Personal Taxes

As the Canadian personal tax deadline approaches, if we haven't gathered our receipts for the year, there is no time like the present. An ideal way of ensuring that all receipts are always on hand when required, is to keep an annual tax folder, and as receipts arrive in the mail, they should be tucked away in the folder.

What do we do about electronic receipts? Receipts for donations, and other claimable expenses are frequently provided online when we pay by credit card. These maybe (a) printed out immediately on arriving in the inbox, (b) segregated in a separate folder in the cloud (preferably, in the event of a hard drive issue) marked "Taxes - 2016" or (c) both.

With tax software getting more user friendly every year, and software offering skinny deals, it might seem the obvious solution to netfile one's own taxes (or one's family's). However, is this always the correct decision? When there are more than five receipts, it might be worth our while to consult a tax professional, or ask a tax preparer to efile them for us. We may discover little known credits such as the family tax credit or children's fitness credit that should have been applied for. In lieu of payment of a fee, we may arrive at a larger refund than we had deemed possible. We must remember that Canada Revenue Agency requires that our taxes be filed accurately. Taxes must be filed on time when we owe tax. We would also be required to file taxes when we intend to claim a GST / HST credit.

Please contact us rightaway to efile your Canadian personal taxes. I have over ten years' experience in efiling / filing tax returns in Vancouver, BC using a multitude of different tax software. #TrushaDesai.com

#financialcoaching #taxes

Geeky Greeks (not the yogurt kind)

Chart courtesy www.cboe.com

As Spring has sprung and cherry blossom vie with magnolia and tulips for predominance, we are at the close of another weekly options trading day on the $DOW. Did we win? Did we lose? Did we leave with pocket change? Or were we simply assigned? It all depends on our underlying, our bid, our strike, and the all-important Greeks. Whether Delta (rate of change of the option price vis-à-vis the underlying’s price) is your prime focus, or Theta (time sensitivity) and Vega (sensitivity to volatility), it is ideal to look at all the Greeks or as many as you are familiar with, and open your position accordingly. And close it pronto, in a hurry, when the underlying price changes dramatically.

Options have a greater risk possibility than any other financial trade. With stocks, if you have a dividend yield of some sort, there is a high probability of a steady quarterly / monthly / annual income. With bonds, there is the possibility of a steady stream of interest income, provided we have not been too greedy and opted for high yield. With both bonds and stocks, there is a chance of capital gain at some point in the lifetime of the investment or investor … whichever expires earlier. For there is not much of a point in a grow-and-hold investment strategy if you are not going to be around to reap the fruit and all your progeny and heirs will be slapped with is estate duty. Please obtain tax advisory services before you invest. We have over ten years of experience in efiling Canadian personal taxes.

This is merely a dip into a vast mine of information, please obtain advice from your financial planner. We do detailed investment analysis and with over fifteen years of international investment experience, are in a position to provide you with a second opinion. We prepare extensive Capital Gain schedules (Schedule 3, T5018) for Canadian personal taxes.#TrushaDesai.com

Tweet it off

Chart courtesy marketwatch.com/investing

For all those social media fanatics who use $TWTR to air their opinions, follow others, or promote their content, it might be a matter of interest that this stock was at its peak (since inception) on January 3rd 2014 at $69.00 while today, though it has increased by 2.08%, stands at $17.16.

If you were of the buy-and-hold ilk, this might have hit you hard. Just as the stock bubble caused in part by the technology sector of 2008 hit many of us. We either rode the storm with hats in hand, or were bowled over, keel a-splinter. A concern about the technology sector is that many stocks do not give dividends. Therefore, if the stock falls, there is no income to shield the unwary investor. If you are covered by an income-generating options strategy, it might assist you temporarily. Otherwise, you take what is thrown your way, sudsy dishwater or not.

As a tweeter who is approaching well-nigh five thousand tweets, I wonder why $TWTR which is well-liked by media and leading political contenders, business owners and celebrities, with a market cap of $12.11 billion, needs a business strategy that could impel the stock upwards. While $FB inches upwards, while $MSFT showers dividends, while $INTC dithers with chips and computer purchasers, $TWTR may need to expand its market share by the well-tried method of mergers and acquisitions. Just a thought.

Please contact your investment adviser for investment recommendations. We are available to do extensive investment analysis and provide a second opinion. We prepare extensive Capital Gain schedules (Schedule 3, T5018) for Canadian personal taxes. #TrushaDesai.com

#investments #options #strategy