While recent increases in interest rates have put something of a damper on home sales, the Canadian real estate market was booming in the first quarter of 2022. According to Canadian Real Estate Association statistics, there were over 650,000 residential sales transactions in the first quarter (January to March) [...]

Of the 27 million individual income tax returns already filed with the Canada Revenue Agency for the 2021 tax year, no two were identical. Each return contained its own particular combination of types and amounts of income reported and deductions and credits claimed. There is, however, one thing which [...]

Over the past several years, would-be buyers in the Canadian residential real estate market have been faced with two realities. First, the cost of homes continued to increase significantly in virtually every market across Canada. At the same time, however, the cost of borrowing to finance a home purchase [...]

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the federal government has provided a wide range of pandemic benefit programs for individuals. In the main, those programs have acted to replace income lost where employment income was no longer available as businesses closed during lockdowns, or individuals were [...]

Canada’s retirement income system has three major components – private savings through registered retirement savings plans or registered pension plans, and two public retirement income plans – the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security program. The last of those – the Old Age Security program – is [...]

The difficulties faced by younger Canadians in buying a first home almost anywhere in Canada, owing to both the spiraling cost of real estate and, more recently, increases in interest rates, is a major concern for those individuals and their families. Not surprisingly, then, the issue of housing affordability [...]

For the majority of Canadians, the due date for filing of an individual tax return for the 2021 tax year was Monday May 2, 2022. (Self-employed Canadians and their spouses have until Wednesday June 15, 2022 to get that return filed.) When things go entirely as planned and hoped, [...]

Two quarterly newsletters have been added—one dealing with personal issues, and one dealing with corporate issues. They can be accessed below. Corporate: Issue #59 Corporate Personal: Issue #59 Personal The information presented is only of a general nature, may omit many details and special rules, is current [...]

It is a sad fact that, every year, thousands of Canadians become the victims of scams in which fraud artists claim to be representatives of the federal government. Equally sadly, in most cases the money lost is never recovered. While fraud has always and will always exist, this time [...]

Most taxpayers sit down to do their annual tax return, or wait to hear from their tax return preparer, with some degree of trepidation. In most cases taxpayers don’t know, until their return is completed, what the “bottom line” will be, and it’s usually a case of hoping for [...]

Our tax system is complex and, understandably, its myriad rules and exceptions are a mystery to most Canadian taxpayers – and most are happy to leave it that way. There is however, one rule in the Canadian tax system which doesn’t really have any exceptions and of which most [...]

Most Canadians don’t turn their attention to their taxes until sometime around the end of March or the beginning of April, in time to complete the return for 2021 ahead of the May 2, 2022 filing deadline. While that approach leaves plenty of time to get the return prepared [...]

Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publishes a statistical summary of the tax filing patterns of Canadians during the previous filing season. Those statistics for last year show that the vast majority of Canadian individual income tax returns — just over 90%, or just over 28 million returns [...]

The Canadian tax system provides individual taxpayers with a tax credit for out-of-pocket medical and para-medical expenses incurred during the year. Given that such expenses must be incurred at some time by virtually every Canadian, that credit is among the most frequently claimed on the annual return. Unfortunately, however, [...]

While the requirement that Canadians file an income tax return each year never changes, the actual content of that return is never the same year to year. While many of the changes — like inflation-related increases to income tax brackets and credit amounts — happen automatically and don’t require [...]

The list of financial assistance programs that have been provided by the federal government to support individual Canadians through two years of the pandemic is lengthy, detailed, and sometimes confusing. Unfortunately for the Canadian taxpayer, however, every one of those programs has one thing in common — benefits received [...]

Sometime during the month of February, millions of Canadians will receive mail from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). That mail, a “Tax Instalment Reminder”, will set out the amount of instalment payments of income tax to be paid by the recipient taxpayer by March 15 and June 15 of [...]

Income tax is a big-ticket item for most retired Canadians. Especially for those who are no longer paying a mortgage, the annual tax bill may be the single biggest expenditure they are required to make each year. Fortunately, the Canadian tax system provides a number of tax deductions and [...]

If there is one invariable “rule” of financial and retirement planning of which most Canadians are aware, it is the unquestioned wisdom of making regular contributions to one’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). And it is true that for several decades the RRSP was only tax-sheltered savings and investment [...]

As the pandemic continued past 2020 and through 2021, it is likely that employees who were able to work from home spent at least part of the 2021 tax year doing just that. And, as was the case in 2020, those workers may be entitled to claim a deduction [...]

The Employment Insurance premium rate for 2022 is unchanged at 1.58%. Yearly maximum insurable earnings are set at $60,300, making the maximum employee premium $952.74. As in previous years, employer premiums are 1.4 times the employee premium. The maximum employer premium for 2022 is therefore $1,333.84. The [...]

The Quebec Pension Plan contribution rate for 2022 is set at 6.15% of pensionable earnings for the year. Maximum pensionable earnings for the year will be $64,900, and the basic exemption is unchanged at $3,500. The maximum employer and employee contributions to the plan for 2022 will be $3,776.10 [...]

The Canada Pension Plan contribution rate for 2022 is set at 5.7% of pensionable earnings for the year. Maximum pensionable earnings for the year will be $64,900, and the basic exemption is unchanged at $3,500. The maximum employer and employee contributions to the plan for 2022 will be $3,499.80 [...]

Dollar amounts on which individual non-refundable federal tax credits for 2022 are based, and the actual tax credit claimable, will be as follows: Credit amount                        Tax credit Basic personal amount*                                        [...]

The indexing factor for federal tax credits and brackets for 2022 is 2.4%. The following federal tax rates and brackets will be in effect for individuals for the 2022 tax year. Income level                                            Federal tax rate $14,398 – $50,197                                        15% $50,198 – $100,392                                     20.5% $100,393 – $155,625                                    26% $155,626 [...]