Do This to Legally Pay LESS TAXES in Canada

Summary

In "Do This to Legally Pay LESS TAXES in Canada," Twain Ryan Lee debunks common misconceptions about paying taxes in Canada and shares strategies to minimize tax liabilities legally. The video explains the Canadian progressive tax system, emphasizing the value of understanding how marginal tax rates work. It dives into registered accounts like RRSPs and TFSAs, highlighting their tax-saving benefits. Lee also discusses methods for optimizing deductions and credits, and how real estate ownership and side hustles can impact tax obligations. Tips for utilizing a spousal RSP and dealing with rental income are covered, alongside considerations for claiming Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) on rental properties.

Highlights

• Marginal tax rates in Canada only apply to each part of your income, not your entire earnings 🎯.
• Tax refunds are not free money – they’re your overpaid taxes returned by the government 📬.
• Contributing to an RRSP can lower taxable income and increase tax refunds, especially if employers offer matching contributions 💰.
• Homeowners can explore specific deductions and deferrals, such as property tax deferrals in certain provinces 🌾.
• Freelancers and self-employed individuals can leverage business expenses to lower taxable income, like writing off a portion of a home office 🏡.
• Investment and real estate strategies, such as leveraging CCA, require careful calculation to avoid unexpected tax hits in the future 🧮.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding Canada’s progressive tax system can save you from paying excessive taxes 🤑.
• Using registered accounts like RRSPs can drastically reduce your taxable income while boosting savings 📈.
• Smart tax planning involves taking advantage of deductions and credits available, tailored to personal income situations 💡.
• Real estate investments come with both lucrative tax benefits and complexities, especially concerning capital gains and CCA recaptures 🏠.
• Side hustles should be approached wisely to leverage potential tax savings opportunities, such as business expense deductions 💼.
• Keep an eye on strategic spousal income transfers through spousal RSPs or loans to manage family tax liabilities better 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦.

Overview

Twain Ryan Lee's insightful video guides Canadians on how to reduce their tax burdens legally by understanding and exploiting Canada's progressive tax system. He explains the misconceptions around tax brackets and stresses the importance of strategic financial planning.

The video explores valuable tax-saving strategies including the effective use of RRSPs and TFSAs. These registered accounts can significantly lower taxable income and boost savings, especially when combined with employer matching programs. The advantages of real estate investments are also highlighted, emphasizing tax implications.

Lee advises on efficient debt management techniques, such as turning bad debt into tax-deductible debt and how to approach side hustles or additional income. He also delves into the nuances of CCA recaptures and how careful planning can mitigate tax surprises, making tax understanding a crucial tool in financial planning.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 06:00: Understanding Tax Brackets and Marginal Tax Rates The chapter "Understanding Tax Brackets and Marginal Tax Rates" discusses why many Canadians overpay their taxes each year, and emphasizes that it is legal and possible to avoid overpaying by using the right strategies. Drawing from 12 years of experience as a financial planner, the chapter introduces six key things you need to know to reduce tax payments. The first important concept highlighted is understanding how the government taxes individuals. A common concern is about the impact of a pay raise on one's tax bracket, which could lead to paying more taxes and having less personal money, though this chapter aims to clarify misunderstandings surrounding this issue.
• 06:00 - 18:00: Registered Accounts and Tax Benefits The chapter begins by addressing a common misconception about the Canadian tax system, which is progressive and based on marginal tax rates. This means that higher income leads to being taxed at a higher rate, but this rate only applies to the portion of income within that specific bracket, not the entire income. For instance, earning $70k in British Columbia places someone in the 28% tax bracket; however, not all of the $70k is taxed at 28%. An analogy of tax brackets being like separate piggy banks helps to illustrate this concept.
• 18:00 - 26:30: Self-Employment and Related Tax Strategies The chapter discusses tax strategies related to self-employment income. It explains the concept of tax brackets using the metaphor of 'piggy banks.' Each income bracket can be visualized as a piggy bank that gets filled up with portions of your income, and each bank or bracket is taxed at a different rate. The first bracket's income is taxed at 20%, the second at 22%, and the third at 28%. For example, if you earn $70,000, you will be taxed $9,600 based on these brackets.
