Thanks for the info !

I simply subtract my loss against my gains and calculate capital gains from there. So for your situation:

$16800-4800=12000×50%x17.5% = $1050 tax payable

or you could take your taxable capital gains minus your allowable capital loss:

$8400 – $2400 = $6000 x 17.5% = $1050 tax payable.

Note that it takes 3 days to settle your transaction, so if you sell, make sure to account for Christmas Holidays. I believe the final day to sell for the tax year is somewhere around Christmas Eve.

Again, you should double check with an account to verify.

I scan all invoices, bills & supporing documents into electronic files (pdf).

It has been my experience that when the call comes in from Revenue Canada requesting back-up for any tax return, they will accept fax, photocopy and pdf emails of the originals.

If there is a dispute or audit then be prepared to explain or show the originals.

I can find a receipt from 2 years ago in a matter of minutes. I can then print a copy if needed. I love that option since I use my platinum card to purchase everything and that gives me an extra year warranty. I may need to find a receipt 3 years from purchase and I don’t want to spend days looking for an old receipt.

Each month I put all my monthly bills (Power, Natural Gas, Telephone, etc) into one section of the file folder and at the end of the year I put those bills into another 9×12 envelope labeled “200x Bills”.

Currently, I put those into an ‘accordian’ style file folder. However, there’s an empty small 2 drawyer file-folder sitting in a vacant room in my house. I’m thinking of getting some hanging file folders and just stuffing the contents of that accordian folder into the cabinet to protect against spills, etc, because “someone” has spilled beer into that folder one time.

I acquired a 4 drawer filing cabinet last year and I absolutely love it. It keeps me much more organized as everything has a place and is easy to find any time I need it. I maintain a file or series of files for each category and when tax time comes, I just pull out the relevant “2007 Taxes” files and go to work. I have plenty of room in the cabinet now, so older files just get pushed down to lower drawers, but as the cabinet fills up, I’ll just toss the old overflow in to banker’s boxes.

Luc, that should work fine for most documents. Just make sure you keep a good backup somewhere in case the media gets destroyed somehow.

-MikeG

I normally put my receipts in the folders the day I get them (it becomes routine) and I keep the folders by my dresser so when I take my wallet out and empty my pockets, the receipts go right into the folders.

The only hard part for me is keeping track of mileage for the car so I can figure out what percentage of my costs I can write off. I just can’t remember to always mark it down for business km’s at the time of the trip. I hate going to google maps or whatever and trying to reconcile my trips after the fact – what a pain!

Having said all this, the last quarter of 2007 is a mess as my system went to all hell as I moved in with my girlfriend. Simply by not having the folders by my dresser has relegated me to putting the receipts in a drawer for filing later. I’d like to move the folders back but I’m worried some guy named Feng Shui will have something to say about it. lol

Probably because as soon as taxes are done I just go “oh I’ll do it next year”.

Big brown bag for each item, black marker pen on the front of each stating the expense/income, all placed with an updated cover sheet in a large 50-75 litre rubber/plastic container.

Fill as you go, taking the container to my account at tax time.

Account does the work gives back the completed return (inside the conatiner) and the container is marked 2007, plaqce on a shelf in the basement.

2008 year repeat