Definitive guide(s) and resources for understanding taxes in Canada?

October 11, 2014 1:37 PM

How can one learn about the Canadian tax system (Toronto, Ontario to be specific) in the easiest way possible? Does one need to do a ton of reading to grasp the basic concept behind how they work or are there nice videos and presentations that explain how they work?

I'm afraid anything that has to do with money (be it the banking system, tax system, or even the stock market) is not my forte. I want to know more about how the tax system works in Ontario, especially:

- A general overview of how the Ontarian tax system works,
- What a self-employed creative professional needs to understand about taxes, how this professional can set up the business properly (to avoid tax problems) and how the government knows that the records the professional provides in the filing are truthful,
- How paying taxes is different for part-time vs. full-time employees,
- The meaning of GST and HST taxes,
- Filing for personal vs. business taxes,
- Taxes for seniors,
- Entitlements and rebates (for whatever demographic),
- Whether accountants are essential, and what an ideal accountant does for their client.

posted by omar.a to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Best answer: Usually the big 4 do country specific whitepapers. If I need to quickly get familiar with another country's system, I usually google country + tax and filter for pdfs and up comes an EY or whatever piece. Not super in depth, but a good start. The CRA (Canadian tax authority) has a pretty decent site, too.
posted by jpe at 5:30 PM on October 11, 2014

Best answer: Start with these friendly videos. http://www.shannonleesimmons.com/money-videos/ She used to have a few more, including doing taxes for freelancers. I feel like they were personal videos on youtube but I don't see them anymore. Maybe they are still online somewhere.
posted by typewriter at 7:56 PM on October 11, 2014

Enterprise Toronto will give you small business related advice for free. When I started a business years ago, I went to a couple tax seminars offered here.
posted by emeiji at 6:31 PM on October 28, 2014