• 26:30 - 40:00: Real Estate and Property Tax Benefits The chapter discusses the different income tax brackets and the corresponding amounts, explaining how without deductions or credits, you would pay a total of $15,400 in taxes. It also introduces the concept of tax deductions and tax credits, highlighting the basic personal amount that all Canadians are eligible for as a significant tax credit.
• 40:00 - 45:00: Advanced Tax Strategies and Considerations This chapter delves into advanced strategies and considerations for optimizing tax payments and understanding refund processes. It explains how tax deductions, like a specific $2,992 tax break, can lower the overall tax liability to $12,400. The discussion clarifies common misconceptions about tax refunds, emphasizing that they are not free money from the government. Instead, the HR department estimates and withholds the needed tax amount from each paycheck throughout the year, which often results in a refund if too much is withheld.

Do This to Legally Pay LESS TAXES in Canada Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 have you ever wondered why you're not getting  much tax refunds most Canadians are overpaying   their taxes every year but it's 100% legal to  avoid it if you just know the right strategies   after working 12 years as a financial planner and  hundreds of hours of studying on this topic here   are the top six things to know in order to pay  less taxes number one is how the government taxes   you a friend once asked me if you should take  a pay raise because he was worried that it will   bump him to a higher tax bracket and he'll end  up paying more taxes and less money for himself
• 00:30 - 01:00 this is the biggest misconception people have  regarding taxes in Canada we have a progressive   tax system with marginal tax rates basically the  higher income you earn the higher tax rate will   be but the higher tax rate doesn't apply to your  entire income let me explain for example if you're   earning 70k in BC you'll fall into 28% tax bracket  but that doesn't mean your entire 70k is going to   be taxed at 28% the way that understand this is  Imagine each tax bracket is its own piggy bank and
• 01:00 - 01:30 as you're earning income you fill up each of the  piggy bank one by one until you eventually run out   of income to fill up an entire piggy bank now the  first piggy bank is going to represent the first   tax bracket and all the income you put inside this  piggy bank it's going to be taxed at 20% now when   it comes to the second bracket you're going to be  taxed at 22% and in the third bracket you're going   to be taxed at 28% so when you're earning 70k of  income you'll be paying 9,600 for the income in
• 01:30 - 02:00 the first bracket 1,799 for the income in the  second bracket and 3,985 for the income in the   third bracket so if we add up the total you'll  end up paying $15,400 in taxes but this is before   we claim any tax deductions or tax credits that  we'll be talking about later in this video but the   one tax credit that all Canadians are eligible  for is the basic personal amount and for 2020
• 02:00 - 02:30 for this will give us a tax break of $2,992 so  you end up with $ 12,400 in taxes but you might be   wondering if I'm paying $122,000 in taxes how come  I'm still getting a tax refund every year some   people think it's free money from the government  but that's actually not true the way the tax   process works is that for every paycheck that  you receive your HR already calculated how much   money you're supposed to pay for taxes and then  they take that portion away out of your salary
• 02:30 - 03:00 and prepay that to the government and what happens  here is the HR usually takes more than enough so   that there there's a little bit more extra just to  be safe then in the end when you file your taxes   then you realize that you actually pay too much  to the government and then you receive that money   back in form of a tax refund this is the real  reason why people are getting a tax refund and   you should know that it's your hard-earned money  and not just free money from the government and if   you're working multiple jobs then you often run  into issue where you start owing taxes instead
• 03:00 - 03:30 of receiving a tax refund this is because every  employer assumes that the employe has the basic   personal amount that they haven't claimed yet so  when you have two jobs the second employer likely   doesn't know that you have another job and so they  end up taking less taxes than you're supposed to   surprise surprise you end up owing money when you  file your taxes and of course if you have other   income from Investments or from side hustles then  you're likely going to end up owing taxes because
• 03:30 - 04:00 no taxes were prepaid for any of these income so  how can we pay less taxes then well the secret   is that you could have 100K of salary but end up  with only 70k of taxable income by applying the   Tax Strategies that I'm about to share with you  it's a lot easier than you think but you do need   to be strategic about it and that leads us to the  second thing you need to know about is registered   accounts these accounts can be used to lower our  taxable income so we end up paying less taxes and   getting a bigger tax refund and there are several  types of these registered accounts first there is
