Looking for rockstar accountant and a lawyer GTA

[salva.esp]

Hello everyone! I am looking to purchase my first property in Brantford in the next 2 months and I am currently looking for a rockstar accountant that can aid me to draft a 5-year plan along with my broker, and a lawyer with 10+ years experience in real estate.

Additionally, my real estate agent and broker are both from Brantford. Do you suggest to search locally for these two professionals as well?

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance!

 

[Rickson9]

How much are you willing to pay?

Rockstars don’t work for free

 

[Owenb]

How much are you willing to pay?

Rockstars don’t work for free

They may work for certain substances though!


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[Matt Crowley]

For one property buy Quickbooks for $200 and do it yourself. Accountants are not really a good use of money for small portfolios. Try and avoid complexity whenever possible. The pie is going to be pretty small so really need to watch expenses.

Closing property transactions should not be that complex for SFH / duplex / 4 plex. Any yellowpages lawyer is probably fine.

 

[Rickson9]

For one property buy Quickbooks for $200 and do it yourself. Accountants are not really a good use of money for small portfolios. Try and avoid complexity whenever possible. The pie is going to be pretty small so really need to watch expenses.

Closing property transactions should not be that complex for SFH / duplex / 4 plex. Any yellowpages lawyer is probably fine.

+1 I remember the yellowpages!

 

[salva.esp]

For one property buy Quickbooks for $200 and do it yourself. Accountants are not really a good use of money for small portfolios. Try and avoid complexity whenever possible. The pie is going to be pretty small so really need to watch expenses.

Closing property transactions should not be that complex for SFH / duplex / 4 plex. Any yellowpages lawyer is probably fine.

Thank you for the insight Matt! Quickbooks and Xero are great tools for bookkeeping though I am looking for someone that can help me draft a 5-year plan with an eye to tax efficiency and business structure. Do you think it's too early to do that?

Thank you again!

 

[salva.esp]

How much are you willing to pay?

Rockstars don’t work for free

Hi Rickson, I think nobody works for free in the first place lol. Put it this way, I am willing to pay what's necessary for sound, experienced advice with the hope to build a long term relationship with the professional. Having said that, I think rockstar might be exaggerated. Let's say competent and experienced instead.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Minimizing expenses is critical.

How many assets do you envision in ten years, based on how much cash invested / available?

Assuming one self-owned (ie not corporate owned) house or condo you can do the accounting yourself.

Start with a dedicated bank account. All revenue goes in and all expenses go out on this account (via cheque or etransfer) for easy control and accounting.

You can have your taxes filed by an average tax accountant (based on this “spine of accounting” the bank account) as the only thing to be filed/formed fro this is the form T776 that is so simple anyone can do it him/herself or via your average tax software. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms/t776.html

You can deduct up to 4% per year of CCA (capital cost allowance) or also referred to as appreciation to bring taxable income to 0. So if your taxable income is say $14,000 you can deduct up to 4% of the ACB of the house (but not the land) of this figure. So if asset is worth $300,000 and $100,000 is land then you can decrease 4% of $200,000 or $8000 from that figure. The following year you can deduct 4% of $192,000.

 

[Suzanne C]

Thomas,

I just bought my first rental property in 2019 and I want to minimize expense like you mentioned. After going through Rental Income Guide T4036, I found a few unclear areas: Hope you can help me out.

1) Vehicle expense is divided into having one rental property or two or more properties. How do you interpret "in the general area where you live"? General area without limit of number of kilometers is hard to define. Does it mean driving distance or same city? Sometime, neighboring city can be only 10 minute drive. I'm not sure if I can claim vehicle expenses for one property although I have travelled (39 km one way) to the property many times for renovations and showing to potential tenants.

2) for renovation materials (since I can't claim my own labour as an expense), how to determine if they are capital or current expense? My understanding is if restoring to original condition makes it a current expense. Changing all roof shingles (not just leaking spots) is a current expense? Changing light switches to newer ones will be capital expense because they were functional and original but not modern looking? Upgrading to LED lights because old lights were missing cover is a current expense? Replacing old light bulbs with LED ones is a capital expense?

3) How to determine land and property cost from total purchase price of a bunaglow?

Suzanne

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Don’t major in minors.

Deduct what is actual AND reasonable.

If in doubt, deduct it, being mindful CRA can audit you ( but usually doesn’t ).

Don’t expense too much if show a loss except perhaps in year one with heavy acquisition expenses and upgrades.

Use reasonable estimates for land vs structure. Some provinces, like B.C., break it out. Others, use a best guess grounded in reality or comparibles around you.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

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