Frank runs a small trades business and treats tax season like a weather event, something that happens to him. This is the year he learns the rules are just the board the game is played on, and starts playing them on purpose.
The Weather Event
Frank treats tax season like a storm that hits him every spring, something to endure and never understand. Then a surprise bill lands, and Simon offers him a different way to see the whole thing.
You and the Company Are Two People
Frank thinks of Calder Electric's money as his money, which is exactly where the trouble starts. He learns that the corporation is its own taxpayer, and why keeping the two apart changes everything.
Salary or Dividends
Frank has always just taken what he needed from the account whenever he needed it. Simon lays out the real choice between paying himself a salary and paying dividends, and what each one costs and buys.
What Counts as an Expense
Frank is not sure what he can write off, so he either claims too much or, more often, far too little. He learns which costs are genuinely the business's, and why the receipt matters as much as the rule.
The Tax You're Just Holding
The GST Frank collects has always felt like money in his account, until the bill to remit it arrives. He learns that this tax was never his, and how the credits on what he buys work the other way.
Paying as You Go
The government does not want one big cheque in spring; it wants Frank to pay through the year. He sorts out his instalments and his employee's payroll remittances before the interest and penalties find him.
The Small Business Rate
Frank learns that the first slice of his company's profit is taxed at a strikingly low rate, on purpose. Leaving some money inside the company, rather than pulling it all out, turns out to be its own quiet strategy.
Paying the Family, Properly
Lena keeps the books and the kids help in the summer, so Frank wonders if he can pay them and split the income. Simon walks him through what is allowed, what is not, and the rules that close the easy loopholes.
Saving as an Owner
Frank has no pension and has always assumed the business itself was his retirement plan. He weighs an RRSP against leaving money in the company, and learns the trap in letting too much sit and earn inside it.
The Day He Sells
One day Frank will hand over the truck and the name, and that day has its own tax bill or its own gift. He learns how the lifetime capital gains exemption can make selling the business the most important tax move of his life.