IPBC's Topics and Tips Newsletter 'Dear TaxDetective®' is a monthly column that answers burning questions about accounting and tax. Remember Dear Ann? Well now's your chance-- ask Dear TaxDetective a tough question. Send your questions to info@ipbc.ca

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Dear TaxDetective®

Copyright 2009 Eileen Reppenhagen Dear TaxDetective

My employer has been paying the post secondary tuition for my child. I work at a University. In the past this benefit has been added to my T4.

I have been advised by my employer that I will be receiving a revised T4 for 2007 and 2008 to reduce my income by the amount of the tuition paid by my employer for my son's tuition. My son will be receiving a T4 instead for 2007 and 2008. What gives?

Tax Detective:

On August 12, 2009, CRA released new guidelines for employer-paid educational costs. Retroactive to 2007, income will be adjusted between the parties. This is based on court cases that went before the Tax Court of Canada, and were appealed and upheld on appeal by the Federal Court of Appeal.

If your employer paid for tuition for family members, income previously attributed to you will be revised. Expect a revised T4 for 2007 and 2008 that will reduce your employee income. The benefactor of this largesse by your employer will be receiving a T4 to increase their income instead. This may not affect their income to the level where it's taxable, but it may.

What to be on the lookout for:

This increase in income of your child or grandchild might, depending on the numbers, result in a reduction in the amount of education and tuition and textbook amount transferrable to you.

It may be necessary to review all family tax returns for 2007 and 2008 to determine the tax consequences of this adjustment.

Some employers have not yet issued these revised T4 slips. It might be wise to alert your clients whose employers pay the tuition for family members to be on the lookout for these revised T4's for prior years and not to leave these until April. CRA will re-assess when T4's are revised. To minimize any potential penalties or interest, it might be wise to review these years before tax season.

During tax season you'll want to be on the lookout for any revised T4's included with the wrong tax year and to check the prior years' for re-assessments by accessing their My Account records. It would be a good idea to check that all the calculations were carried out for all parties to the adjustment.

For more information check out http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/dctn/ttn-eng.html

Click here for a related article that appeared in the National Post.

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This column is written by Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and Honorary Member, IPBC

Do you have a question about tax? Send Eileen your question for a future column via eileen@taxdetective.ca

Visit her fabulous website at www.taxdetective.ca

From The Executive Director's Desk

Imagine networking with some of the top bookkeepers in the country. Imagine the chance to be on the fast track to a more lucrative practice . . . to being a certified professional bookkeeper (CPB) . . . and to receiving greater professional recognition inside and outside of this network. Regional Meetings are a vital part of that formula for success.

They're a unique chance to combine learning - a guest speaker shares expertise that's sure to make your work a bit easier - with fun and powerful networking. Every meeting is free to attend.

There are no meetings in December...Happy holidays everyone!

Upcoming Meetings

Grande Prairie - January 6th -Taxes: GST, Payroll, and Preparer Liability; presented by: Don Blonke & Vicki Townsend of BDO Dunwoody

Nanaimo - January 11th - TBA

Red Deer - January 14th - What an Accountant wants for year end presented by: Cindy J. Parker, ACIA CA of ProVerus LLP

Winnipeg - January 18th - TBA

Toronto East - January 18th - Putting Your Best Forward-Obtaining Financing for Small Business Owners; presented by: Myron Simon of Bank Of Montreal

Kitchener- January 20th - Amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act; presented by: Jay Harris and Adam Fisher of Harris & Partners, Inc.

Calgary- January 20th- 7 Steps To Successful Marketing; presented by: Cidnee Stephens of Startegies For Success

Vancouver - January 21st - TBA

Edmonton - January 21st - TBA

Halifax - January 21st - TBA

Toronto West - January 25th - Putting Your Best Forward-Obtaining Financing for Small Business Owners presented by: Myron Simon of Bank Of Montreal

Kelowna -January 26th - TBA

Victoria - January 26th - TBA

St. Catharines - January 26th - TBA

North Bay - January 27th - Errors & Omissions Insurance; speaker TBA

Prince George - January 28th - Marketing Tips for Small Business; presented by Dan Boudreau of Riskbusters

Ottawa - January - TBA

Regina - January - TBA

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UPCOMING National Phone Conferences:

January 21st - Social Media; presented by Jess Sloss of Giant Ant Media

February 17th - Payroll Compliance Issues; resented by Steven Van Alstine, VP of Compliance for the Canadian Payroll Assoc.

