accountant and legal advisor to execute.
Avoid Financial Pitfalls by Finding Your Blind Spots
3. Proactive Tax Planning
Although many Canadians think about tax only a couple of times a year (once prior to the RRSP deadline and once when filing), tax planning is not seasonal. As described above, a comprehensive plan may take some time to develop and even more to implement. It also must be monitored at least once a year because along with the budget each year, there are changes to old ways and an introduction of new ways, that you most certainly don’t want to miss out on either!