• 04:00 - 04:30 the work or group RSP as the name suggest this  is an account that's offered by your employer   so depending on your employer you may or may not  have it so be sure to check with yours to see if   it's available and a work RSP is where you can put  money inside and you can use it to save or invest   and the amount you contribute to this account will  give you a tax deduction which lowers your taxable   income by the same amount so for example if you  have 100,000 000 salary and you contribute 10%
• 04:30 - 05:00 of your income into a group RSP this means that  you'll contribute $110,000 in this and because   this $10,000 will become a tax deduction for us so  our taxable income will actually be lowered from   $100,000 to 90,000 and this will end up giving us  an extra $2,900 in tax refunds another way to look   at this is that the income that we put inside an  RSP account is actually not going to be taxed but   that's not even the best part the best part is  that most employers offer matching when you save
• 05:00 - 05:30 money into this account meaning for every dollar  that you put into this account your employee will   also put in $1 now this is free money from your  employer so just by putting money in this account   you're basically doubling your money without even  doing any Investments this is hands down the best   account you can use to build up your wealth now  a note here though is that because it is an RSP   there are some rules you need to follow when it  comes to withdrawing money out of it first of
• 05:30 - 06:00 all you can withdraw your RSP money out anytime  you want but any amount you withdraw out from it   it will become your taxable income for that year  there are two exceptions to this rule number one   is you're a firsttime home buyer and you're using  the funds to buy your first home in this case you   can withdraw up to $60,000 taxfree in the year  you purchase your home the second exception is   if you go study fulltime and in this case you can  withdraw up to $20,000 taxfree but if you withdraw
• 06:00 - 06:30 your money taxfree under these two conditions you  do need to gradually refill that RSP back up over   a period of 15 or 10 years respectively another  type of register account is the personal RSP this   type of account works the same way as your RSP  in terms of tax deduction and also the withdrawal   rules the only difference is personal rsps are  accounts that you can open with any bank or   financial institution by yourself and you can have  as many RSP account as you want as long as you
• 06:30 - 07:00 stay within the contribution limit the limit is  18% of your last year's income and for any unused   contribution room it will be carried forward  indefinitely for your future use the third type   of account we could use is the fxsa or first Home  Savings Account this account is mainly for people   to save money towards their first home and is only  available for first-time home buyers now if you're   wondering if you're considered a first-time home  buyer as long as you did not live in a home that's
• 07:00 - 07:30 owned by either you or your spouse or common and  partner in the previous four calendar years then   you're considered a first-time home buyer this  also means that if you've purchased a property   and have just been renting it out and never lived  in it yourself then you are also considered a   firsttime home buyer and you're eligible to have  this account the FX Justa works the same way as   the RSP in terms of giving you a tax deduction but  the best part about this is there's no no limit to
• 07:30 - 08:00 how much you can withdraw out taxfree and there's  also no need to refill this account back up after   withdrawing another account you should know is the  tfsa or the taxfree savings account now it doesn't   exactly lower your taxable income so we really  consider this as more of an honorable mention   but why we should also know about this account is  because this account allows us to hold investment   inside and grow it tax-free and it's also a much  more flexible account compared to the RSP or the f   SAA because you can withdraw money out from  this account anytime for any purpose taxfree
• 08:00 - 08:30 we mentioned earlier that if you're doing side  hustles then you might end up owing more taxes but   there are some tax advantages that you should know  about this as well whenever you doing freelance or   contract work you are considered to be running  a self-employed business in the government's   eyes and if you're not sure if you're considered  self-employed the easiest way to tell is to see   if you receive a T4 for the income that you earned  if you didn't receive any tax slips or if you only
• 08:30 - 09:00 received a t4a then chances are you were doing  independent contract work so you're considered   self-employed now why it's so important to make  this distinction is because there are some tax   advantages but there's also some disadvantages to  being a self-employed here's the main difference   number one is any expense that can potentially  help you earn more money in your business you   can claim that as a business expense this is why  we sometimes hear people say that they're writing
• 09:00 - 09:30 off their income because they're essentially  taking their business expense and claiming   it as a tax deduction now these types of expenses  can include operating expenses such as advertising   meals with clients and office expenses as well as  any equipment that you use for example your laptop   uh your camera or even software subscriptions  and if you need to drive around for the work   or to meet clients you can also claim the vehicle  expenses including gas maintenance insurance and
