Hugh Neilson

Insurance is complex enough – what happens when it intersects with our tax system? We have good news… Under the Excise Tax Act, insurance is a financial service, making it exempt from GST. If we only had to address the GST, this would be a simple, short article. However… And we have bad news! The interaction of insurance with the income tax system is not as straightforward. Various types of insurance carry different, sometimes surprising, income tax implications.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert said, “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.” I suspect that this is the closest that most would equate tax and the arts. But the arts provide the livelihood of artists, and income tax applies to that livelihood as it does to other forms of income. Unusual tax issues can arise within the arts, issues which the income tax system is forced to address.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees transitioned to working from home. During the crisis, few were considering the income tax implications. As life returns to whatever the “new normal” is, we can be confident taxes will still exist. So what are the tax implications of a workspace in the home? Deducting home office expenses In general, the expenses employees can deduct are very limited. The COVID-19 pandemic has opened up new questions in respect of working from home.