<p>Vous planifiez votre retraite? Prenez les commandes de votre avenir financier. La plupart des Canadiens &acirc;g&eacute;s de 65 ans et plus sont admissibles &agrave; la pension de S&eacute;curit&eacute; de la vieillesse. Mais, il y a une attrape. L'imp&ocirc;t de r&eacute;cup&eacute;ration de la S&eacute;curit&eacute; de la vieillesse pourrait gruger en partie ou en totalit&eacute; cette allocation. Veuillez consulter nos trucs d'expert pour conserver plus d'argent dans vos poches.</p>

<p class="p1">Figurez-vous parmi les nombreux Canadiens qui, par inadvertance, ont trop contribu&eacute; &agrave; leur R&eacute;gime enregistr&eacute; d&rsquo;&eacute;pargne-retraite? Si tel est le cas, vous devriez savoir que les contributions exc&eacute;dentaires vers&eacute;es aux REER font l&rsquo;objet d&rsquo;une p&eacute;nalit&eacute; fiscale mensuelle de 1 % pour chaque mois au cours duquel la contribution exc&eacute;dentaire demeure.</p>

<p>Nous en sommes presque &agrave; la moiti&eacute; du mandat de l&rsquo;initiative Cultivons l&rsquo;avenir 2 (CA2), un engagement conjoint des gouvernements f&eacute;d&eacute;ral et provinciaux visant &agrave; encourager l&rsquo;innovation et la comp&eacute;titivit&eacute; ainsi qu&rsquo;&agrave; d&eacute;velopper le march&eacute;, l&rsquo;adaptabilit&eacute; et la viabilit&eacute; de certains secteurs de l&rsquo;agriculture et de l&rsquo;approvisionnement au Canada.</p>

<p class="p1">The spectre of &ldquo;non-lawyers&rdquo; owning equity in law firms has led some practitioners to express grave concerns about the survival of our ethical standards, and about the wisdom of allowing &ldquo;non-lawyers&rdquo; to deliver legal services at all. Before we can dive too deeply into these questions, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture.</p>

<p class="p1">How often do we hear commands like &ldquo;innovate or die&rdquo; outside of the legal industry?&nbsp;</p> <p class="p2">Product companies and even other professional services firms are asked &ndash; perhaps even required &ndash; to &ldquo;innovate,&rdquo; largely in deference to the healthy paranoia they recognize drives all great businesses to higher levels of success. The legal industry, however, is in the very early stages of experimenting with innovation. Professional services firms in general hate to invest ahead of revenue as compared with their product company brethren. And to the extent that real innovation necessitates what are viewed to be distracting allocations of capital, law firms have been loath to do much of it.</p>

<p class="p1">There continues to be a lot of discussion about changes facing the legal industry, many of which are long overdue, but perhaps not welcome. Not only are clients putting pressure on lawyers to find suitable alternatives to the billable hour, but they are also seeking changes in how services are managed, delivered and benchmarked, including pushing for implementation of performance metrics.</p>

<p>We once again take a look at some recent legal tech issues.</p>

<p>On April 23, 2015 Finance Minister Charles Sousa tabled his third Budget.</p> <p>The deficit for the 2015-16 fiscal year is projected to be $8.5 billion, which is less than had been forecasted in the 2014 Budget. The deficit is projected to drop to $4.8 billion for 2016-17 and to be eliminated by 2017-18. Unlike the 2014 Budget, the 2015 Budget does not comment on achieving a surplus.</p>

<p>Our financial experts have combed through the new federal budget, so you don&rsquo;t have to. From in-depth analysis to fact-filled infographics, this is your definitive guide to the policies that will impact you.</p>

<p>Many Canadian taxpayers spend most of their lives working hard to accumulate sufficient savings to permit them to live a comfortable lifestyle during their retirement years. At age 65, when they can start benefitting from Canada&rsquo;s social programs, they often find themselves with an effective marginal tax rate of 50% on their taxable income. When combined with the Old Age Security (OAS) recovery tax, rates can reach 55%.</p>

Part One: <span class="post-content">This technical bulletin covers the various developments from January to March 2015. Collins Barrow regularly publishes Technical Bulletin for the general interest of its clients and friends to highlight the continually changing accounting and assurance standards, and the interpretations thereof, in Canada.</span>