We’re only a few days away before the April filing deadline…have you filed your personal tax returns? If not, I may be able to help, so, let me know. I’m excited to get active again as I’ve put this aside for a while now. So, I’m starting a new challenge and I’m hoping you can join me. It’s a simple challenge of 10,000 steps per day for 30 consecutive days starting next week on May 1st! If you’re interested, do request to join the WhatsApp Group for this challenge and check out more details about the challenge in this issue. Also, we have opened registration for our Tax-Efficient Wealth Summit on June 1st. I invite you to join me and my guests and I share more in this issue. Enjoy this issue and remember to share this with everyone in your network:

1. Personal Tax Return Filing Is On Tuesday, April 30th! Have You Filed?

We’ve been busy over the last couple of weeks filing as many personal tax returns as we can. And the race continues until midnight this Tuesday…and then after that for the sole proprietors and late filers. As I have indicated in the past, while it is certainly a lot of pressure for me and my team to get these returns filed in such a short time, it is not exciting. The exciting part is the planning conversations with clients on how they can save on taxes in the coming years. As you file your tax returns this year, here are some questions to consider:

• What’s the dollar amount I paid in taxes?
• What’s my average tax rate?
• What’s my marginal tax rate?
• Why did I get a refund? Why did I NOT get a refund?

And when you have answers to these questions following the filing of your tax returns, you want to consider your next action steps. For example, what steps can you take in 2024 to pay less taxes than you did in 2023? This is where insights come in handy. As I’ve said many times, when you don’t get insights, you end up paying more in taxes than you’re required to and a dollar lost in taxes today will not only cost you a dollar today, IT WILL COST YOU A MULTIPLE OF THAT DOLLAR OVER TIME!

If you’re looking for INSIGHTS to help you minimize taxes, then consider the Personal Tax Services we offer. With our services, we can help you minimize taxes, improve cash flow and get ahead financially. Get the details here.

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2. Don’t Forget To File Your Underused Housing Tax Return

For those of you that may not be aware, the Federal Underused Housing Tax (UHT) ws newly introduced last year. This tax imposes a 1% annual tax on the value of residential real estate considered to be vacant or underused that is owned on December 31 of each year. You will likely be required to file this return if you own a residential rental property (less than 4 rental units) as:

• A non-resident of Canada
• A Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (CCPCs) that is not publicly traded
• A trustee of a trust (if you hold a property in your name in trust for a corporation, you will be required to file)
• A partner of a partnership
• A joint venture in a joint venture arrangement

The filings and taxes owing for this year are due by April 30, 2024. Penalties for failure to file the return (even where no tax is payable) start at $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for corporations. To learn more about the UHT, click here.

To determine whether you have any filing obligations or responsibilities under this new Act, I have created a checklist that you can complete. Click here to complete it.

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3. Are You Considering Ways To Minimize Your Taxes?

If you’re considering ways to minimize your taxes and build wealth in a tax-efficient manner, then you should make plans to join me at this year’s Tax-Efficient Wealth Summit coming up on Saturday, June 1st. This is an in-person live event in Mississauga that will give you the opportunity to connect with others just like you and potentially build new relationships in a great learning environment:

• I will share why it is critical more than ever to incorporate tax efficiencies in your planning as well as a simple approach for planning for retirement income
• Samantha will share a talk on three questions to consider as you think about your quality of life and investing
• Hosai will discuss practical financing tips for your real estate investment
• Jean-Pierre will tell you all you need to know about personal pension plans

This will be an amazing event that I personally think will help you in your quest to build tax-efficient wealth. You can get all the event details here.

Feel free to bring a friend or family member with you to the event. The more the merrier. I look forward to meeting with you soon and hosting you at the event.

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4. 20 Quotes To Inspire You To Invest In Yourself

I believe that the best investment you can ever make is an investment in yourself. If you realize that you’re the #1 asset in anything you do, then you will begin to prioritize investment in yourself.

And this is why.

If you’re employed, you were for a reason — for the special skill you possess. So you must keep investing in yourself to stay on top of your game if you want to keep getting promoted and keep getting higher bonuses.

If you own a business, you are the business. You make all the critical decisions. You hire the best people. You are the top sales and marketing guru in your business. So, if you want to keep generating higher and higher income, you have to stay on top of your business by investing in yourself.

If you don’t invest in yourself, no one will. You invest in yourself by:

• Learning and growing in your knowledge in critical areas.
• Learning how to learn.
• Hiring coaches and mentors to collapse time and avoid costly mistakes.
• Growing in your spirituality.
• Mastering the mindset of successful people.
• Mastering how to effectively build relationships and how to work with people.
• Learning how to build communities and how to build a movement.

It is suggested that you invest at least 10% of your gross earnings in yourself. Often times, if done correctly, this investment will yield rewards that are multiple times what you invested. That is the power of investing in yourself. In this article, I share 20 quotes to inspire you to invest in yourself. Read the full article here.

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5. The Challenge…10K Daily Steps for 30 Consecutive Days. Will You Join Me?

Now that the weather is looking great, it’s time to get into a mini challenge as we get into the Summer months. While this may not be the hardest physical or mental challenge you’ve ever done, it will nonetheless challenge you and set you up for an active Summer. This is a fairly simple challenge designed to help you develop the discipline you need to win in life. A successful completion of this challenge will set you up for an active Summer as you pursue a healthy living. This is FREE challenge and it’s all about completing the following simple tasks for 30 consecutive days:

• You must complete 10,000 steps each day. You can track this on your favorite app. Some of these steps MUST be outdoors (walking, running, etc).
• Drink at least 2 litres of water daily
• Read at least 10 pages of a book. **Audiobooks DO NOT COUNT**
• Post your daily activities progress on the WhatsApp Group every day.

There is zero compromise and zero substitution as these tasks were all selected for specific reasons. So, if you miss any part of any task, you start all over from Day 1! Are you ready for a challenge? If you are, let me know as we start May 1, 2024! To join the challenge, simply request to join the WhatsApp Group here.