March 17th - Human Resources Issues; presented by Joan Noel of Lightcycles Coaching

April 21st - Brand Me! Presented by Matthew Peterson of Accounting Cycle

SPECIAL EVENT

"A Review of Profile Tax Software"

Tuesday December 8th, 2009 at 11:30am PT

Brief summary of the presentation

Are you torn about which tax software to buy? The Profile discount by December 15 is just around the corner. Great tax software will save you time and money, ease staff training demands, and lower staff turnover. Join us for an hour to review best practices for Profile T1, T2, T3 and FX. Our presenter has used Profile for clients since 2001 and recently presented this workshop for the Fraser Valley CGA Computer User Group.

Also joining us will be two representatives from Intuit supporting product and technical questions.

Time: 11:30am PT - 12:30pm PT

Cost: The meeting is free; toll charges to access the call will be your responsibility or, you may use a VOIP connection.

Topic: "A Review of Profile Tax Software"

Presenter: Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA

SPEAKER BIO:

Eileen Reppenhagen writes about tax and accounting for several publications including Intuit's Advisor Advantage, Canadian Money Saver, The TaxLetter and contributes a Dear TaxDetective column for IPBC's e-Newsletter. She is a Certified General Accountant, Honorary Member, Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada, Advanced Communicator Gold, Competent Leader (Toastmasters designations).

Known as the TaxDetective, she's a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Esteemed Member of Intuit's Accounting Professionals Writer/Trainer Network who makes time to volunteer to advise Canada Revenue Agency on Benefits Administration. ,p>. Besides designing and maintaining her own website, www.taxdetective.ca, you'll find her on LinkedIn, Blogging, and answering questions on the IPBC Forum.

To make a reservation for this event, please click on the link https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/323158971 .

The connection details will be emailed to you automatically.

SPECIAL EVENT

"New GAAP for Small and Medium Enterprises"

Brief summary of the presentation

Sometime in December 2009 the Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) will release a new GAAP for private enterprises to take effect for financial years commencing January 1, 2011. This will be the most extensive change to Canadian GAAP in the last 15 years and its release in December is meant to give providers of financial statements sufficient time to make a decision about what accounting standards they will choose to use from January 1, 2011.

However, if your financial year commences on or after January 1, 2011 won't you need to have comparatives for 2010? Absolutely! So you need to be planning for the transition now!

In this webinar you will find out what your choices are if you are preparing accounts in 2010, what standards will be changing, whether the changes affect accounting or just disclosure and if IFRS will have an impact on accounting for private enterprises.

Time: 11:30am PT - 12:30pm PT

Cost: The meeting is free; toll charges to access the call will be your responsibility, or you may use a VOIP connection.

Topic: "New GAAP for Small and Medium Enterprises"

Presenter: Paul Ennis, CGA of The Alberta CGA Association

To make a reservation for this event, please click on the link https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/329706106 .

The connection details will be emailed to you automatically.

Package: Ten sessions, each two hours long, total of twenty hours training, at your desk

Leader: Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Author, Speaker, Honorary Member, IPBC, Esteemed Member, Intuit's Professional Accountant Writer/Trainer Network

Technology: GoToMeeting and Skype or your long distance carrier

When: Monday November 30, or Friday December 4, plus 1st three Mondays each month, December 7 until February 18, 2010

Time: 2 hours 9:30 am to 11:30 am Pacific Time:

Schedule: Monday's

1. Nov 30 2009 or Dec 4, 2009 (Friday): Start a new company, Preferences, Lists and Registers

2. December 7, 2009: Systems Design including Preferences, User setup, Internal controls

3. December 14, 2009: Customers/Vendors, Reconcile and Report

4. December 21, 2009: Receivables and Payables, Inventory, Project Accounting

5. January 4, 2010: Sales Tax & Multi-currency

6. January 11, 2010: Payroll Set up, Employee Set up

7. January 18, 2010: Paying employees, Reconcile, Pay liabilities and Reporting (T4 / ROE)

8. February 1, 2010: Essentials and Housekeeping, Processing & Reports

9. February 8, 2010: Workarounds and Year End, Caseware and Profile

10. February 15, 2010: Conversion Day, Month One, Special projects & Troubleshooting

Package price: $500; Special for IPBC members: $250

Individual sessions: $95 per session...subject to availability

Fine Print: Minimum 6 participants. Course materials for each session copyright protected, all rights restricted, not for distribution. Individual session registration: Cut-off for course registration is Friday noon of prior week. All course delivery is subject to variables of health or technology. Any presentations not delivered for any reason will be made up on the fourth Monday of that month. Watch your email on Sunday evening for the GoToMeeting Invite.

