The Power of Diversification: Safeguarding Your Investment Portfolio
When it comes to building a successful investment portfolio, one of the most crucial principles is diversification. Diversification has become an important strategy in client portfolios over the last few years as a pandemic, wars and political events have significantly affected portfolio returns.
Diversification involves spreading your investments across various asset classes, industries, and geographical regions. In this blog, we will explore the reasons why diversification is essential and how it can help you achieve your financial goals while managing risk effectively.
Roth IRAs held by Canadian Residents
US citizens living in Canada or those who worked in the US in the past and later moved to Canada often have Roth IRAs. They may wonder what the impact is of contributing to their Roth IRA as a Canadian resident. After all, it is quite possible for a Canadian resident contribution to be made inadvertently, for example, right after a move to Canada or as part of a US citizen’s desire to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts beyond the TFSA and RRSP available to Canadian residents. Roth IRAs, like TFSAs, are funded with after-tax dollars and feature tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals as long as the IRS’s holding requirements are met.
A Canada-US Comparison of Maternity Leave Benefits
There is a lot of responsibility that comes with caring for a baby – emotionally, physically, and of course, financially. With inflation at record highs, affording the necessities in addition to taking time off work to care for your newborn can be a stressful undertaking. Compounding the burden is the fact that paid maternity or parental leave can be considered a luxury or a right depending on your employer or government. In this article we’re going to examine such paid leaves from a US and Canadian cross-border perspective.
In Canada, there are two primary sources of financial assistance to help those transitioning into parenthood: maternity and parental leave and maternity and parental benefits.
Mortgage Interest Deduction in Canada and the U.S.
With skyrocketing mortgage interest rates upon us, now may be an opportune time for a refresher on the cross-border differences in mortgage interest tax deductibility in Canada and the U.S.
Canadian Rules
There’s a reason why Canadians are famously averse to mortgage debt and generally prefer to pay down their mortgages as quickly as possible: mortgage interest on a personal use property unfortunately isn’t tax-deductible in Canada. That means that, by and large, Canadians are stuck making their mortgage payments with after-tax dollars.
If a property is generating rental, business, or professional income however, that’s a different story – mortgage interest on a property that is used for these purposes is tax-deductible as an operating expense against the gross income generated.
New CRA Rules to Report Beneficial Ownership of Trusts
With the Canadian tax season now behind us, this is a good time to go over the newly released CRA trust reporting rules that will come into effect for the 2023 tax year. On December 15, 2022, Bill C-32, which enacted the enhanced trust reporting rules, received royal assent. The new rules will require trusts that have a taxation year on or after December 31, 2023 to comply with the new reporting requirements.
How will departure tax impact me?
I currently live in Toronto and received a job offer in Houston, Texas. My wife and I are looking to relocate in the next 3-4 months. I’m worried about how much tax I’ll have to pay when I move. I asked my existing financial advisor, and they mentioned it is called departure tax, but they weren’t sure how it would apply to me. The articles I’m reading online are conflicting, saying I’ll have to pay tax on my real estate and investments, but others saying I won’t have any tax? I’m so confused, could you please explain how this departure tax will impact me?