The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

20 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, April 27,1994 Section Two BUSINESS and FINANCE Are you sitting on a tax time-bomb? Ownership of a rental property, cottage, investment portfolio or family business could trigger a significant amount of tax at death. Let me show you how to protect your hard earned assets. Please call Office/Fax 623-4038 Res. 623-3108 Ml The Mutual Group John Willoughby Licensed with Mutual Life of Canada/Mutual Investco Inc., companies ol The Mutual Group. DISCOUNTS FOR DOUBLE PARKING. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company 68 King St. E., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3X2 623-8914 Insure two or more cars with Liberty Mutual and we'll reduce your rates. Call us. today for more information. LIBERTY mutual; © 1994 Liberty Mutual Insurance Group/Unionvitle. Ontario IF IT'S A QUESTION OF MONEY, WE'VE GOT THE ANSWERS One of my clients told me recently that "Investing that lump sum into her RRSP every February was like giving birth. After the initial pain wore off it was a pleasure to watch it grow. " We took the pain out of the process by establishing a monthly $200.00 investment plan. We also reduced the taxes she paid every week by $20.00. WHAT DID THIS COST HER? NOTHING. WHAT CAN REGAL DO FOR YOU? REGAL CAPITAL PLANNERS LTD. Call Steve Scatterty Financial Advisor 623-1936 Fax: 623-3092 See me at the Bowmanville Home Show April 29, 30 and May 1st Shoplifting Costing Canadians More Than $2 Billion per Year The 1994 Shrinkage Survey of Canadian Retailers released recently at Retail Council of Canada's annual annual Loss Prevention Conference, shows that shopthieves are taking $2.25 billion per year from Canadian Canadian stores. This is the same level as reported last year and marks the end of an upward trend which had continued continued over the past decade. "Even though losses due to shop- theft are still at an intolerable level, Canadian retailers have managed to halt the upward trend," states Mel Fruitman, Vice President, Retail Council of Canada. Fruitman continues: "The actions taken by retailers are producing positive positive results. The change in terminology terminology from shoplifting to shoptheft has made people realize that taking merchandise from a store is a full- fledged crime. Also, better training of staff, the use of anti-theft equipment, equipment, and an increased tendency to prosecute have all had an effect." While Fruitman is encouraged that the trend has halted, he notes: "$2.25 billion in losses is absolutely intolerable. If that money were available to retailers, they would be able to accelerate their changes, such as the use of technology, to be come more competitive intemation ally and could create 100,000 new jobs." Reported shrinkage rates, which include paperwork/bookkeeping errors, errors, customer theft, and employee theft, ranged from a high of 2.1 per cent of sales in department and general general merchandise stores, to a low of .5 per cent in furniture stores. Large organizations with shrinkage levels of 1.7 per cent suffer more than do the smallest stores at 1 per cent. Retailers estimate that 80 per cent of total shrinkage is due to Members of Home Builders shoptheft -- stealing by customers and employees. In addition to the losses, retailers spend significant amounts to bring the losses under control. Over 10 per cent of the companies which responded to the survey reported spending 15 per cent of sales in their efforts to combat combat this crime. Retailers are increasingly turning to the use of equipment to help them fight shopthieves, with 75 per cent of respondents reporting such usage. "Retailers are vendors of merchandise merchandise -- they are not police," notes Fruitman. "They are more in tent on preventing shoptheft than they are in catching thieves. However, However, they have taken steps to allow them to catch dishonest people and will prosecute those they catch." Retail Council of Canada has produced the Shrinkage survey annually annually for the past four years. For information about the survey, contact contact Mel Fruitman, Vice President, Retail Council of Canada. To order a copy of the survey ($40 for members members of the Retail Council and $60 for non-members), contact the Publications Publications Department at (416) 598- 4684. Past President, Mario Veltri, Head of "The Veltri Group", was chosen as one of Oshawa's business people of the year, at the Oshawa and District Chamber of Commerce 65th Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner. As well, Stephen Kassinger, First Vice-President of the Association and President of H. Kassinger Homes, has introduced the new R- 2000 Homes Model, which is both energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Also featured is an advanced advanced "Home Electronic Network", a leading edge development in North America. Both Mario and Stephen are leaders leaders in the residential construction industry; industry; active in their local Home Builders' Association and tireless