Wednesday 25 July 2012

Even NBA Players Need Help Saving for Retirement.


Helping people plan their investments is a rewarding practice in many ways. The greatest takeaway we can get receive from a client is when they call to say they've successfully achieved or undertaken some type of activity that they've been planning for years. Buying a car for their son, sending their daughter to university, purchasing a warm retirement home.

The financial planning aspect of our business at Magnum Wealth looks to guide people through the right hoops in order to achieve certain objectives. Creating a solid financial plan takes a good deal of diligence and whether you make $50,000 a year or $5 million, adapting your lifestyle to your budget in a way that will ensure you save money responsibly is difficult.

A recent move by the NBA is a sure testament to the reality that managing finances, big or small, is an important and necessary task. Many of us would have a tough time imagining struggling through retirement based on a $5 million salary, but it continues to happen all the time. See an excerpt from the article below.

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NBA Players Forced To Save Toward Retirement For First Time
By Scott Soshnick

National Basketball Association players, who were paid an average of about $5 million last season, will be forced for the first time to save money for retirement.

Beginning next season, players also will surrender 5 percent to 10 percent of their salary for retirement. They automatically will be enrolled in the program and would have to opt-out to keep from participating in the plan, Klempner said.

To visit the full article from Bloomberg, click here.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012

Income splitting with adult children

With the 2012 instalment safely behind us, it's nice to relax knowing that it will be 10-12 months before we must again delve into bills, receipts and tax documents. For people who take an organized, proactive approach to maintaining their own personal taxes, April is a much less stressful month. Make a commitment to improving your tax season experience by making a small change or two relative to your current routine.

For some, this simply means saving more receipts or sticking to a practical system for filing papers. For others, this might mean devoting some time to learning more about the tax system in order to take advantage of savings that may have been missed out on.

In May, we mentioned income splitting as a tax-saving technique.
Let's examine a situation where you have a 19 year-old son who is working and still living at home.

Federal Income Tax
Earned Income   -   Tax Bracket
$0 - $42,707                   15%      plus
$42,707 - $46,992          22%      plus
$46,992 - $132,406        26%      plus
$132,406 +                     29%

By splitting your income, you can transfer a portion of your income to a lower-earning family member, for tax purposes, in order to pay a lesser amount of tax on that portion of income.

Example #1
Say you earn $100,000 and do no income splitting.
You are taxed 29% on $100,000.
You pay $29,000 in federal taxes.

Example #2
Say you earn $100,000 and your son earns $20,000. Through a family trust, you pay your son a dividend of $20000
You are taxed 29% on $80,000 and 15% on $20,000.
You pay $26,200 in federal taxes. Savings: $2,800

It is important to remember that you can only pay dividends to adult household members (spouse and children over 18 living at home). In this example, there is still more tax money to be saved by further splitting with the 19 year-old son.

Would an income split help save you money on your taxes?

Tuesday 15 May 2012

IPP - Your Ultimate Retirement Savings Tool


Individual Pension Plan (IPP), Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)

Many Canadians have seen their RRSPs take a significant toll in the markets during this Global Recession. Most can do little more than hope for a quick recovery. But there is another option. It’s called Individual Pension Plan (IPP).

What’s IPP?

IPP stands for Individual Pension Plan. It is perhaps the least known, yet most effective tax reduction strategy available in Canada. IPP is a tax-driven registered pension plan catered to individuals who would like to accomplish more retirement savings than what an RRSP can offer.
For example: In 2004, a 50 year old who commences an IPP could have a maximum contribution of $113,300 compared to a maximum RRSP contribution of $15,500. Therefore the IPP has a tax deductible advantage of $97,800.
Start your own IPP, magnify your retirement income and save thousands of dollars in tax—what else could be better?

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Tax Saving Tips for Business, Professional Corporation


Income taxes are the biggest expense for most Canadian. If you have your own business or professional corporation, your company can help generate tax savings to accelerate your mortgage repayment or boost your retirement savings.

Use Capital Gains Instead of Dividends

If you are planning large cash withdrawals from your company, consider taking the cash as capital gains rather than dividends. Only one half of the capital gains is subject to tax.

Set Up Corporate Health Plan

You can get 45% discount on your medical expenses by setting up your own Private Health Services Plan. It allows your corporation to deduct dental and medical expenses for yourself and family members without any corresponding taxable benefit to you.

