Ernest Bianchi, Chartered Accountant

Tax-Free Vehicle Allowance Rates Increase for 2013 - The limits for tax-free vehicle allowances paid to employees by their employers increase by 1 cent, to $0.54 per km for the first 5,000 kms, and $0.48 for additional kilometres. Allowances for the Territories are 4 cents higher, and also increase by 1 cent.

Optimize your donation tax credit. It is usually best for the highest income spouse to claim the tax credit for all donations of both spouses. However, sometimes not all donations are utilized, and can then either be carried forward or split between spouses. Our tax calculators will help with this.

The TD1 forms for 2013 are now available from Canada Revenue Agency. If there have been changes which will affect your tax exemptions (see our article), you should ensure that you complete these forms so that your employer (or other payer) will deduct the appropriate amount of income tax from your employment income or pension income. New employees should always complete these forms. For those working only part time, if your total income for the year will not exceed your exemptions, you should tick the appropriate box on the back of the form, so that your employer will not deduct any income tax from your pay cheques.

Having "helped" the kids assemble a half-dozen Lego sets this week, I now realize I should have kept the sets sealed in the box. Read this article to find out why! Lego investors make hot profits brick by brick on USAToday.com: http://usat.ly/RU2NKy

Tax tip - Consider selling capital properties with an underlying capital loss prior to the year-end if you had taxable capital gains in the year, or any of the preceding three years. This capital loss may be offset against the capital gains.