Highlights of Yesterday's Budget

-
Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)

* This is the major measure relating to investors
* Begins 2009
* Every individual 18 years and older obtains $5,000 per year (indexed) contribution room regardless of income
* No upper age limit for earning contribution room or making contributions ( no 71 year rule as for RRSPs)
* Contribution room not used may be carried forward indefinitely
* Contributions are non-deductible; withdrawals are non-taxable (including investment income withdrawals)
* Qualifying investments the same as for RRSPs
* Attribution rules do not apply so one spouse may contribute to the other spouse’s TFSA



Partial unlocking of Federally Regulated LIF’S

* Effective date unknown
* Individuals 55 or older with LIF accounts of $22,450 or less may un-lock
* Individuals 55 years and older eligible for one time un-locking of half of their LIF holdings



Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) Earned Income Exemption Increased

* Implementation date unknown
* Currently up to $500 of earned income is exempt for purposes of calculating GIS benefits
* This exemption is proposed to be increased to the first $3,500 of earnings



Changes to RESP Time Limits

* Applicable for 2008
· Currently contributions to an RESP plan may be made for 21 years after inception, must be terminated on the 25th year

· Both time limits increased by 10 years



Mandatory Collapse of RDSP if no Longer Disabled

* If individual no longer eligible for disability credit, RDSP must be collapsed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interest free Credit Cards

-
One reader recently asked me how I received 0% credit cards. I currently have two credit cards for this purpose: a) Citibank Gold Mastercard and b) MBNA Mastercard. Both are limited time only 0% credit cards which means that you can basically write yourself a cash advance and deposit it in your bank account and earn interest on the money until it is time to pay back the principle. Remember, though, that there are monthly minimum payments that one would need to pay. However, because it is a 0% card, any minimum payment you make is made towards the principle. Between the two cards, I like the Citibank card a bit more because there is no balance transfer fee. With the MBNA they charge you 1% of the balance transfer amount. To me this was a minor inconvenience as I have put the money into PC Financial and am earning 4% so I still come out ahead at the end of the year. The MBNA credit card promotion is currently over, but the Citibank Gold Mastercard offer is still available. The det...
Read more

2019 is officially in the books

-
Image
With 2019 in the books returning an astounding 28.9% for the S&P 500 and the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite index up 19%, there was a lot to cheer about for investors in North America. This was a remarkable year considering a lot of the doom and gloom that fell on markets in Q4 of 2018. A lot of pundits were calling for 2019 to be the year that the 10-year bull run would take a massive correction, but that certainly didn't happen despite the year making a lot of news that would arguably have made markets shakier than they were. I hope a lot of you readers were invested as it was a year to make a lot of easy money. Unless of course, you had invested in cannabis-related stocks. All this said, a correction could happen.  We never know when it could happen but for those with a long-term investment horizon should not be fearful of a recession or pull-back in stocks.  Take only the risk you can afford to take and stay the course. For something a bit on th...
Read more

Fed up with Pigsback

-
I received the following in my mailbox today: Dear canadiandollars, We want to remind you of some changes that have taken place this week. Our 'Quiz Quest' promotion, where members could win daily or weekly PiggyPoints in our different Zones has now come to an end. The quizzes that are affected by this change are the Shop & Earn Quiz, Sports Quiz, Travel Quiz, Movie Quiz and the Quirky Quiz. Now that 'Quiz Quest' is over, we will no longer be awarding everyone PiggyPoints for getting the right answer. But don't worry; the quizzes aren't going away completely. You can still answer the quiz questions and be entered into a weekly draw to win 1,000 PiggyPoints for each quiz. This change was meant to take place as of Monday, January 28th, but due to a small problem with the website, you may have noticed over the weekend that you didn't get your PiggyPoints when you were supposed to. Please note that we will be crediting all members who completed quizzes over...
Read more