Split Income With Family Members

The corporate tax rate is around 10% (depending on your province), compared to the highest personal tax bracket of around 40%. Tax saving can be enormous by channelling corporate income to family members in a lower tax bracket, instead of paying all the income to you alone.

Maximize Deductible Pension Contributions

Consider swithing your retirement savings to an Individual Pension Plan (IPP), instead of the RRSP. You can make larger contributions to an IPP than to the RRSP, especially if you are over 50 and you are also entitled to a large tax deduction for past service contribution.

Deduct Mortgage Interest

If you have a sizable house mortgage, you should look for creative ways to write off the mortgage interest

Thursday 12 April 2012

Invest your money where it matters the most.


At Magnum Wealth Partners, we have several options to help you invest your money right. We are vigorous in analyzing and evaluating real estate projects that meet our expectations before offering our clients the opportunity to invest. Why are real capital investments gaining popularity? This article explains how the real estate market is right now in Toronto. That's Why.

Market Watch


Tight Market Pushes the Average Price above $500K

March 5, 2012
-- Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 7,032 sales in February 2012 – up 16 per cent compared to February 2011. New listings were also up over the same period, but by a lesser 11 per cent to 12,684. It is important to note that 2012 is a leap year, with one more day in February. Over the first 28 days of February, sales and new listings were up by ten per cent and six per cent respectively.

“With slightly more than two months of inventory in the
Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) market area, on average, it is not surprising that competition between buyers has exerted very strong upward pressure on the average selling price. Price growth will continue to be very strong until the market becomes better supplied,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Richard Silver.

“It is important to note that both buyers and sellers are aware of current market conditions. This is evidenced by the fact that homes sold, on average, for 99 per cent of the asking price in February,” continued Silver.


The average selling price in the Toronto Real Estate Board market area was $502,508 in February – up 11 per cent compared to February 2011. The Composite MLS® Home Price Index for TREB, which provides a less volatile measure of price growth compared to the average price, was up by 7.3 per cent compared February 2011.

“If tight market conditions continue to result in higher than expected price growth as we move into the spring, expectations for 2012 as a whole will have to be revised upwards,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “While price growth remains strong, the average selling price remains affordable from a mortgage lending perspective for a household earning the average income in the GTA.”

Thursday 29 March 2012

5 year freeze on expected tax cuts

It'll be at least 5 years before another sniff at a cut...
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced on Tuesday that plans for corporate tax cuts will be put on hiatus until the province can get back on track with its debt.

Businesses were looking forward to a drop from the current corporate rate of 11.5% down to 10%. They will now have to wait at least five years for any chance at seeing those cuts take shape.

As the Liberals look to balance the ledgers by 2018, businesses that were counting on a tax break need to find other ways to save cash for the near future.

Will this news cause significant hardship for your business?

See below for an excerpt from the article.

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By Romina Maurino, The Canadian Press, thecanadianpress.com, Updated: March 27, 2012 8:08 PM

Ontario delays cut to corporate tax rates

It's a move Finance Minister Dwight Duncan called necessary, and one he said will put $1.5 billion in government coffers over three years.

The budget also promised to save $250 million by merging many business support programs into a Jobs and Prosperity Fund, as well as freeze scheduled decreases in business education taxes, again until the budget is balanced, for an additional $300 million in savings.

Duncan said he spoke with various business leaders and they "recognize that the business community has to make its contribution."

"We have made Ontario a more attractive place for businesses to invest and create new jobs," Duncan told the legislature while delivering his budget.

"So we are asking business to do its part to help Ontario balance its budget."

View the full article here at MSN Money Canada

Source URL: http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/news/business-news/ontario-delays-cut-to-corporate-tax-rates

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Friday 3 February 2012

The Story of Magnum Wealth Partners

 Magnum Wealth Partners was founded in 2004. It is the outcome of the principal's many years of experience in the financial services industry.

Our understanding of the market place from both the client and advisor perspective helped us in our crusade to become one of the most respected organizations in our field.

We represent and serve every segment of the market place from a basic individual family plan to the most advance estate planning scenario.  Our advisors are well versed and highly educated to provide valuable services and advice, coupled with honesty, integrity and ethical practices

Our commitment goes well beyond making a sale, we strive to ensure our clients best interest is served first, whether it is a basic family need, a business, professional or corporate need, they are all treated with the utmost care and professionalism.  When dealing with Magnum Wealth Partners you are dealing with an organization that demonstrated clarity of vision and solidity of purpose for the benefit of our clients and advisors alike.

Contact us today for more information.