When the Canada Pension Plan was put in place on January 1,1966, it was a relatively simple retirement savings model. Working Canadians started making contributions to the CPP when they turned 18 years of age and continued making those contributions throughout their working life.
Newsletter - Page 29 of 34 - Akler Browning LLP
Latest news and regulations from the financial world.
Just over a decade ago, it was possible to buy a home in Canada with no down payment — financing 100% of the purchase price — and extending the repayment period for that borrowing over a 40-year period.
While Canadians had an extended time this year to file their income tax returns for the 2019 tax year, the extended filing deadlines (June 1 for the majority of Canadians, and June 15 for self-employed individuals and their spouses) have passed and returns should be filed.
While the standard (and accurate) advice is that tax and financial planning are best approached as activities to be carried on throughout the year, it’s also the case that a mid-year tax and financial checkup makes good sense, and that’s especially the case this year.
Although the filing deadline for individual income tax returns for the 2019 tax year has been extended to June 1, 2020, millions of Canadians have nonetheless already filed those returns. Specifically, by May 19, 2020, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had processed just over 20 million individual income tax returns filed for the 2019 tax year.
Although we’re not even halfway through the calendar, 2020 has already been a year of significant financial upheaval and stress for millions of Canadians. The number of employed Canadians fell by one million during the month of March 2020 — and then by another two million during the month of April.
Since mid-March, the federal and provincial governments have announced the creation of numerous programs to help both individuals and Canadian businesses with the financial fallout of the current pandemic. Of those programs, none has had a more direct impact on the lives of Canadians than the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB.
Working from home isn’t really a new phenomenon — employees have been doing so for more than 25 years, ever since changes in technology made such remote work arrangements feasible. Over the past two months or so, however, millions of Canadian employees have had to adapt to working from home for the first time.
The Old Age Security program is the only aspect of Canada’s retirement income system which does not require a direct contribution from recipients of program benefits. Rather, the OAS program is funded through general tax revenues, and eligibility to receive OAS is based solely on Canadian residency.
By the time most Canadians sit down to organize their various tax slips and receipts and undertake to complete their tax return for 2019, the most significant opportunities to minimize the tax bill for the year are no longer available. Most such tax planning or saving strategies, in order to be effective for 2019, must have been implemented by the end of that calendar year.