Tax Season Headaches and How the BeniPlus Wallet Can Help

Tax season is a stressful time. For small business owners though, it can be a particularly challenging. Between dealing with your personal tax filings, overseeing your company filings and ensuring that your team has everything that they need, it can be an incredibly overwhelming period for many of us.This year, this already complicated time has combined with concerns about Lockdown Benefits, wage subsidies and other temporary pandemic measures to make things even more complicated. It has left many small business owners wondering if they are going to have to pay more this tax season.A recent WealthSimple article on the most asked tax questions, notes that a number of pandemic related subsidies and benefits must be reported and could be taxable this year. It notes that the Canadian Recovery Benefit (CEB) only had 10% of the benefit withheld for taxes, so depending on your company income level you might still have to pay more. Likewise, you may have to pay taxes on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) since no taxes were withheld.This possibility of increased taxes has combined with concerns over increased debt levels to make the situation more precarious. Global News has reported that according to CFIB nearly 2/3 of small business owners have taken on debt to survive the pandemic. Combined Canadian small businesses have racked up $135 billion in debt, or an average of $170,000 each.How A BeniPlus Wallet Can Help With Future Tax HeadachesProviding your team with great group benefits has never been more important nor more challenging. With traditional group benefits, you have to worry about the impact of inflation, Covid and supply-chain instability on your costs. This means worrying about increased deductibles and premiums, never knowing if and by how much those costs would go up.With a BeniPlus Wallet you never have to worry about premiums, deductibles or hidden fees. Our Wallet design allows you to determine how much money you would like to spend on your benefits and which benefits options you would like to offer. Your employees can then decide how they would like to distribute the funds between their eligible benefits options to fit their individual needs.Unlike traditional benefits plans, with BeniPlus you have no insurance premiums or setup fees. Instead, our payment system is set up so that you only pay a small 7.5% fee on your claims. If no one claims, you pay nothing. Even better, you always know the maximum cost of your plan upfront and that your costs will not increase next year.On top of the basic Healthcare Spending Accounts (HSAs), benefits options include Wellness Spending Accounts (WSAs), Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP), Charitable Giving and Personal Insurance. Your employees can then divide their benefits dollars between their eligible options to fit their individual needs.Many of these benefits can provide great tax savings for both the company and the benefits user. HSAs, for example, use pre-tax dollars to pay for medical expenses with registered healthcare professionals. This means that for tax purposes this money is not part of your taxable income and does not need to be declared.RRSPs can also provide great tax savings for you and your employees. In order to encourage Canadians to save for retirement, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) provides several great tax advantages to encourage contributions. It allows you to take up to 18% of your yearly pre-tax income and invest it for retirement. You will not have to pay taxes until the money is withdrawn and this money does not count towards your income for that year.For more information about the BeniPlus Wallet and how to provide simple, flexible and affordable group benefits for you and your team, get a quote today!Sincerely,Stephen DeKuyperCo-founder and President[gravityform id="16" title="true" description="true"]