wouldnt it be cheaper for you just to hold on to the coffee shops instead of paying hundreds of thousands in tax?

no type of business is forbidden from carrying on any type of activity unless its own corporate charter limits it.

Holding company tends to raise the least questions IME.

i still own a real estate company, its just hard to prove that ive had over 5 years in a row of 500k+ and its a windfall

what about international trading?

Anything relatively vague and flexible is fine.

You would prefer that incoming wires from international sources don't seem out of place but in all honesty almost anything works.

I"d love to know how many pro poker players from Canada actually pay tax on their winnings

I'd guess 50- 100 now.

Hey guys..living in Alberta now working a regular job and I am originally from Newfoundland. If I move back to Newfoundland and avg. about 3k a month from poker do I need to pay taxes? I hear so many stories so not sure what to believe.

how long would it take to get my return for a t5?
thanks

Someone on 2p2 mentioned you don't have to pay tax on online gambling in BC, any truth to that? Struck me as likely a false statement since i've never heard anything like it before.

Also, I've been doing freelance graphic design on my own for 11 yrs before turning pro in September 2009. I've always declared less income than I actually made, but how long can I get away with it when I pull in 6 figures a year from poker? I could just keep declaring less income as a graphic designer but what could alert the CRA something is up? Buying a house with a lot of money down? Lots of big transactions in a bank account? Would opening a bank account overseas to put my poker money in be considered fraud in itself? If they come knockin and asking about the money could I just say i won a couple of MTTs with luck? Would I have to prove it and if so, how?

thanks

BC is the same as rest of Canada. If you are a professional you pay tax and if you are a hobbyist then you don't. The fun part is determining which and then doing an EV calculation on if you should or shouldn't declare even when you are a pro given CRA is staffed by ******s.

If you read the thread all the secondary questions have been asked and discussed multiple times.

Fair enough, I will go through everything. It's probably a good thing to do in the first place. thanks

Assuming I set up a corporation for my poker earnings, I can withdraw ~40k through dividends tax free every year (assuming I have no other income) and invest the rest of the money in the stock market through the Corporation?.. And the profits from those investments will be taxed at the corporate rate, right?

you would pay the corporate tax rate on all income and then
personal tax on what you take out. How much tax that is depends on your individual tax situation and what you do with it and the form you take it out in).

Money you left in the corporation and invested would attract corporate tax on anything it earns and there would be no personal tax until you take it out of the corporation.

The corporation would also be able to loan you money tax free if you use it to buy a home.

Not really a poker or tax question except that CRA is the reason it came up and I figure TorontoCFE or TaxGuru might know as it has been dropped in my lap and I don't.

How do you cash a cheque made payable to the Estate of XXXXX if the deceased never had a bank account, has no real executor, didn't file taxes, etc

.

I guess the executor would be his only daughter? No will.

He was one of those anti-government types so this is a massive mess. I was sort of asked to help but law school was ten years ago and I never took Wills and Estates. He really didn't have much so the whole plan was just to ignore it all and just never cash any of the cheques but CRA won't go for that and wants the taxes filed so if we have to deal with CRA might as well deal with the rest of the stuff as well.

How much money are you talking about?

It's been a while since I took the executor course, but I think you may need to get the Court to appoint the person as the estate administrator and then take that Court document to a bank and you can cash any cheque made out to the estate.

Dying without a will might make getting a Court appointment mandatory.

Not much. I think it is about $1000 and the plan was to do nothing and just forget about it.

CRA though keeps insisting on someone doing his taxes which again the plan was that no one would do anything about either. I figured if we have to deal with the taxes might as well do everything if it isn't much work.

CRA will hound you until you get a clearance certificate.
This means filing tax returns for the year in which the person died and a death / final return.

Then you get the clearance certificate once they are satisfied there are no unpaid taxes. Once you have the certificate then you can pay out the residual of the estate. Failure to get the certificate means they might go after the executor / administrator for a tax estimate.

You can file the final returns without any problem or a will but to get a hold of the residual then you need to be the administrator of the estate and as far as I know that means going to probate court for someone intestate.
If you are named the administrator then any money can be put into our own account.

The residuals are not important. Just want to make CRA go away.

The only thing I might like to salvage is that he had a corporation that I wouldn't mind transferring to myself since it is 5-6 years old and was only used to own his car. It would be better than buying a 2 year one but likely a lot more of an issue.

Thanks

I've read through the whole thread and I don't think this question has been asked. Obviously I don't know much about taxes, but thanks to this thread I am aware that my best option is to not pay them. With that being said, should I put money away each year just in case that same day I do have to pay them and they do an audit for previous years? Or if I end up paying taxes some day will my previous years not be considered?

Depends on how you plan to live your life. If you make yourself judgment proof then saving for the possibility of one day having a tax liability is rather silly. On the other hand if you plan to live a normal life then yes you should have access to an amount that would allow you to pay the taxes either in liquid assets or via credit.

With respect to previous years yes you would be liable for previous years. The extent would depend on the fact situation and if you file or did not file taxes without the winnings reported.

Thanks, appreciate the information.

Can you elaborate on this?