Oooh, anyone doing their tax return?

After taking away the $100,000 capital gains exemption........
After taking away the tax free status on the sale of a second home your spouse's name........
After the erosion of net buying power due to a weak Canadian dollar.....
After the hidden effects of tax creep (not adjusting tax brackets to inflation thus clawing back your income)........
After disallowing you to contribute to an RSP after age 69........
After forcing you to sell your RSP into a RRIF at age 71.......

The ******* Canadian government, in its generosity and wisdom gives:

1) women unemployment benefits if they stay pregnant
2) us peons the seriously neutered so-called "Tax Free Savings Account"

Americans have no idea how lucky they are compared to Canadians in terms of far better tax advantages, much lower interest rates, much lower automobile costs etc.

I prefer owing taxes than getting a refund. I don't want the government to have my money interest free. I rather have my own money throughout the year.

Did my taxes in January. I like to get refunds. It's money I might otherwise not have saved. Taking my 401k and starting my Social Security threw in a few kinks, but it's all over with now.

haven't yet had to do any of those things chumly, but in terms of americans having it better

i like my health care, that rumps everything in my eyes

as for taxes, done and refund in hand

I do an annual balancing act of trying to withhold just enough to avoid paying penalties which kick in when less than 90% of the total tax liability has been withheld prior to the end of the year. I pay the final 10% on April 15th.

My wife and I both got a TFSA. We're peons and need all the breaks we can get.


A little is okay (under $100), but too much sucks!


Early bird catches the worm?


Yeperooni on that count!


Yup, you do what you gotta do!

I did my taxes in January, too, but since I was self-employed, I don't have to submit my payment until June, I believe. Well, I didn't do them, my financial advisor's office did, but they're done.

I enter the data every month so I don't have this painful annual data entry situation like my sister has. I contributed $20,300 to my RRSPs and still had to pay taxes.

I also opened a TFSA yesterday - it was a Waterhouse (trading) account one. You don't get any interest on it but ... the interest is only at 2.5% now anyway. I remember the days when I had GICs locked in for several years at 19.5% - sigh.

Hi Reyn Did I mention how WRONG I was about the government? You were so RIGHT and I was wrong, wrong, wrong! The alliance fell apart. You're so smart!

Yup, you already mentioned.

And, no, I'm not so smart. I just had a feeling that it wasn't going to work out the way it was laid out.

How's Calgary these days? Any snow?

The health care was there before the below and many other tax advantages were destroyed:

- The $100,000 capital gains exemption
- The tax free status on the sale of a second home in your spouse's name

So you cannot rationalize that heath care is the trade off you accept as a consequence of a lame tax treatment.

i'll never have any of those things so i'm not too worried

In answer to your view that "My wife and I both got a TFSA. We're peons and need all the breaks we can get."

Um...........have you actually calculated the so-called "tax saving" you and you wife are going to get versus what has been taken away by the two below times?

Um...........have you actually calculated the so-called "tax saving" you and you wife are going to get after inflation versus what has been taken away by the two below times? Hint if you get 5% (if!!) then that would mean if (if!!)you put in $5,000 each then you would "save" the taxes on $400 at your marginal rate of which if we assume is 30% then you "save" $160. Big Whoop..........further we'll have to see if that so-called "saving" will even cover the total costs of administration fees and other expenses of TIFSA ownership taking into consideration opportunity cost loss

Hint if inflation is running at about what you might get in annualized returns then you get nothing, nada, zippo!

Sorry R but lilky in the short to medium run, the only people that are going to benefit from TIFSA's are the financial companies with their fees.......hint far from all fess are visible of which if you know about MER's, bid/ask you would understand.

As to the long tun of TIFSA's meaning (20 years or more) the magic of compounding in a tax free environment may well be a good thing, if the Canadian government does not change the rules........hint when it comes to tax planning in Canada the government loves the change the rules

- The $100,000 capital gains exemption
- The tax free status on the sale of a second home in your spouse's name

Canada needs people with no drive to improve their material worth.

i've got drive, money isn't that important to me, i have no problem paying taxes on the money i earn, i just don't make much money, and probably never will, and won't have a spouse so i'm out of the loop on those things

reyn, yes, lots of snow here, but yesterday we had a chinook and there were floods on several roads.

Chumly, yes, but I can buy stocks/mutual funds, etc and if i make money (big IF, these days), all the earnings are tax-free. That's why I opened the account. No capital gains. You also don't get to claim any capital losses, mind you, but if you don't sell at a loss, you're ok. Plus, as I said, this acct earns no interest on the $.

Current interest rates are nowhere interesting enough to affect any withholding decisions on my part.

Fees? What fees? We got ours through the Royal Bank and didn't pay any fees, and also none in the future. The only downside (that I could see) was if one was to cash something in before the maturity date. We currently have money in GICs (yeah, I know the interest rate is lousy).


Sounds awful. We had 10 to 15 cm of snow a while back. It wasn't predicted a couple days prior to the event.

We also took the TFSA stuff for the tax-free earnings.


I'll agree on the point! The interest rates on the GICs that we have are quite low, at the moment.

I have to make estimated taxes for self employment. Which means I try to under-estimate what I will owe

Just be sure you don't underestimate by more than 10%

As discussed bid/ask spread and MER's etc. All investment vehicles have inherent costs.