Tax Strategies for businesses & their owners

Tax Minimization
Our firm has a solid reputation for helping business owners, high net worth individuals, and corporate executives minimize their tax liabilities. We provide careful, thorough tax planning that increases profitability and minimizes liabilities. We offer ideas and advice that help individuals and businesses plan for the lowest possible tax bill.
Our services include:

• Tax planning for corporations, partnerships, estates, and individuals
• Personal financial and retirement planning
• Planning and administration of pension, profit sharing, and other employee benefit plans
• Structuring of mergers, sales and acquisitions
• Valuations of business interests for estate and probate matters
• Representation before Revenue Canada

Business clients need tax advice at many different stages of their business and life cycle:

• Your business becomes profitable and grows
• Your business structure becomes more complex
• The government introduces new tax legislation and tax law changes
• Your business acquires another business or real estate
• Your business divests itself of an operating unit or sells a significant asset
• Your business expands internationally

Personal tax planning services:
There are many ways to reduce income tax liability, apart from the obvious one of claiming all allowable expenses. For example, you may consider choosing different forms of borrowing or investment, taking advantage of the tax relief available on personal pension plans, changing the timing of visits abroad or even moving abroad to achieve non-resident status.
 

Income Sprinkling
In the sprinkling trust, the trustee is given the power to "sprinkle" income, and perhaps principal also, among several beneficiaries (i.e., the spouse and children). If the spouse is already in a relatively high income tax bracket, this can substantially reduce the family tax burden while still keeping all the trust income within the family unit. Sometimes it is the surviving spouse who holds the "sprinkling" power rather than the trustee.The spouse can safely do this without undoing the estate tax benefits at her death so long as she cannot exercise her powers to sprinkle income to herself or in any way for her own benefit. For example, if she has an obligation to support children who are still minors, she should not be able to exercise her sprinkling power so as to discharge her own support obligation.

Giving the trustee or surviving spouse a sprinkling power enables the first-to-die spouse to avoid carving in stone the distribution of trust income and principal before "all the facts are in." Some of the children will undoubtedly have greater financial needs than others, and the sprinkling provision allows this to be taken into account after the first spouse's death.

Many family trusts now contain provisions for sprinkling income among the children or grandchildren rather than distributing all income to the surviving parent. With this flexibility, family income taxes may be reduced and gift taxes minimized.

A revocable living trust, like a will, can provide for marital deduction planning, including formula provisions and qualified terminable interest property arrangements. It can also reduce estate tax on the death of the surviving spouse through credit shelter or bypass provisions. In addition, a revocable living trust can reduce the income tax burden on the surviving spouse by sprinkling income to the children of the trust.

Corporate Restructuring

Buying
The difficulty in purchasing a business is knowing how much to pay since there is rarely a market comparison available. Even when a public company is for sale, the quoted share price may not reflect the real worth of the business. Thus, it is advisable to get expert advice on valuation and negotiation from a chartered accountant.

Selling
You may wish to sell part or the whole of your own business. You will have to put a value on the business and, of course, find a suitable buyer. Here again, a chartered accountant can help by assessing the value of goodwill and assets and, perhaps, by introducing potential purchasers.

Merging
Merging with another business can involve complicated financial negotiation. There may be a transfer of shares or a cash adjustment between the parties and there will probably be a lengthy legal agreement which will need examination from a financial viewpoint. The tax and accounting calculations can sometimes be extremely complex and usually require expert knowledge.

Management Buyout
The raising of finance for a management buyout may involve complicated loan arrangements between the company and the new shareholders. The tax implications also need careful appraisal.

Estate Planning

Who will inherit your property when you die? Who will manage your finances if you become incapacitated? It's important to think about this before illness or death strikes. Our team can help to guide you through the process.

Wills
It is often an advantage to have expert tax and accountancy guidance when drawing up a will, especially if large sums are involved. Carrying out the terms of a will may also need professional help and it is for this reason that chartered accountants are often appointed as executors.

Trusteeships
Whether a trusteeship involves a family settlement, a charity, a pension fund or some other financial trust, the professional knowledge and integrity of chartered accountants make them obvious choices as trustees.

Succession Planning

Succession planning establishes a process that recruits employees, develops their skills and abilities, and prepares them for advancement, while retaining them to ensure a return on the organization's training investment. Succession planning involves:

• Understanding the organization's long-term goals and objectives
• Identifying the workforce's developmental needs
• Determining workforce trends and predictions

In the past, succession planning typically targeted only key leadership positions. In today's organizations, it is important to include key positions in a variety of job categories.

With good succession planning, employees are ready for new leadership roles as the need arises, and when someone leaves, a current employee is ready to step up to the plate. In addition, succession planning can help develop a diverse workforce, by enabling decision makers to look at the future make-up of the organization as a whole.

We can help you focus on a particular step in the succession-planning process, or work with you from start to finish. We can help you and your business:

• Develop a communication strategy
• Identify expected vacancies
• Determine critical positions
• Identify current and future competencies for positions
• Develop a recruitment strategy
• Create assessment and selection tools
• Supplement HR functions to include active recruiting and staffing
• Identify gaps in current employee and candidate competency levels
• Develop Individual Development Plans for employees
• Develop and implement coaching and mentoring programs
• Assist with leadership transition and development
• Develop an evaluation plan for succession management