On the Precipice of Change

There comes a point in the life of any business where it must change.  This change does not have to be a radical re-invention of the business or complete overhaul of the services the business provides, but rather a slow, organic, ever-evolving process where the business continually seeks to answer a very important question:

“How can we efficiently provide the most value to our client base?”

For example, at Books In Line, one of our goals as a business is to remain modern, but not out of touch. We also want to remain personal enough with our clients so that they feel all their input, concerns, or requests are being constructively heard.  We feel a blog is not only an excellent way to satisfy this but also a fantastic way to network with future clients and forge stronger bonds with all our current ones. We feel that to be the best, we need to regularly interact with the best – and that means all of you.

We have blogs planned out for the future on subjects around the numbers – your HST, your tax credits, and your expenses.  We also have more personal blogs planned around success stories, events we have attended, and why we got into this line of business in the first place.  Of course, what we would really like is to blog about anything our valued clients feel is important.  If you have any subjects you feel are interesting and would like us to explore, questions you would like cleared up, or even feel like taking the time to leave a comment on one of our blogs, we are always going highly value your input.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your business.

Tax Tip of the Week – March 15th

While the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) dollar limit was $5,500 in 2017, there is, in fact, no deadline for making a contribution. If you’ve never contributed to a TFSA before, you can currently contribute up to $52,000 in one shot!

Scam Alert

At the beginning of October, one of my clients contacted me after receiving an email from the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) to find out if it was a scam. It definitely is. In fact, there are a lot of email scams that appear to come from reputable institutions like governments and banks.

People determined to illegally get your money invent new scams all the time that come by email, the telephone, snail mail, and text messages. The fraudulent email above is one of many out there.

Disguised as an organization, long-lost relative or an unmet person who claims to love you, please be wary of any request to send or receive money. Police files and talk shows are full of trusting individuals who have been conned out of thousands of dollars, and quite often that money is gone forever.

Fraudsters will attempt to gain your personal information to access your money, credit or identity.

Beware of any request for your identification numbers like social insurance, credit card, bank account, or passport. These people are clever, and they will make it sound authentic and urgent – even threatening. Plus, they often promise that you will receive a financial reward or return.

When you receive an email like this:

  • Never click on a link in the message.
  • Never call a phone number from within the message to verify authenticity. Always seek and call numbers provided on official statements, like your invoice or tax return, or from official organization websites.

The CRA never sends email requests for information, and they will never send electronic funds (Interac e-transfers). To learn more about identifying fraudulent Canada Revenue Agency attempts, please visit this official website.