volunteer community workers. The Oshawa-Durham Home Builders' Association takes great pride in the achievement of its members members that are committed to a stringent Code of Ethics and are striving to keep the "Dream" of home ownership ownership alive. PAYING TOO MUCH for Home and Auto Insurance aaa PINE RIDGE ^INSURANCE 623-0331 623-1838 3 Silver Street, Bowmanville Oshawa-436-6239 by Brian Costello TAX TIPS Once you've completed your tax return and looked at your income for last year you will undoutedly want to rearrange your affairs so you don't have to pay as much tax this year. While, I'm a major fan of contributing to an RRSP, some taxpayers may realize after completing their returns that it doesn't pay to contribute to an RRSP. If it's apparent that your income will be low in 1994 but will shoot up in coming years you should hold off on contributing to an RRSP this year. You are allowed to carry forward unused contributions for up to seven years so you can use them in future years when your tax rate will be higher. Students with enough income to be taxable and those working for the first time are classic examples. Even if they qualify to contribute to a plan they will get more tax relief next year or in the near future. Conversely, if you can see that your income is going to fall substantially in coming years, retirement for example, you may want to contribute every penny possible while you are still working. You can remove it next year, or in the future, when your income and your tax rate is lower. Many employees receive low or no interest rate loans to help them buy shares in the company where they work. If you pay no interest there is actually an employment benefit added to your salary. You are allowed , to deduct this interest as an investment expense even though you didn't really pay any. If you were given a low interest loan you may also have an employee benefit. Check with your employer to see if you qualify for an extra tax deduction. Thousands of companies help employees buy Canada Savings Bonds through payroll deduction plans. All the interest you earn will be taxable but many bond buyers forget to claim the interest they were charged to buy CSBs on these plans. Speaking of CSBs. Have you considered whether you should be cashing them in? Last fall when interest rates were far lower they started paying 41/4%. However, while every other rate has surged since the New Year the Bank Of Canada has done nothing to reward those who own CSBs. We can read two things into this. Either the Bank of Canada believes interest rates are going to fall so there will be no need to increase CSB rates or they believe that bond holders won't cash them in regardless of the rate paid as we look for the ultimate in security in uncertain times. The Bank of Canada doesn't really reveal how they set the rate paid on CSBs each fall. However, if you compare the rate set each year to other investments you can see that T-Bill rates have a bearing. They've shot through the roof as we try to support our dollar. However, it's also pretty clear that there is at least an unofficial relationship to the one year term deposit and GIC rates. Check the one year rates from time to time. Normally in the fall CSBs will yield about one percent below the one year rate. That's the price we pay for being able to cash in our bonds anytime we want. ,However, the premium is a lot higher right now. Maybe there's some value to cashing some of your bonds now and locking your money away into other investments that are paying a higher yield. While there's a long list of medical expenses we can use to exceed the 3% of net income required to make our medical expenses tax deductible many travellers fail to include the premiums they paid for vacation health insurance. In the last two years the cost of this insurance has surged. This cost along with any other out of pocket medical expenses may help you get to the point where your medical expenses, are tax deductible. While the February budget has eliminated the $100,000 tax free capital gains deduction you must still claim capital gains earned in 1993 and offset them on page 2 of your return. If you don't declare them you can be denied the tax free credit. If you declare them all on your 1994 return using the new system you may also push your net income too high to qualify for social programs. I'm amazed at how often I run into people who have not filed returns in previous years. Why hasn't Revenue Canada tracked them down? One answer is that the system is too large. Another, more logical one in most of the cases is that the taxpayer doesn't owe any money.' In fact, it's the opposite. Too much money has been deducted at source. You are entitled to a nice fat rebate cheque for the last few years. You should contact Revenue Canada and catch up on your filing for two reasons. One is to get the money. Remember, there is no interest paid on these outstanding owings until you file. The second reason is that just in case you owe them money you can have penalties waived under the Fairness Package. The savings can be substantial.