• 09:30 - 10:00 even lease payments for example if you earn a 100K  income and you bought $20,000 worth of business   expenses then your taxable income will become  $80,000 the second difference is home office   expenses employees can claim home office expenses  as well as long as they have assigned 2200 form by   their employer but the list of eligible expenses  are much more limited compared to someone who's
• 10:00 - 10:30 self-employed the biggest difference is as a  self- employer you can clean mortgage interest   property taxes home insurance whereas employees  can't these are significant costs for a homeowner   and just by being self-employed and working from  home you can clean a portion of those expenses   to write off your income the third difference is  EI premiums for employees EI premiums are about   $1,000 a year but for self-employed EI becomes  optional so you could potentially save $1,000
• 10:30 - 11:00 but of course that means giving up the maternity  or the sickness benefits and the fourth difference   is CPP as an employee you pay 5.95% of your income  as a CPP and your employer will pay another 5.95%   to the government for you but as a self-employed  you're basically considered as your own employer   so this means that you're actually paying double  the amount so you're paying 11.9% of CPP instead   next is tax deductions and credit credits there  are countless deductions and credits available
• 11:00 - 11:30 but here are the most commonly used ones first  is the child care expense deduction and this   is for families where both spouses are working  and they need to send their kid to a daycare the   lower income spouse gets to claim up to $88,000 of  deduction for the expenses paid for any children   under age 7 or up to $5,000 if their kid is  between 7 to 16 years old the second deduction is   when you can turn your bad debt into good debts  which means that you're turning your interest
• 11:30 - 12:00 that's normally not tax deductible into something  that can become tax deductible this usually   requires more advanced planning or strategies  like Leverage investing and is normally used by   higher income earners for example if someone has  a $10,000 debt and they have a $10,000 investment   what he can do is he can sell this investment and  use the money to pay off this debt then he can use   a personal line credit or a home equity line of  credit and take out 10,000 to put it back into his
• 12:00 - 12:30 Investments by doing this he still has $110,000  of investment and he still owes $110,000 but now   instead of the original debt he now owes $110,000  to a personal line of credit or a home equity line   of credit but now the difference is the interest  expense that he needs to pay is now tax deductible   because he effectively borrowed money to invest  and so he can claim a tax deduction under carrying   charges on line 22100 I do want to point out  though that this strategy is not for everyone
• 12:30 - 13:00 because there is a number of factors that you need  to consider such as tax implications investment   returns time Horizon also the risk tolerance and  interest rates some people further extend this to   something called A Smith maneuver in order to make  their mortgage payments become tax deductible as   well next is the medical expense tax credit now  we can only clean medical expenses if the total   exceeds 3% of our net income now for people with  spouses you can claim all the mental expense under
• 13:00 - 13:30 1% so this way it's easier to exceed that 3% of  income most people just add up all the expenses   they have from January 1st to December 31st  but you don't have to use this period the   government actually allows us to use any 12-month  period that's ending in the same tax year so for   example in your 2024 tax return you could claim  medical expenses from February 2023 to February
• 13:30 - 14:00 2024 as long as you haven't claimed the expenses  in the previous year's tax return when this might   be useful is when there's a year where you had a  lot of medical expenses but not a lot of income   in that year in that case instead of wasting the  medical expense and not getting any tax savings   you can save it up for the next year to see if  you can get a bigger tax return another one is   the donations tax credit for donations you  can also combine both spouse's donations and
• 14:00 - 14:30 claim it under one person and this is beneficial  because you actually get more tax savings when   your donation amount total is over $200 so if  your total donation amount is less than2 200 in   a year then you might want to consider saving it  and claiming it in a future year so that you add   up to a total that's over $200 aside from using  the deductions and tax credits there's also other   ways that you can split income to your spouse  or other family members for example you could
• 14:30 - 15:00 use the child care expense deduction that we  mentioned earlier and use that to split income   to your other family members for example you can  consider asking the grandparents to help babysit   and this way you can pay them a childcare fee then  claim it as a tax deduction on the other hand the   family member who's helping you babysit will need  to report that as part of their income and this   type of income would be considered a self-employed  income as well so you could also make use of the   business expenses that we mentioned earlier and  depending on their income they might also qualify
