What can stay invested?
What you earn and spend affects how much you can save. Where you save it affects the tax you’ll pay.
Explore the RRSP and TFSA decisionYour lifetime tax plan.
Tax when you earn. Tax when you take money out. Tax when you sell or pass wealth on. The return you file each year is one part of a much bigger picture.
Plan for how you’ll use your money.
Tax choices often affect each other. Saving in an RRSP affects the tax when you use that money. How you pay yourself can affect what you can save for retirement. We look at those links and build a plan around your life.
What reaches your household?
Plan how your savings and pensions will cover your spending. If you own a corporation, include the money you’ll take out of it.
Explore the years before pensions startWhat is yours after the deal?
Selling investments, property or a business can help fund your next step. Work out what you’ll keep after tax and the costs of the sale.
See a business-sale exampleWhat will your family receive?
You may want to help family now and leave them money later. Plan for both, along with your own needs.
Explore helping familyThree numbers worth keeping separate.
A bigger account balance doesn’t tell the whole story.
What the accounts hold.
The money in your accounts before any tax you may still owe.
What you can use.
What you could spend after selling investments, taking money out and paying the tax.
What the family receives.
What your family could receive after you die. Different tax rules may apply at that point.
More for you can mean less for your family.
In our example, investing through the corporation leaves more for the owner to use after tax. But taking the money out sooner leaves more for the family after the owner dies. The example does not include special planning to reduce tax at death.
That’s why we look at both the money you’ll spend and what you’ll leave behind. Like the folds in our artwork, each part changes the shape of the whole. A well-crafted tax plan makes the parts work together.
See the comparisonWhich decision is on your mind?
See examples of common choices, what they could change and what to ask about your own plan.
Explore your tax questions