lahoo.ca The annual Canadian tax season is about to start again! Before April 30, Canadians can fill out and submit tax returns, and they may face fines if they overdue.
(Image source: CTV News January 10, 2024)
There have been some key changes to Canada's tax law this year, and on this basis, Canadians can reduce some taxes reasonably and legally according to the following tax refund credit schemes.
Individual base amount
The BPA (tax threshold) for the 2023 tax year is $1.5w for the basic amount of the individual. Taxpayers earning less than 1.5w are exempt from federal income tax because their gross annual income is below the threshold. People who exceed this threshold can use the basic personal amount to reduce their total tax liability.
For example, if your income is $6w, you can subtract 1.5w of BPA and only levy on the remaining $4.5w.
Home buyers
For first-time buyers/people with disabilities, buying a home is tax deductible! When they purchase a qualifying home that falls into one of the following categories, they can claim the $1w credit:
- Detached house
- apartment
- Semi-detached bungalows
- Mobile homes
- Duplex, three-storey, four-storey or apartment building apartments
- Townhouses
If you previously purchased a home and didn't claim this tax deduction, you can also apply retroactively. For homes purchased in 2021 or earlier, you can claim a credit of $5,000, and for homes purchased in 2022 or 2023, you can claim the full $10,000 credit.
Work from home
According to a report by Statistics Canada, the proportion of Canadians working from home has tripled since 2010. While working from home comes with many additional perks and benefits, it can also increase home office expenses. Therefore, working from home can also offset some of the taxes.
As a small business owner, you can write off some of your home office expenses. However, employees who work from home can also receive a credit for additional costs, including:
- Utility Bills (Electricity, Heat, Water)
- Internet fees
- Pay the rent for your home
- Maintenance and repair costs
In late January 2024, the CRA will publish an updated home office expense schedule to make it easier to calculate your deductions. If you're working from home, be sure to keep an eye out for that.
Moving costs
In 2023, many Canadians moved away from more expensive urban centres like Vancouver and Toronto to lower the cost of living.
The good news is that if you're moving more than 40 kilometers away, leaving and moving in to accept a new job, job position, or school, you can deduct many of the associated moving expenses up to a maximum of $5,000.
(Image source: CTV News January 10, 2024)
In addition, you can also make good use of several tax-free accounts such as TFSA, RRSP and FHSA, the specific amount varies from person to person, and you can log in to the CRA to check it yourself. I don't know how much tax you can get back this year~
China's official announcement of five new measures to facilitate going to China!
For overseas Chinese, it is undoubtedly becoming more and more convenient to go to China. According to Xinhuanet, the National Immigration Administration has officially implemented five measures to facilitate foreign personnel to come to China since January 11, further breaking through the relevant blockages of foreign personnel coming to China for business, study and tourism, better services to ensure high-level opening up to the outside world, and services to promote high-quality development.
(Photo source: Xinhuanet, January 11, 2024)
The five new initiatives mainly include:
Relax the conditions for foreign nationals to apply for port visas. For foreigners who urgently need to come to China to engage in non-diplomatic and official activities such as business cooperation, visits and exchanges, investment and entrepreneurship, visiting relatives and handling personal affairs, and do not have time to apply for visas abroad, they can apply for port visas to enter the country with the invitation letter and other relevant supporting materials.
Foreign nationals are exempted from inspection procedures for 24-hour direct transit at hub airports such as Beijing Capital Airport. Foreign nationals are exempted from border inspection procedures at 9 international airports in Beijing, Beijing, Daxing, Shanghai, Xiaoshan, Xiamen, Baiyun, Baoan, Chengdu, and Xi'an. For inbound and outbound passengers holding international connecting tickets within 24 hours and transiting through any of the above-mentioned airports to a third country or region, they can directly transit without a visa without going through border inspection procedures.
Foreign nationals in China can apply for visa extension and reissuance at the nearest location. Foreign nationals who come to China for a short period of time to engage in non-diplomatic or official activities such as business and trade cooperation, visits and exchanges, investment and entrepreneurship, visiting relatives, sightseeing and tourism, and handling personal affairs, and who need to continue to stay in China for legitimate and reasonable reasons, may apply to the exit-entry administration of the public security organ at the place of stay for visa extension and reissuance.
