Canadian business owners can extract tax-free cash from their corporations by using innovative strategies. Explore these tax effective ways to extract cash from your business.

The deficit for the 2013-14 fiscal year is projected to be $11.3 billion, which is $400 million less than the amount estimated when the 2013 Budget was tabled. The deficit for the 2014-15 year is projected to be $12.5 billion and the longer-term forecast continues to call for a return to a surplus by 2016-17. Net public debt to GDP is projected to continue to increase until 2015-16, from which time it will to start to decrease.

<p>This article provides information about the Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The VDP encourages taxpayers to come forward voluntarily to declare information that may not have been previously reported. It may be used to divulge unreported or underreported financial information. Use of this provision provides defense against penalty and prosecution.</p>

<p>Revenue is a good thing; we are always looking for ways to increase it. But in the GST/HST world, dividend and interest revenue can reduce income in addition to causing huge compliance costs and issues. This can come as an unwelcome surprise to many taxpayers.</p>

I recently delivered a webinar to a group of associates at one of my law firm clients, as part of the firm’s internal CPD and training program. Among the advice I gave the associates was a recommendation to start looking for opportunities to streamline their work, increase their efficiency, and reduce their own “cost of doing business,” in order to make themselves and their practice groups more competitive and effective.

This article could equally well be called "How to prevent your competitors from stealing your clients." It's not that these other lawyers lack ethics, values and courtesy. It's just that as practices diminish, revenues have to be obtained somewhere to support the firm and its employees. The bottom line is that others may have your clients in their crosshairs. So what are you supposed to do about this? Here are seven suggestions:

Recently, the American Lawyer magazine and other outlets published a few articles on the number of women, or lack thereof, that Am Law 200 firms have promoted to partner this year. Some of the firms named in those articles offered data to suggest that this year’s partner class was an anomaly. Others acknowledged that the number of women promoted this year is low but cited the various mentorship and sponsorship programs that their firms have to help ensure women are promoted to reach the requisite “years-of-service” commitment for partner consideration.

Email newsletters – not everyone views them as an effective or necessary tool to include in a law firm marketing plan. However, email marketing is actually a proven tactic to help build business. Not only that, email messages are extremely cost-effective and provide a high return on investment. If your firm isn’t already sending a regular e-newsletter to clients and potential clients, here are five reasons why you should start.

Recent moves by the IRS and the Canada Revenue Agency seeking to tax owners of the virtual currency Bitcoin have highlighted the difficulties of reconciling virtual assets with real world legal constructs. Now, bankers and estate professionals are awakening to the value such assets may have upon the “owner’s” death.

For 2013 and subsequent taxation years, corporations will be required to disclose the income earned from any web pages or websites they administer. The percentage of the corporation’s gross revenue generated from the Internet must be reported on the recently released Schedule 88 for T2 Corporation Income Tax Returns.

Administered by OMAFRA, this annual program allows eligible employers, upon successful application, to subsidize the hourly cost of summer student employment. The program provides a $2 per hour incentive to hire eligible employees.