To register email eileen@taxdetective.ca or call Eileen at 604-943-7414

IPBC is please to present Quickbooks training from beginners to advanced. The videos will guide you through the process of making the most of your Quickbooks software package.

Many thanks to Intuit Canada for providing these to us.

The videos can be found at http://www.ipbc.ca/cont_education/seminars.aspx

IPBC welcomes the following members:

Alberta

Angela J Guspodaryk, Calgary

Erin Bricker, Blackie

Joanne Holland, Grande Prairie

Carmen Morin, Morinville

Darlene Lafond, Morinville

Bac Pham, Calgary

Tanya Hickman, Calgary

Dino De Guzman, Edmonton

Tammy Massa, Edmonton

Barbara Baker, Beaumont

British Columbia

Kevin Lamming, Prince George

Maureen McGee, Prince George

(Gary) Jihong Liang, Richmond

Rosella Boulton, Kamloops

Lisa Stretton, Powell River

Melanie Klammer, Chilliwack

Anne Brainerd, North Vancouver

Ross Buck, North Vancouver

Allan Ross, Coquitlam

Patricia Barr, Kelowna

Ontario

Vicky Anderson, Toronto

Stephen Tepperman, Thornhill

Patricia Letterio, Tottenham

Mahad Mohamed, Toronto

Laura Goodale, Hamilton

Grace Bozzo, Thornhill

Mei Kwong, Pickering

Wendy McConachie, Peterborough

Linda Stephens, Peterborough

Penny Brando, Kingsville

Susan Armstrong, Mississauga

Carrie Beth Mulrooney, Kitchener

Cheryl Hannaford, North York

Michelle Diemand, Guelph

IPBC congratulates the following members who became Certified Professional Bookkeepers in November:

Alberta

Gord McFarlane, CPB, Calgary

British Columbia

Bren Raiska, CPB, Victoria

Helen Emma Hall, CPB, Coquitlam

Marian Rice, CPB, Maple Ridge

New Brunswick

Angela Stewart, CPB, Miramichi

Ontario

Debbie Berg, CPB, North York

T2Canada.ca is the virtual office of MacFarlane and Company Chartered Accountant.

They provide online corporate tax preparation and filing services to their professional bookkeeper partners.

The website has been designed to be of service to the bookkeepers of small Canadian business corporations who use Sage Accounting software.

T2Canada.ca combines all the advantages of having a Chartered Accounting firm prepare and file your corporate tax returns with the convenience and cost savings of the internet.

www.T2Canada.ca

There is no substitute for knowledge. To this day, I read three newspapers a day. It is impossible to read a paper without being exposed to ideas. And ideas.. more than money.. are the real currency for success.

-Eli Broad

If you are an IPBC member, you should proudly be displaying the IPBC logo along with a link, so your visitor can learn a little about your professional association. Membership in IPBC gives you an edge over your competition.

Show the world that you belong to a professional association for professional bookkeepers by adding a short informational video about IPBC to your signature line in your email program. The link, entitled 'View this short informational video about IPBC' is found below.

In Outlook, click 'Tools', followed by 'Options', 'Mail format', 'Signatures', and 'New' or 'Edit', depending if you already have a signature. Then copy and paste the link, "View this short informational video about IPBC", into this spot. Click 'OK'.

Feel free to contact us at info@ipbc.ca with any questions.

The purpose of the IPBC newsletter is to assist Canadian bookkeepers with tools, ideas, and resources to make your business efforts easier, and to help your business grow by delivering timely and thoughtful information. Do you have a story to share? Words of wisdom? Pass them along to us.

Email karenl@ipbc.ca

View this short informational video about IPBC