As a followup to my previous post on charitable donations, I thought I better discuss federal political contributions. With charitable donations, you benefit from saving your receipts over 6 years since the percentage you receive back is higher on money contributed over $200. Federal political contributions are the opposite, the percentage you get back is higher…
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Category Archives: Taxes
Charitable Donations
By saving your receipts you can optimize the tax credit you receive on charitable donations you make to registered charities. You do however, need to have a dependable filing system since you’ll need to hold on to your receipts for a few years. The first $200 of charitable donations you claim are eligible for a 15%…
Borrowing for the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC)
Most people are saying that they wouldn’t borrow money for renovations to make the February 1, 2010 deadline for the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC). The more I look at it, the more it might make sense if you can afford the extra monthly payment and can pay it off within about 6 years. The HRTC…
Home Buyers Plan (HBP)
The Home Buyers Plan is a government program that allows you to withdraw up to $25,000 from your RRSP towards the purchase of your first home without any tax being withheld. You then have to repay this amount over 15 years. Since you have already received a tax refund for these funds when they were…
TFSA – Tax Free Savings Account
I’ve had a few people ask about the Tax Free Savings Account, or TFSA. Some get the wrong idea because of the term “savings account”. While you can hold a savings account in the TFSA, you could also use it for stocks, mutual funds, bonds, GICs, etc. The TFSA is basically a shell similar to…
Fake Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) Email
There is a email going around that appears as if it’s from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) saying that you are entitled to a $386 refund. This email is a phishing scam and you should not click on the link. The site it takes you to is not the real CRA site and it asks…
Studio Tax 2008
As the tax season is upon us I thought I should mention this great software. Studio Tax 2008 is free for personal use and is certified by the CRA for Netfile. This means that not only can you do your taxes for free, you can even upload your file to the CRA online. I’ve used both…
