by ABS Professionals | Nov 18, 2016 | Articles, Blog
In an economy that is still, quite obviously, recovering from the downturn in 2008 the unemployment rate across the country has proven to be a roller coaster ride.
Despite adding a reported 26,200 jobs in August the unemployment rate is still climbing to levels that have been seldom seen.
The boon in August was severally offset by the loss of over 31,000 jobs in July and the full number now hovers around 7% unemployment which is up from the 6.9% in July.
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by ABS Professionals | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Blog
Summer has flew by and now it’s time to start thinking about the Fall. Every season brings some changes to our lifestyles and at the same time changes to our finances.
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by ABS Professionals | Jul 27, 2016 | Articles, Blog
In this day and age of 24/7 connectivity and social media passion most people are aware of the fact that there are people around the world who spend every waking moment trying to figure out ways of parting you with your hard earned money in any way possible. One way of doing this is to steal the identity of an individual and then taking out loans and mortgages in that person’s name without their knowledge.
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by ABS Professionals | Apr 21, 2016 | Articles, Blog
Alberta’s Finance Minister, Joe Ceci, delivered the new provincial budget, forecasting an almost $58 billion debt within 3 years.
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by ABS Professionals | Apr 19, 2016 | Articles, Blog
It is astonishing just how many people figure that they have a good handle on the requirements for their tax filing. Yet there are thousands of taxpayers that end up doing their taxes wrong or end up losing some potential savings because of their wrong assumptions. There are some very common tax issues that you should be aware of for your boosting up your income tax knowledge, and if you don’t boost up your basic income tax knowledge than it will cause you problems.
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by ABS Professionals | Apr 6, 2016 | Articles, Blog
This is one budget that a lot more people were uneasily waiting to see than perhaps those that had taken place previously. This is because of all of the promises that were made on the campaign platform by Prime Minister Trudeau.
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by ABS Professionals | Mar 23, 2016 | Articles, Blog
No matter how big or small your business is you have to do some form of marketing in order to drive up your business. If your business is an online entity then you have many more advantages to you when it comes to marketing with prices being far more reasonable. However, there will always be some form of cost involved if you want to run the marketing campaigns that are going to have the outreach that is necessary to bring you the results.
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by ABS Professionals | Feb 9, 2016 | Articles, Blog
Being as we are now in a tax season every individual looks at what is best for them when it comes to getting breaks on their taxes. One group of people that gets very confused and overwhelmed during tax season is the seniors.
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by ABS Professionals | Feb 1, 2016 | Articles, Blog
It is really difficult for individuals that have speech impairments or are hard of hearing to be able to deal with the CRA via the telephone. The CRA is making every effort to be as transparent as possible and to be as approachable by every taxpayer.
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by ABS Professionals | Jan 6, 2016 | Articles, Blog
A cooperative business is one where a group of people have a common goal that they want to meet and they do this by forming a cooperative business entity. The group that is forming the business are called the members. While this type of business has many similarities to the common types of businesses that we are most aware of there are some differences.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 31, 2015 | Articles, Blog
Most average families have gotten to the point where they are really scaling up their efforts on cutting back their expenses and looking for innovative ways of making a few extra dollars or savings. When there is something free being offered a lot of people tended to opt for it. A good example of this is air miles and one of the latest fads is the cash back credit cards.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 30, 2015 | Articles, Blog
Usually when the finances begin to get out of control it’s because there is a lot of debt that has to be dealt with. When this happens individuals then start looking for solutions to be able to turn things around. One of the options that often gets put on the table is looking at the consolidations of loans.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 27, 2015 | Articles, Blog
One of the most famous happenings when it comes to the New Year is the New Year’s resolutions that a multitude of people put in place. They usually start thinking about this seriously between the week of Christmas and New Year’s and then when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve they are ready to start on a new path in life.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 15, 2015 | Articles, Blog
It is truly hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. In many ways it has been an eventful year with it being an election one. As the year comes to a close the general aura of the Canadian population seems to be one with a more positive outlook.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 12, 2015 | Articles, Blog
For a lot of people money is tight at any time of year, but this situation can become most depressing around the Christmas Celebration in Canada. This is because there are so many financial expectations that arise. Families are expected to decorate their homes in keeping with the season. There are at least a few gifts to buy and there are family gatherings where some form of refreshments have to be served.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 11, 2015 | Articles, Blog
During the Christmas season there are so many social events where people have the chance to get together and just socialize. It has been an age old concept that there are three subjects that really should never be discussed. These are death, politics and taxes. So what are the reasons for this, and why maybe should this taboo of not speaking about these subjects?
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 2, 2015 | Articles, Blog
There are a lot of people that have adapted to online shopping that didn’t normally use their computers for anything other than checking their email or perhaps playing a few games. The convenience of doing this has caught on and there are some great opportunities that are available for doing your Christmas shopping online. However, there are a lot of precautions that need to be taken at the same time. If you are a seasoned online shopper then you know all the potential dangers and pitfalls that you could be coming up against and you know how to avoid these.
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by ABS Professionals | Dec 1, 2015 | Articles, Blog
Usually when we are planning the Christmas budget the main focus is on the gift buying expenses. What we tend to forget is about all the additional expenses that comes with this festive season. If you take these into account when planning your budget then you will find that you are able to stick to it much easier and really keep your overall expenses down.
The Christmas decor
It usually begins with the Christmas decorating. It is really very difficult to refrain buying at least a few new ornaments and a core each year because of all of the wonderful selections that we are faced with as soon as Halloween passes. There is certainly nothing wrong with buying one or two pieces each year but these should be planned for and budgeted for. Try to make it a habit to only buy something that is really going to be put to good use, and that you are not just buying it because you have become enthralled with its looks. At the same time in order to prevent yourself from becoming overburdened with a multitude of decorations only buy if you are going to be replacing something which means getting rid of the original.
It is also a good idea to go through your Christmas decor and see what needs to be discarded and what needs to be replaced before you start out on your shopping ventures. Try to attack all the segment of the festive season as you would when buying any other type of decor for your home.
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by ABS Professionals | Nov 24, 2015 | Articles, Blog
There is no shortage of what we have to teach our children and we certainly need to concentrate on life skills that are going to carry them forward into their future. Part of these life skills is teaching them money management, and it is often the question as to at what age do parents start with this form of teaching.
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by ABS Professionals | Oct 13, 2015 | Articles, Blog
If you offer your employee with a Cellular Phone or Internet Service at home in order for them to carry out their employment duties, the business use is not a Taxable Benefit. However, you must included the value of the personal use in your employee’s income as a Taxable Benefit.
Calculating the Taxable Benefit
As the employer, you are accountable for determining the percentage of business use and the Fair Market Value (FMV). You must be developed to justify your position if requested by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The value of the Benefit is based on the FMV of the service, minus any amounts your Employee reimburses the company. You can only use your cost to calculate the value of the Benefit if it reflects the FMV. This means that if the Employee was to purchase comparable Services as an individual, what would they pay.
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