A very ho hum budget from our government this time with a few more tax tweaks (where tweak always ends up acting like a tax increase, due to the loss of yet another deduction).
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Table of contents
The big ones for someone like me end up being:
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
- Disappearance of the Mass Transit usage tax deduction. Evidently it didn’t cause more folks to take the bus? Guess I can throw out my bus pants. I have taken the bus in the past.
- If I take an Uber, I will have to pay HST on it. It was surprising to me, that was not the case, no big deal in my book, I take the bus, no wait.
- I was sad to read about the death of Canada Savings Bonds. I remember when I had CSBs that paid 19% a year! Those were the days.
- For RDSP and RESP the rules for what you can invest in, have been tightened. The interesting part is that it is in the section, Closing Tax Loopholes Doesn’t really change anything in my portfolios, but it is sad when loopholes close (usually they make knots then). Nice to hear that they at least know the RDSP exists.
Extend to Registered Education Savings Plans and Registered Disability Savings Plans anti-avoidance rules similar to the ones applicable in connection with Tax-Free Savings Accounts and Registered Retirement Savings Plans.
- For Disability Tax Credit (DTC) Eligibility Certification, Nurse Practitioners are proposed to be added to the list of folks eligible to fill in the forms for you. This is really good news, and should make it easier to do the DTC paperwork yourself.
- Booze and Smokes are more expensive thanks to higher taxes too.
- Lots of promises for other folks, but nothing else that changes my life.
The good news is that the Capital Gains taxes and Pension Income Splitting haven’t been touched.
March Madness continues this weekend, and Formula 1 racing begins again as well. Yes that audible sigh you hear is Mrs. C8j realizing I will be a true Couch Potato this weekend. March Madness bracket picking is similar to stock picking in my books (i.e. I stink at both of them).
My Writings for Week Ending March 24th
Spring, sprang here in Ottawa, there is still snow on the ground and we had -25C temperatures, but it was Spring! I also wrote about Spring Financial Cleaning (revisited), and some of the things to do this spring.
A Money Thought
More disturbing comics from Dilbert, especially about investing.
Busted Bracket Money Thoughts
With both Villanova and Notre Dame ousted from March Madness, the Pope’s bracket must be busted, too. For those of us with less broken brackets, here are some great weekend readings.
- I found an interesting article about how Generosity Isn’t About How Much Money You Have, which may make you think about how generous you think you are.
- For the small biz owners out there Mark from Blunt Bean Counter brings us, What Small Business Owners Need to Know – Management Fees – The Importance of Having Proper Support
- Mark from My Own Advisor pleads with the government, Stop punishing people who save and invest their money, which would be nice if they did that, but the Government will always tax income.
- The Canadian Couch Potato talks about TD this week, but not about their predatory practices for selling services, but their investing trickery, How TD Put the Managed in ETF Portfolios .
- Speaking of aggressive sales tactics from banks, Million Dollar Journey brings us this helpful piece, How to Deal with the Aggressive Sales Tactics by the Big Banks
- Marie from Boomer and Echo points out the dangers of carrying or creating debt loads leading into your retirement, with Don’t Allow Debt To Derail Your Retirement Plans
- Do you trust your judgement, Michael James does a book review that might cause you to (correctly) not trust your judgement implicitly, with The Undoing Project
Kerry’s View on the Budget
Our friend Squawkfox was omnipresent in the budget discussions, and here is her overview of the budget, after she had time to digest it. She only had 5 minutes, so I am sure she has more opinions on it.
2017 Random Thoughts
- Naughty Banks, March Madness, Big Snow and #MoneyTalk (March 17th)
- Teller Upselling, Auto-filling Taxes, Spring Forward and #MoneyTalk, (March 10th )
- Lent Begins, Loose Money and #MoneyTalk (March 3rd )
- RRSP Season, Tax Time, and #MoneyTalk (February 24th )
- Farewell Vinyl Café, Snow, Monopoly and #MoneyTalk (February 17th )
- RRSP , Tax , TFSA , RESP, and RDSP Time and #MoneyTalk (February 10th )
- Year of the Fire Rooster, Financial Groundhog Day and #MoneyTalk (February 3rd )
- Alternate Financial Facts, 1984 and #Moneytalk (January 27th)
- Bungled Mortgages, Friday the 13th and #Moneytalk (January 13th)
- Merry New Year, CPP, EI and #MoneyTalk (January 6th)
Yes, I had some of those 19% CSBs as well.
It doesn’t surprise me that they cancelled the CSB program. They were not doing anything to get people in to it. I would even say that at the rates they were paying they were discouraging people.
Now why they could not have paid one or two percentage points below what we, the people, are paying for borrowed money to pay the deficit I can not understand. After all, we the people are paying big time for the government largess with our money. I am positive that if they had offered CSBs at 3 or 4% there would have been plenty of takers. What is the rate on the deficit? Now our tax dollars are going to enrich some banks or foreign entities instead of coming back to our own pockets.
Oh well, I am not as smart as these high grade financiers.
RICARDO
I used to use CSB’s as my “Christmas Club”. I’d sign up for a $500 CSB in the fall and then the next October, I’d have a CSB, which I could then cash in and use for my Christmas shopping. 🎄
JEEZ! You must be as old as I am with that Christmas Club reference.
Ricardo