| The Top Ten List: Part 4 |
Dateline: 01/11/99
Revised: 10/24/99
Originally this article consisted of a humorous Top Ten List and a serious one. I've split the article in two for your convenience.
There are a lot of resources on taxation and RRSPs on the Internet, so narrowing it down to 10 must be subjective. I've tried to include a good selection of general sites as well as some specialty sites focusing on particular issues. As before, I'm looking more at the usefulness of the website than to any merits of the producer of the website. There are other accountancy firms every bit as good as KPMG or Ernst & Young, for example, but their websites were not as useful as those other two and so are not included. I have not included any tax software sites, but you can find them in my collection of Tax Net Links. The sites are listed in alphabetical order.
1. Canadian Relocation & Expatriate Taxation Resource Centre - For Canadians who want to escape the evil clutches of Revenue Canada (or who already have and want to keep it that way), Peter J. Simpson is a Calgary based Chartered Accountant specializing in tax services for expats and would-be expat retirees. They market a Retirement Destination Guide and Canadian Expatriate Taxation Guide through their affiliate, Seeking Utopia Inc.. Back issues of their Expatriate Tax Bulletin are available online including the wonderfully titled article Waving Goodbye to Revenue Canada.
2. Canadian Taxpayers Federation - Canadians suffer under an extremely punitive tax regime. During these times of low inflation, it is mainly tax rates that are rising faster than the cost of living. Lord knows we need a vigilant activist organization like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to act as a watchdog on profligate government spending and to agitate for tax relief for Canadians. This website is full of informative articles, press releases, facts and statistics.
3. Ernst & Young Tax Pages - The best feature of E&Y's Tax Pages is their Tax Mailbag. You can email in a question and every Tuesday they answer several of them. Their previous Q&As are archived and you can use their search engine to find answers to your specific questions. They also have a couple of calculators and detailed analyses of federal and provincial government budgets. Ernst & Young is a partner in the development of the University of Waterloo's Master of Taxation program.
4. i|money RRSP Centre - i|money is a full-fledged financial website for Canadians with a lot of useful information and tools. Their RRSP Centre includes a detailed Knowledge Base on RRSPs and a collection of useful tools including an Asset Allocator Calculator, a Money Grower Calculator and a Retirement Planning Calculator.
5. KPMG Tax Online - KPMG features an extensive library of articles on taxation as well as their monthly Canadian Tax Letter, a Tax Tip of the Day (now included The Daily at this website) as well as a number of documents on federal and provincial tax rates available in PDF format.
6. Quicken.ca Tax Centre - Quicken operates an extensive and excellent financial website and and that includes their Tax Centre. Features weekly Tax Tips, Ask the Expert, and other RRSP and Tax resources.
7. Revenue Canada - Straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, though many of us think of this bunch as another part of the horse's anatomy! You'll find news updates, FAQs, interpretaion bulletins and so on. But the most useful for Joe Taxpayer will probably be the tax forms you can download and print off at home. Beats waiting on the phone for an operator to request one to be sent to you.
8. Scotiabank RRSP Solutions Centre - The best thing about Scotiabank's RRSP Solutions Centre are its tools - an RRSP Reality Check that lets you know whether you are on track to achieving your retirement goals, and a Catch-Up Loan Calculator to let you calculate the benefits of borrowing to top up your RRSP.
9. The Tax Page - Most of the websites with tax information are from accountancy firms. This one is from Rotfleisch and Samulovitch, a small Bay Street, Toronto law office specializing in business and tax law. One of the founders, David Rotfleisch, is an accountant as well as a lawyer and has an extensive background in Information Technology to boot. Tax shelter syndicates, incorporation, and IT law are handled as well as individual year end tax planning. Site includes Tax Tidbits, a collection of articles and a Tax Challenge Game. (Click on New Question if one does not show up at first.)
10. Garth Turner's 1999 RRSP Guide - I'm a Turner fan, mainly because he is sounding a wake-up call to all those snoozing Canadians who have not adequately planned for their retirement (which is most of us!). He doesn't review various mutual funds like other pundits. Rather he explains why you should plan and take action now and outlines various strategies to use. Last year Turner published the entire book online. This year he is a bit more parsimonious and only has two complete chapters and the Introduction online. If you read nothing else, read the Introduction to this book. It is an eye-opener.
Let me wrap this up with two of my favorite quotes gleaned from putting this list together. The first is from Goodfield Aramaletto:
"A tax accountant is someone who solves problems you didn't know you had, in a way that you don't understand."
And the second quote explains why this is so. It is from Revenue Canada's FAQs in answer to the question "Is the Income Tax available online?" It says:
"Revenue Canada does not publish the Income Tax Act, either in print or electronically. Technically it is 'published' by Parliament in the form of bills that are enacted. In practice however, it's a major task to keep it current because it is amended so often. Therefore we leave it to the commercial publishers to consolidate the Act (about 2,000 pages). "
Even the pointy heads who enforce the tax act admit they don't understand it!
You may have some contrary opinions on my selections and you're invited to post them on our Bulletin Board. Also check out the following collections of Net Links for more and our previous Top Ten Lists as well!