Although the Canadian tax system is a “self-assessing” one, in which taxpayers calculate and report their income to the federal government on an annual basis, the fact is that the returns of many, if not most, individual taxpayers are actually prepared by someone else—perhaps a willing family member or friend, one of the many tax return preparation services or an accountant. It follows, therefore, that most taxpayers will, at least on occasion, find it necessary to deal with the Canada Rev...
Earlier this year, a major Canadian bank undertook a survey to determine just how many Canadians were taking advantage of the opportunity to earn investment income on a tax-free basis through a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). The survey results showed that just under half—47% to be exact—of Canadians eligible to do so had a TFSA, showing that the TFSA initiative has clearly been taken up by a significant number of Canadian taxpayers. The corollary, however, is that over half of Canadians ha...
It’s no secret that Canadians, taking advantage of extremely low interest rates, have taken household borrowing to unprecedented levels. In the fall of 2005, total borrowings by Canadian families, on average, exceeded 100% of net income for the first time. By the fall of 2012, despite repeated warnings by the Governor of the Bank of Canada and the federal Finance Minister that interest rates would not remain at current levels much longer, average family borrowings had risen to 152% of family n...
