By this I mean do you keep good records? If revenue Canada were to call you today and said that you were being audited for all your taxes from the last 7 years would you be able to supply the proof to back up your claims? For this reason if you don’t have good records then you should. An example from today, I received a registered letter stating that I owed a bill from a few years ago. It took a few minutes but I found the confirmation and faxed it to them proving that it had been paid. That was a great peace of mind to both me and my wife.

So how long should you keep your financial recourds? Actually according to Revenue Canada you should keep the supporting documents related to your income tax for 6 years this is in case your file came up for review. What should you keep, how do you do it and where should you store them? If you work for someone else, you should have on hand confirmation of your annual income and registered investments. Copies of your recent filing’s would be ideal. If you are self employed you should have confirmation of your annual income, registered investments, and expenses related to your business. The system that I find that works best for me is to have a file for each month, with confirmation of income and expenses for the the month. To do this properly you should have a locked filing cabinet and a paper shredder ( for the personal statements that you don’t need to keep).

Another thing that having good records does is allows you to stay on top of all your current commitments, have a clear idea of where you are going and helps reduce the overall stress related to managing your money. As for working with me, it will make the process of obtaining a loan that much easier and quicker. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call. If you need help getting organized, contact Colette at Organize Anything and she can help you get started.

Cheers,

Pat