For some, April might conjure up images of springtime in Paris.

But for most Canadians, April is somewhat less romantic — it’s the month they have to file their tax returns.

Luckily, there is still time, and no shortage of information out there from a number of qualified sources, on how to hang on to every last cent that you, or your business, can before your return is due.

The following is a selection of tax tip tomes — updated to reflect the latest Canadian taxation changes, including new tax cuts, pension-splitting provisions and changes to the rules governing registered retirement savings plans — that might make it easier to get through this year’s tax season.

Tax Tips for Canadians for Dummies 2008 Edition (Wiley), by Christie Henderson, Brian Quinlan, Suzanne Schultz and Leigh Vyn, may be awkwardly titled (why not just call it Tax Tips for Canadian Dummies?) but it continues the informative, somewhat irreverent and very entertaining comic-book style of its predecessors.

The dummies guide won’t necessarily make filling out your tax return any more fun, but it does provide a wealth of tax-related material that is easy to read and to understand.

Included in the new edition are tips on how to save tax by splitting pensions, details on new child and child-fitness tax credits and information on RRSP age-limit increases and increased lifetime capital gains exemptions.

Beat the Taxman 2008 (Wiley), by Stephen Thompson, a chartered accountant who has appeared on BBN and CBC Radio, uses a question-and-answer format to provide small business owners with up-to-date tax information.

Along with details on new tax measures, the book offers entrepreneurs a plethora of pointers on saving both money and taxes at every stage of their firm’s development — even a tip on how to deduct the cost of the book as a way to save tax!

Beat the Taxman also includes a year-round tax planning calendar and 167 "tax-beater" tips.

101 Tax Secrets for Canadians 2008 (Wiley), by Tim Cestnick, who writes a weekly column for the Globe and Mail and is the author of several tax and investment books, provides information on how to reduce your taxes and maximize your investment returns.

The book outlines all of the latest Canadian tax changes and uses brief, readable case studies to illustrate tax secrets, allowing readers to develop their own game plan.

In a slightly different vein, Smoke and Mirrors (Self-Counsel Press), by chartered accountant David Trahair, delves into what he calls the financial myths that will ruin your retirement dreams.

Trahair, who has also appeared on BBN and on CBC Newsworld, is something of a maverick who debunks conventional wisdom that says you need $1 million in savings to retire or that RRSPs, which he argues have been created by banks and financial investment firms for their own benefit, are the best way to save for retirement.

Trahair suggests that Canadians should pay off their debts rather than invest heavily in RRSPs or the stock market, and he offers tips, and an included CD-ROM spreadsheet, to help readers get their finances under control.

In even more of a departure, The Taxman is Watching (Collins), by Paul and Philippe DioGuardi, which is subtitled What Every Canadian Needs to Know and Fear, provides an insider’s look at the Canada Revenue Agency (formerly Revenue Canada) that exposes the secretive federal department’s extensive, police-like powers.

The Taxman is Watching paints a picture of a murky, 24-like netherworld in which agents use their broad authority to tap into bank and credit card records without any permission or to go back years to audit an individual or a business’s finances.

To combat those little understood powers, the book provides tips on how deal with the agency if it comes calling, including strategies for families on issues like income splitting and child-care deductions; advice for investors on how to shelter assets offshore; and what to expect from the department if you are self-employed.

The authors, by the way, are senior tax consultants with DioGuardi Tax Law, a Canadian law firm with offices across Canada and in the Turks and Caicos that focuses on tax settlement negotiations. Paul DioGuardi, a lawyer for 40 years, began his career with the National Revenue Department in Ottawa and knows well the world he describes.

Knowledge, as they say, is power, and these books can go a long way toward empowering you when it comes to tax time.

( berskine@herald.ca)