Foreign nationals in China who need to enter and exit the country multiple times can apply for re-entry visas. Foreign nationals in China who need to enter and exit the country multiple times for legitimate and reasonable reasons may apply to the exit-entry administration of the public security organ for the renewal of a valid multiple-entry visa with the invitation letter and other relevant supporting materials.
Simplify the application materials for visas and documents for foreign nationals in China. When applying for a visa certificate, foreign nationals who can inquire about their accommodation registration records, business licenses and other information through information sharing are exempted from checking the relevant paper certification materials, and foreign nationals in China who apply for short-term visas for family visits and reunions can make a declaration of kinship in lieu of the certificate of kinship.
We have also talked about it before, and the return air ticket has also ushered in a small wave of diving (previous review: Air Canada's air ticket to China has plunged to 600+), coupled with more and more convenient measures to return to China, it is time to return to China to visit relatives!
The Chinese wedding banquet becomes a white thing! The husband committed suicide after shooting his wife!
A good housewarming wedding banquet turned out to be a tragedy, and it can only be said that impulse is the devil, hey......
On the evening of January 9, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, a Chinese family happily celebrated the housewarming with relatives and friends.
Just after 10 p.m. that night, the local police received a report that a married couple had been shot inside their home and both died. When police arrived at the scene, they found several witnesses, who reported a man with a gun inside the house and heard gunshots shortly after.
(Image source: CBS News January 10, 2024)
At the scene, police found the remains of the couple after they were shot and fell to the ground. The woman was shot twice in the back, while the man committed suicide with a gun. The police said that the preliminary analysis of the shooting was caused by domestic violence, and the whole case is still under investigation.
According to the "World Journal," the husband and wife are Su and the woman is Sui, both of whom are 42 years old this year, and their son is less than 20 years old.
On the day of the incident, the couple had just bought the detached house pictured below, and the family had lived in the house for less than two months. The party was held to celebrate the New Year on the one hand, and to celebrate the housewarming on the other. The meeting was attended by seven Chinese people. Mr. and Mrs. Su are a family of three, as well as two other friends. One of the mothers and daughters left after the meal.
(Image source: CBS News January 10, 2024)
Witnesses said that at around 9 p.m. that night, the couple had a quarrel over some trivial matters, and the husband was obviously very displeased, and even picked up a beer bottle and threw it at his wife. Seeing this, the friends on the side hurriedly persuaded the fight, and unfortunately they were hit by a wine bottle and hung up.
After that, the couple seemed to have calmed down a bit. The wife began to clean up the house, while the man would sit on the couch with his male friend and chat, and the son had already returned upstairs.
A moment later, the husband suddenly went upstairs and was holding a gun when he didn't want to come down again. Seeing that he was emotional, this frightened his friend's family and ran out of the house. After a while, a series of gunshots were heard in the room, and the two friends were quite frightened.
When the gunfire stopped, the son suddenly ran out and asked the two for help: "My mother was lying on the ground, covered in blood, and my father committed suicide." The male friend hurriedly ran to the house to check on the couple's condition and called the police, but unfortunately the tragedy was irreparable.
The son recalled the situation when he heard the gunshots and rushed downstairs to see his mother lying in a pool of blood while his father was holding a gun. He tried to snatch the gun from his father's hand, but failed, and then his father said "I'm sorry" to him and shot himself.
Friends said that both husband and wife are from Northeast China, and they have been working in a local nail salon for many years, and their relationship is also very stable. Today's Spring Festival, the two also booked a ticket back to their hometown to prepare for the New Year, not wanting such a tragedy to happen.
The city's mayor, Bob Barnett, issued a statement in response to the case, calling on anyone to call the domestic violence hotline for help when family relationships are strained.
Ay...... Seriously, impulsiveness is the devil! It's really sad that a small thing can cause such a big tragedy.