Many don’t realize the importance of not only choosing a good accountant but having a good experience with this type of professional. Also a lot don’t realize just exactly how much work this expert puts into taking care of your financial matters when it comes to your taxes. Many assume that they don’t need to provide a lot of information other than the documents that are necessary for completing the tax forms. Yet, there are many other details that your accountant requires in order to do a proper job for you and stay within the legalities of the law.
If you hold foreign investments for example, unless you provide the proper documentation and inform your accountant of this there is no way that he is able to know this, and yet it is very important when it comes to filing your taxes. Even if you hold a US bank account you must make your accountant aware of this. While your accountant will be astute at asking you many important and pertinent questions he or she is not able to know all of which would be applicable to you. If you are in doubt that there is information that you should be giving your accountant you should relate this to him anyways so that he can determine if it is of important or not.
You may be in financial difficulties and have a good idea that you will not be able to pay taxes that you owe for the current year. Rather than not file it is important that you do file, however inform your accountant of your financial situation and he can advise you as the best steps to take. Not filing can end up costing you a lot of money in penalties and interest and this is something that really can be avoided. You will still have to pay interest on the amount that you owe if you don’t pay it on time but at least you won’t have this concerning your non filing.
It is not uncommon for a great number of individuals to sometimes pick up money on the side through the course of business. This is in reference to the construction industry for example, or within the food and hospitality industry. Canada Revenue is very with aware of the industries that commonly accept money on the side and they scrutinize these tax returns much more closely. It is important that you be up front and advise your accountant of what monies you have made on the side so that he can include these in your financials, as well as offset them with any potential expenses that may be possible.
Cooperating with your accountant as much as possible and making sure that they have all of the necessary documents is going to ensure that you have an accurate income tax return that is filed on time and will not be creating any future headaches for you.
