Last updated: Sep. 18, 2013
For many, tax planning means the once-a-year mad scramble to organize all the necessary paperwork right before the tax filing deadline.
In reality, this is not tax planning. Real tax planning requires a comprehensive approach to your finances and should be tackled year-round.
To reduce the anxiety, careful planning for your tax obligations should be an integral element of a well-crafted financial planning strategy.
Essentially, tax planning involves trying to accomplish all of the other elements of your financial plan in the most tax-efficient manner possible.
All financial transactions have some tax consequences.
Although the tax consequences of some financial actions might not always take precedence, knowing the options you have will lead to better decision making.
Some decisions that tax planning can help with include:
- Timing of income and expenses
- Selection of which investments are in registered versus unregistered plans
- Filing of common available deductions
Some of these tax decisions are time sensitive to gain the most advantage.
FBC offers a year-end tax planning analysis that allows us to basically complete an advance tax return for you.
This allows us to provide you with some steps you can take before the end of the year while there’s still time to affect your 2013 taxes.
Download Our Advanced Tax Planning Tips
This article is an extract of an article by Grant Diamond that appeared in Western Producer, September 5, 2013.