Jerome Bitun

Every month I get a phone call from our clients saying that their credit card has been subjected to fraud. I never used to get these calls but it seems that the number of cases have really gone up in the last six months. It is a big pain in the neck to clear up your account and go through the motions of cancelling your credit card, getting a new one and making sure you don't pay for the items that was purchased on your credit card. The bigger problem is identity theft when someone actually seems to have taken over your life. Here are eight things you can do to protect yourself from credit card and identity theft. 1. Keep your information private. Memorize your SIN number and don't keep it in your wallet. If your wallet is stolen, so is your SIN number. Keep it in a secure place like a safe at home or a locked drawer. Don't keep it lying around where a thief might break in and steal it. Don't give out your SIN number to anyone. The banks, insurance companies and other fi

The federal government surprised everyone on Halloween when they announced that income trusts who have been publicly traded before November 1, 2006 will become taxable in 2011, with the exception of certain real estate income trusts. What will happen is income trust will be taxed the same as Canadian corporations. Trust that haven't started trading in the stock market yet will be taxed using the new rules starting 2007. This announcement created a huge drop in the S&P/TSX Composite index, down 294.2 points or 2.4 percent to 12,050.39. The TSX Income Trust sector fell more than 12 percent which saw the sector lose about $20 Billion in market value overnight. What lead to the decision to tax income trust can be read on this article from the Globe and Mail.