You can run from the taxman but you can’t hide. Nevertheless, it’s a shrewd business operator who protects and strengthens the corporate bottom line by learning as much as possible about Canada's enormously complex tax laws.

OK, fair enough. But where do you turn for this kind of specialized knowledge?

You approach the professional planners and advisors at Peer Financial. You discuss your situation with a wealth management and financial services expert whose corporate credo is: “The greatest risk of all is paying too much tax.”

You speak to Ralph Burgess, founder and senior tax strategist at Peer Financial, a company that has been serving the corporate communities of Calgary and Edmonton for over 20 years.

Ralph Burgess, founder of Peer Financial, can stop you from paying unnecessary tax.

When you do, Burgess is likely to open the conversation with a remark that’s so funny it hurts – right in the pocketbook.

“If you feel like you’re being taxed over and over and over again . . . you are,” he’ll hit you with his favourite punch line.

If that remark strikes a nerve, you’ll want to drop by one of two complimentary seminars, conducted by Peer Financial. They may well turn out to be the most exciting, educational – and profitable – evenings of your business career.

In Calgary, Peer Financial has scheduled two such seminars during the month of November.

* Tuesday, Nov. 23 (7:30 to 9 p.m.) at the Carriage House Inn, 9030 Macleod Trail S.W.

* Thursday, Nov. 25 (7:30 to 9 p.m.) at The Inn on Crowchild, 5353 Crowchild Trail N.W.

Register for one of these free sessions and learn how the permanent tax structure can protect your personal or corporate investment growth while producing tax-free future income.

Learn how the Enhanced Line of Credit can utilize tax-sheltered, tax-deductible investment in your business and real estate.

Learn how the Holding Company Option can reduce taxes and protect your assets.

Learn how other proprietary tax structures can reduce your tax payable or recover tax already paid.

Learn how to sell an asset and not pay tax on the gain during your lifetime.

“Our strategies are tailored for the successful business owner,” explains Burgess, whose stated goals include maximizing the investment returns of his clients, while reducing their level of risk and slamming the brakes on unnecessarily high tax payments.

Well known from frequent appearances on national TV and radio, Peer Financial’s experts know precisely how to grab the ear of operators of small-to- medium enterprises.

One way is to explain how the Corporate Permanent Tax Structure (PTS) can eliminate tax on passive income and remove “trapped cash” from their corporation, tax-free.

“A business owner often re-invests in the growth of his company for a long period of time,” Burgess explains the problem. “Then he wakes up one day to discover that most of his net worth is tied up in the company.” Burgess then reveals a surprising fact: From a tax standpoint, investing your company’s excess cash flow within the corporation often represents an exceedingly poor investment.

“Business owners who do that can find themselves in a difficult situation, tax-wise,” he points out. “They’re paying a very high tax rate on the money they’ve left in the company. But it’s trapped. Because if they try to pay it out to themselves, then they pay even more tax on a personal basis.”

There are some planning solutions to this kind of conundrum. And Burgess invites you to explore them as a guest during an upcoming Peer Financial seminar.

“I’d estimate that at least 60 per cent of the people who have attended the seminars have benefited from suggested solutions,” Burgess smiles.

A Peer Financial seminar generally begins where other seminars leave off. Those in attendance learn much more than the basics. Burgess and his team attract sophisticated and successful businesspeople, many of whom have already been burned by lack of knowledge of taxation law.

Peer Financial experts will demonstrate certain painful realities, such as how a given business owner can be taxed as many as four times on the same money.

Peer Financial doesn’t deal in tax loopholes. Company experts simply take the time to explain how the careful exploration of existing structures, policies and regulations can save you and your business a significant sum of money.

For the ideal introduction to the principles of Ralph Burgess and the top-notch team of specialists, please RSVP to Amanda for registration in one of the two Calgary seminars. There’s no obligation. You can reach Amanda at 403.259.5035 or toll-free at 1.800.414.4690.

In the meantime, check out the informative Peer Financial website at www.peerfinancial.com