Rodney W. McNeil Professional Corporation
205-515 West Pender Street V6B6H5 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Want to rent a property short term? Be careful!! Did you know, that if you rent out a property as a short term rental, whether you converted it to this or purchased it as this, it is considered to be used in commercial use. If you later switch it back to being long term residential use, you are considered a builder of a new residential complex and you are required to self assess GST on the fair market value of the property at that time? So if you had a rental property for ...example you rented as long term residential, then decided you were going to change it to short term rental, then some time down the road you changed it back to long-term residential, you are likely going to have to self assess and pay GST on the fair market value at the time of change. Ouch! I am going to STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone out there, when you are making property decisions, consult a tax person who knows what they are talking about. This includes both from an income tax perspective and from a GST perspective. Trust me, not many people know the GST rules, and this includes a regular tax expert. There are persons who specialize in sales taxes such as GST and PST, so it is always wise to consult with those persons as well to attempt to understand your obligations. It can be a nasty hit and surprise! The precise rules can be extremely complex with various considerations, that are not always compatible in application. So please be careful in this regard. It is clear that the CRA is going after short-term housing rentals. I just keep seeing too many people who have inadvertently gotten themselves into a pickle, not realizing what they were setting themselves up for, and it is very unfortunate. So if I can help spread the word and provide a bit of awareness in the hopes it helps someone avoid a costly mistake, then so be it. See more

My firm offers various services, such as: - Review Engagement of Financial statements. - Compilation Engagement financial statements. - Corporate and personal taxes and planning. - Corporate reorganization and tax structure planning.... - Assistance with incorporation. - Business consulting services on various matters. - Various other services, see website for more details. Should you find yourself needing a new accountant, please feel free to reach out, as new clients are always welcome. I am happy to have a candid conversation to see if I may be able to be of assistance for your needs. Rod McNeil, CPA, CGA www.rwmcga.com 778-552-0229

Financing tip..... If you are expecting your income to drop significantly in the near future for whatever reason....semi-retirement, going back to school, temporary leave, just cutting back....whatever it may be, "consider" ensuring that you have the maximum of a line of credit against your house already set up with the bank. This means, you get approved to have a secured line of credit against your place, even if you are not using it. Kind of like my bank...i was approved f...or a total debt amount that I could borrow against my place. That limit is always there. I do not have to get approved every time I take out against it. So as I pay my mortgage down, then the unused portion increases that I could thereby, take out as a line of credit. If you do that now while your property value is high and you have a good income, you could have that limit as high as it can be. Then, if your income goes down for whatever reason, but you need money for whatever reason it may be, you have that credit facility available to you, without having to be approved at that time, cause it was already approved and set up before. Otherwise, if you then needed money, and you had to apply with a reduced or non-existent income, you would never get the funds from the bank as you would not have the income to be approved on. I have seen this happen to people in the past. A client for example sold their main business, which is where they earned all of their money from...then a couple of years later, needed funds for something. Well, ya know what...they were pretty much out of luck. They had full equity in their homes and were going to begin earning more income, but because they no longer had much of an income at that particular moment in time, or at least not the past two years of personal returns with income, they were unable to obtain the funds they wanted because they could not fit into the little boxes that the banks have to tick off. So planning ahead is always good. As I said, you don't have to use the line of credit at all...but at least it is there and it is already approved, then if you need to tap into it, you can for whatever reason you need to. Your bank credit facility may already be set up like mine is, so this could be done. But if it is, consider if you are now able to increase the amount and provide even more flexibility! Hope that might have been a helpful idea for some people :) (I should add something else...please, as with all financial matters, be wise about what you are doing. This is meant as nothing more than a general comment from a first hand perspective. Everyone always has to be wise and responsible with their own financial planning and not bit off more than they can chew so to speak. But planning and being proactive with finances, there is nothing wrong with that. As stated though, always implement planning responsibly and what makes sense for your individual circumstances). See more

CRA talk...Use a corporate credit card for your business that earns points? Did you realize that if you use these points for personal reasons, such as personal travel, CRA will nail you with a taxable benefit. Points earned for corporate business purposes being used personally equals taxable benefit to add to your income. Not to mention their lovely potential penalties and of course interest on past due amounts. Remember, using corporate dollars for personal purposes is a no no, unless you properly take it into income and pay tax on it. And yes, this includes points like this. People often just don't realize how off side they are.

Principal Residence selling. Remember, since 2016, you are also required to disclose and report on your tax return the sale of your principal residence. We never used to have to do this, but since 2016, you are required to. If you fail to report this appropriately, then the sale is going to be considered taxable. So make sure you are fully aware of these rules which came into existence. I fear many people still do not realize this. There is an ability to late file the desig...nation, though this carries with it a penalty of $100 per month up to a maximum of $8,000. CRA has been gracious enough thus far, from my understanding, to waive the penalties, allowing people a window period to get up to speed with the rules. But I suspect that grace period is going to fall to the wayside soon enough, as with most things, and people will not be able to avoid the penalty. So if you disposed of a principal residence in 2016 and later years and you did not appropriately disclose, report and designate it as your principal residence on your tax return, I highly suggest you look into taking care of this sooner than later. See more