Nobody might really love these upcoming deadlines, but it's important to know them:

We never thought we'd still be doing updates on COVID-19 programs nearly two years after they started, but here we are. For us, it's a bit of a love/hate relationship with them.

The programs for individual support are mostly unchanged from last month, but there are some changes to the business-focused programs:

Some provinces have also announced new programs to help businesses affected by the public restrictions they imposed. Check your province's website to see if your qualify for any of these grants and supports.

A much-loved deduction that was introduced on the 2020 tax return was the Working From Home Deduction for employees working from home due to the pandemic.

Good news! The deduction is in place for the 2021 and 2022 tax years. There are two ways to claim the deduction:

When you work through the workspace and time calculations, most employees working from home will be better off using the Temporary Flat Method, but you can check if it will be beneficial in your circumstances here.

If you are claiming any other employment expenses (vehicle, meals, supplies, etc.) you must claim your use-of-home expenses on the traditional claim form and have a completed and signed Form T2200 from your employer.

Beginning this month, registered users will be required to provide an email address to use the CRA's sometimes-loved, sometimes-loathed My Account service.

If you do not already have one on file, you will be prompted to provide an email address when you log in to your account. If you do not provide an email address, you will no longer be able to use the My Account service.

The CRA is requiring all users to provide an email address as part of its increased security protocols (which include multi-factor authentication) in response to the widespread problems they experienced last year.

It is our understanding that once the CRA has an email address, it will by default no longer send paper correspondence (including your Notice of Assessment) to you - you will instead receive an email notice that mail is available to download.

However, if you prefer to receive paper correspondence, you can update your settings through the My Account service after you have provided your email address.

At this time, there are no changes to CRA's My Business Account service, but we expect it will see a similar email requirement in the near future.

Okay, before anybody's eyes glaze over, we're not going to try to explain cryptocurrency or tell you why you're crazy for not investing in it - we'll leave that to your brother-in-law (or that really bad date, in keeping with our Valentine's theme).

We would like to point out a couple tax issues that have arisen over the past few years now that Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies have gained popularity.

If you dispose of cryptocurrency as part of a business, any profit arising from its disposition would be treated as straight business income and the whole amount would be included in your Net Income/Loss from business activities.

If you dispose of cryptocurrency outside of business activities, it would normally be treated as a capital gain and the profit would be included in your income for the year at the inclusion rate (currently 50%). If your trading patterns could be construed as a business activity (e.g. day trading), it could be straight income.

The other issue that arises is whether or not your cryptocurrency constitutes a foreign asset that needs to be disclosed to the CRA. To simplify what is otherwise an insanely long answer, it depends on the location and nature of your digital wallet(s).

The best advice we can offer is that if the cost base of your cryptocurrency holdings would push the cost base of your foreign property holdings over $100,000 CDN, you should disclose the cryptocurrency on your T1135.

At this time of year, we normally focus on contributing to your RRSP to get those tax savings everybody loves.

However, once you've moved into retirement, focusing on when to withdraw your RRSPs/RRIFs can have a substantial impact on your tax situation.

For most individuals, your RRSP/RRIF is your biggest future tax liability and managing it accordingly can reap significant financial advantages. Early or accelerated withdrawals can trim down the amount of taxes you pay on those funds.

While most people are aware that you must convert your RRSP into a RRIF and receive a minimum payment before your 72nd birthday, there is nothing stopping you from accessing the funds before then.

This is particularly important if you have accumulated a large amount of RRSPs/RRIFs - unless you can transfer that tax-deferred to a spouse on death (or in a couple other very limited exceptions), that amount will be taxed on your final return. Depending on your province of residence, you could be facing a 54% tax rate on some of those funds.

If you find yourself with a fairly large pool of RRSPs/RRIFs but your income is otherwise in the lowest federal tax bracket (up to $49,020 for 2022), it might be wise to accelerate withdrawals to ensure you pay tax on those funds at your lowest marginal rate.

Even if your income is into the second tax bracket, it might make sense to increase your withdrawals to bring your Net Income up to the OAS clawback threshold ($81,761 for 2022) and pay some tax in that bracket rather than defer it until later.

As we discussed in last month's newsletter, RRIF withdrawals are eligible for Pension Income Splitting (if you are over 65), so it may be possible to use your spouse's tax brackets to get this income taxed at a lower rate.

Obviously, this is not a one-size-fits-all strategy, but if you find yourself in this situation, it's probably worth your time to have a conversation with your tax professional and/or investment advisor about managing that future tax liability.

Well, we've made it to the end of another newsletter. We may not have given you any great suggestions for Valentine's Day, but we hope we've given you some great tax tips.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, we recently saw a poll that named Michael Buble as the world's most romantic singer. While we're not taking anything away from him, we're not sure how this guy doesn't even make the top ten.

The office will be open on Valentine's Day (we're not that romantic), but we will be closed on the following Monday for Family Day (or Louis Riel Day for our friends out west).

When we return from that long weekend, we'll start sending out the preseason letter and checklist to our clients (watch for the questions about the Working From Home Deduction).

Until next time, stay safe and keep in touch.