• 15:00 - 15:30 for the Canada workers benefit that's going to be  an additional $1,400 in tax refunds the second way   to split income is by using a spousal RSP account  this type of RSP account is for families where one   spouse is earning significantly higher income  than the other spouse so what happens here is   the higher income spouse will use their own  contribution room and they would actually   contribute and into a spousal RSP account  that's basically owned by this lower income
• 15:30 - 16:00 spouse now when you do it this way the higher  income spouse gets to use the tax deduction so   it can save a lot more taxes while the money is  going to stay inside an account that's under The   spouse's name so this way it will help you with  future withdrawals because the future withdrawals   will also become taxable income but instead of  it being under the higher income spouse's name   now the RSP income is going to be part of of the  lower income spouse so in the end you actually
• 16:00 - 16:30 reduce a lot more taxes for the family the third  income strategy is something called the spousal   loan this is a more Advanced Tax strategy that's  more for higher income families and this is where   the higher income spouse would basically loan the  money to the lower income spouse and there will   be some interest rate at the CRA prescribed rates  then your spouse would then take the funds and use   it to invest similar to the spousal RSP by doing  it this way all the future investment income will
• 16:30 - 17:00 be taxed under the lower income spouse's name now  with this strategy the government is quite strict   so you do you need to make sure the lower income  spouse actually pays the annual interest to the   higher income spouse otherwise if you forget to  do that in that year then the income earned from   the investments will then be attributed back to  the higher income spouse so instead of it being   taxed at a lower rate now it's going to go back  to being taxed at a higher rate as for the higher   income spouse they do need to report the annual  interest as taxable income as well if you're
• 17:00 - 17:30 considering this strategy you should consider  working with a tax lawyer and also be mindful   that there's going to be ongoing costs such as  legal fees or accounting fees to maintain the   spousal loan this strategy is not as attractive  as it used to be because it used to be 1 to 2%   prescribed rate but now it's actually at 6% but  it's still worth considering if you can expect   to get a higher investment return compared to the  Pres subcribe rate also interest rates have begun
• 17:30 - 18:00 dropping as well so you might want to keep this in  mind if you're in the position to take advantage   of this now when it comes to real estate a lot of  people like to own multiple properties and there's   actually a good reason why it's because there are  many tax benefits When you own a real estate for   one when you own a property and you live in  it yourself you do qualify for the principal   residence exemption which basically means the home  that you live in is going to be taxfree when you   sell it in the future with our home being the big  biggest asset that we likely will have having it
• 18:00 - 18:30 taxfree will make a huge impact to your overall  wealth also when it comes to paying property   taxes with your principal residents there are some  provinces like BC or Ontario that offer government   programs that let you defer your property taxes so  people who are eligible can actually stop paying   their property taxes and pay it later with a low  annual interest rate you can defer the taxes until   you eventually sell the property or when you do a  refinance on the property different provinces have
• 18:30 - 19:00 different criteria but in BC if you have a child  that's under 18 years old or if you're 55 years   old then you qualify for this program the idea is  that you can free up the cash flow so instead of   using that money to pay the government you can  now use the money for multiple things right you   can either use it to uh pay for living expenses  or you can use it to build up your investment   savings or you can contribute into your RSP for  additional tax savings or if you have a child you   can use the money to contribute into Rees to get  the 20% Grant or you can use it to enhance your
• 19:00 - 19:30 estate plan by using the money to buy and life  insurance policy and the tax benefits don't just   stop at the principal residence when you own a  property and you're renting it out we're able   to generate rental income and usually the rental  income is going to be taxable now that doesn't   sound too good right well yes but not really the  reason is because you can actually use rental   expenses to offset the the rental income that  you make so for example if you own a property
• 19:30 - 20:00 and you're renting it out for 2,500 a month this  means in a year you'll earn $30,000 in total and   imagine if you have a full-time job and you add  another 30k on top that's going to be a lot of   taxes but according to the 50-page publication  by the CRA a lot of things can be claimed as a   rental expense to write off your rental income for  example you can write off your operating expenses   home insurance property taxes rep pairs mortgage  interest and even depreciation and because of
