Ms. Candace Larochelle is 37 years old and divorced from her former spouse. She has two children from the marriage, Lotte, aged 5 and Bram, aged 9. Neither of these children have any income in 2022.

The divorce agreement, which was issued in 2020, requires her former spouse to pay $3,000 per month in child support and an additional $1,000 per month in spousal support. While all of the payments for previous years have been made, in 2022, her former spouse has experienced financial difficulties and has paid only $40,000 of the required amounts of $48,000.

Ms. Larochelle also provides care for her 85 year old grandfather who lives with her and her children. While her grandfather is not mentally or physically infirm, his 2022 net income is only $7,950 which makes him partly dependant on Ms. Larochelle.

Ms. Larochelle is employed by Dutch Foods Ltd., a large public company. In 2022, she has a annual base salary of $75,000. In 2021, she was awarded a bonus of $19,500, all of which was paid in January of 2022.

The corporate employer provides her with an automobile which the company leases for $560 a month. Ms. Larochelle is required to pay all of the operating and maintenance costs of the automobile. In 2022, these costs totaled $6,300. The automobile was available for her use for 11 months during 2022 and was driven a total of 43,360 kilometers, 35,120 of which were driven for employment use and 8,240 for personal use.

Her employer made the following payroll withholdings in 2022:

RPP Contributions $3,400

EI Premiums 953

CPP Contributions 3,500

Life Insurance Premium 250

Her employer pays her Alberta provincial health care premium of $582 ($44 monthly).

In 2022, Ms. Larochelle is transferred by Dutch Foods Ltd. from their Edmonton office to their Calgary office. The Company has agreed to fully compensate her for any loss on the sale of her Edmonton house, but will not compensate her for the legal fees associated with the sale. In addition the employer will provide her with a one time payment of $15,000 when she purchases a home in Calgary to compensate her for the higher cost of housing in Calgary.

Dutch Foods Ltd. is also providing her with a $200,000 interest free housing loan to help finance her new house in Calgary. This loan is received on April 1, 2022 and must be repaid in full on March 31, 2027. In addition to these other amounts, the employer also provides a $10,000 allowance to cover any additional moving expenses.

On January 3, 2022, Ms. Larochelle flies to Calgary at a cost of $325 on a house hunting trip. During the three days that she is in Calgary, her food and lodging costs total $575. Both the air fare and the food and lodging costs are reimbursed by Dutch Foods Ltd. After considering the properties that she has seen, she makes an offer on a property on January 10, 2022. The offer is accepted that same day.

Later that month she sells her Edmonton home which she purchased for $265,000 in 2020. The house is sold for $257,800. While Ms. Larochelle managed to sell the house without using a real estate agent, legal fees associated with the sale total $950.

Ms. Larochelle and her family leave Edmonton on March 15 and arrive in Calgary that same day. She uses the employer provided automobile. This milage is included in the 43,360 kilometer total and is viewed as being employment related. As the family brought a picnic lunch for the trip, she ignores food costs for the day.

Unfortunately, her new Calgary home is not available until April 3 and, as a consequence, she, her children and her grandfather stay in a Calgary suite hotel from March 15 through April 3 (19 days). The rate for a two room suite is $325 per day, but Ms. Larochelle has a discount voucher that provides her with a daily rate of $200 per day for a one week period (7 nights).

Assume that the 2022 allowable daily rate for meals is $69 a person.

The cost for moving her household effects and leaving them in storage until her Calgary home was ready totaled $3,640. Her legal fees associated with purchasing the Calgary home are $600.

Ms. Larochelle has belonged to her employer’s stock purchase plan since 2020. In that year she purchased 360 shares at $5.00 each. In 2021, she acquired an additional 500 shares at $5.25 each. On February 1, 2022, she acquired 400 more shares at $6.00 each. On July 1, 2022, her shares paid an eligible dividend of $0.30 per share. In order to help finance some of the costs of the move, she sold 900 of these shares in December of 2022 for $6.10 per share.

On January 1, 2022, Ms. Larochelle purchases an annuity for $28,733. The annuity was purchased with after-tax funds outside of a tax deferred income plan and will provide a payment of $5,000 at the end of each year for eight years. Given its price, the effective yield on the annuity is 8%.

In 2022, Ms. Larochelle contributes $6,000 to her TFSA and $5,500 to a TFSA that she opens for her grandfather.

Before moving to Calgary, child care expenses in Edmonton were $200 per week for 11 weeks. In Calgary, the weekly cost increased to $250 per week and was paid for a total of 36 weeks. In the summer, both children spent four weeks at an exclusive summer camp. The weekly fees at this camp were $500 for each child.

The 2022 medical expenses for Ms. Larochelle and her dependants, which were all paid for by Ms. Larochelle, are as follows:

Ms. Larochelle $ 465

Lotte 493

Bram 245

Grandfather 12,473

Total Medical Expenses $13,676

Assume a prescribed rate of 2% applied throughout 2022 on employee loans.

Required: 

Calculate Ms. Larochelle's minimum 2022 net income.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Ms Candace Larochelles minimum net income for 2022 is 49040 Explanation Ms Larochel... View the full answer