For most Canadians, we’re well away from tax season at this point, and everyone has breathed their collective sigh of relief. A lot of folks only think of accounting when tax season comes around, but accountants can be useful year round, for a number of different reasons. Whether you want an accountant for personal reasons, or for your business, there’s a lot of value in keeping in touch with your accountant after tax season is over.

Tax Accountants: How to Store Records, and More

You want your taxes to be done on time, and accurately. Keeping in touch with your tax accountant once the season is over is good practice; they can help you establish a bookkeeping system that will ensure all the documents relevant to your taxes are in the right place. Tax accountants can do more than that, though. Let’s say you’re thinking of making some improvements on your house – your tax accountant can help you determine which improvements will qualify for capital gains deductions down the line, and how they can decrease your tax liability. Anytime you’re thinking of making a change that could affect your taxes, it’s good to have a tax accountant to consult.

This goes double for businesses; for you, taxation can be incredibly consequential, and almost any decision you make can add to or reduce your overall tax liability. Your accountant can help you develop best practices for recording financial information, and determining how it will affect your taxes.

Financial Planning

The knowledge of accountants isn’t limited to taxation. A good accountant can help you plan to save for a new house, for retirement, or for any other goals you might have. They can also help you calculate how much certain purchases are going to cost over their lifetime, and how much financial benefit you can anticipate from those purchases. That can be useful if you’re trying to crunch whether or not you should purchase that new high-efficiency furnace. 

Business Accounting

No matter how big your business is, or what your operations are, it’s a good idea to have an accountant. Accountants can fulfill so many different roles for businesses, from helping management figure out what’s profitable and what’s not, to completing financial statements to show to potential investors and creditors, to calculating how much a new project is slated to cost overtime, so you can determine what to charge for a good or service. Accounting has been called “the language of business”, and for good reason: money talks. 

As you can see, accountants are useful every time of year, for just about anyone. Keeping in touch with your accountant, making semi-regular appointments, and keeping your financial statements in order can all help you thrive financially. Look for a CPA accountant in Winnipeg; the CPA designation means your accountant has gone through rigorous training and examinations to better serve you.