• 20:00 - 20:30 this now it becomes a lot more attractive let's  say your rental expenses cost about 20% of the   rental income that you make so in our example  with 30k of rental income your expense is going   to be 6K then you can also deduct the mortgage  interest but keep in mind you need to separate   out the mortgage payment to see which part is  the interest and which part is the principal   because we can only deduct the interest portion  of the mortgage pay payments and let's say the   mortgage interest comes out to 20,000 in a year  so that means we can take away 6,000 and another
• 20:30 - 21:00 20,000 out from our 30k rental income so in the  end we'll only have $4,000 of taxable rental   income but that's not even all you can also claim  depreciation on your Furnitures or appliances and   even the rental property itself and when you  claim depreciation you can actually choose how   much you want to to depreciate by for example if  your rental expenses already reduces your rental
• 21:00 - 21:30 income to zero then there's probably no point  for you to use additional depreciation in that   case you can actually choose to not depreciate  your property on paper and save it for future   years and you can use that to reduce your income  down the road however there are a few nuances to   this especially when it comes to depreciating the  rental property itself while claiming depreciation   does give you a lot of tax savings every year it  might also bump up your taxable income by a huge
• 21:30 - 22:00 amount in the year that you sell your property  this is because there's something called a CCA   recapture and this happens when you sell an  asset for more than it's undepreciated Capital   cost which is the remaining value of the asset on  paper after depreciation so for example let's say   you purchased property for $600,000 and you sold  the property 5 years later for $7 ,000 then you   would have a capital gain of $100,000 and since  the inclusion rate for capital gains is 50% that
• 22:00 - 22:30 means we would take 100K of capital gain times 50%  that will give us the taxable capital gain amount   of 50k and this will be the amount that's going  to be added onto our taxable income but let's   compare what happens if you chose to claim CCA or  depreciation on your rental property let's say you   claimed 100K on depreciation for your property  then the undepreciated capital cost would be
• 22:30 - 23:00 600k minus 100K so it would equal 500k remember we  sold the property for 700k right so when the UCC   amount is less than how much you sold it for then  this is where a CCA recapture happens and that   means the difference between 700k to 500k this  $200,000 difference is going to be added onto your   taxable income and the worst part is this will be  considered income and not cash capital gains so it   means you would need to add 200k of taxable income  for that year now this might sound horrible so you
• 23:00 - 23:30 might be wondering how come people still choose  to claim CCA then well there's definitely a lot   of people who claim CCA because they just don't  know the full consequence of claiming depreciation   on the rental property all they're focusing on is  probably the potential tax savings that they were   going to get every single year but this doesn't  mean that the strategy is all that bad it just   requires proper calculations and planning to make  sure that it's worthwhile because sometimes saving
• 23:30 - 24:00 a chunk of taxes every year and using those tax  savings to invest may actually get you a lot more   ahead even if it means you need to pay a bigger  chunk of taxes later on down the road generally   speaking the longer you plan to hold on to your  property before selling the more attractive   claiming CCA will be because you would have more  time to invest your tax savings and try to get   ahead before the CCA recapture happens another  consideration is that claiming CCA actually
• 24:00 - 24:30 takes away your ability to use the change of use  elections for different capital gains a lot of   people don't know this but if you ever decide  to move back into your rental property it is   considered a change of use and in the C's eyes  they would consider to have sold the property on   the day that you moved back in and repurchase the  property on the same day now that might not sound   like much but what it means is when this happens  the GI would be expecting you to pay a capital
• 24:30 - 25:00 gains tax on any appreciation that has happened  for your property when you haven't even sold the   property yet you simply just move back into a  property that you've been renting out and you   will be charged capital gains tax the way around  this is to make a change of use election but the   danger of claiming CCA on your rental property  is that it disqualifies you from making such   elections so to summarize the decision to claim  CCA does require thorough tax planning because it   depends on how long you plan to hold the property  what's your risk tolerance what's the investment
• 25:00 - 25:30 returns that you're expecting and that leads  me to the last thing that you need to know and   that is you might just be focusing on the wrong  thing all these Advanced strategies won't matter   if you're not even getting your fundamentals right  and you keep making silly mistakes with your money   without even realizing click here to learn the  number one tfsa mistake Canadians are making uh