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I donated to a political party for the first time last year. They sent me a plain email right after confirming the amount, but I still haven’t received a more formal-looking tax receipt. Should I expect to? This is easy enough to track, but I typically make a lot of donations throughout the year so I’m always careful about collecting the receipts just in case I need them later. I don’t want to be chasing down charities for paperwork if the CRA comes knocking.
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Mar 21, 2022 01:15
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 04:35 |
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lmao pretty much got it in one. Add some crisis counselling services, access to the outdoors for disabled children, early education supports, and we might have it covered!
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Mar 21, 2022 02:38
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I wish I had useful advice to offer because I faced literally the same question earlier this year, but I don’t know what math should actually be done. You’re thinking along the same lines I did, potential market gains vs potential savings on the mortgage interest. We had some additional considerations: 1) Between the two of us, TFSA wasn’t maxed so money that wasn’t going toward the mortgage could be put back into the same tax-free vehicle immediately 2) My TFSA was sub-optimally invested so I was thinking of moving the money anyway 3) Our TFSA is not our emergency fund and not earmarked for something specific, it’s long-term savings 4) We’ve been hoping to move and had already renewed the mortgage on a 1-year basis last time around, which caused a lot of decision making stress. Things are uncertain now with prices and we got our timeline expectations wrong once already, so I worried we’d get stuck in an endless loop of “when are we moving/how long should we renew for” and was dreading it. Honestly #4 was the biggest factor for me personally. A decision to pay down the mortgage now meant fewer major financial decisions in the immediate future (unless we actually do move), and didn’t set back our savings goals. The flexibility of having extra cash in hand each month is nice too.
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May 15, 2022 00:47
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I should really put some money in before things recover too much, I just feel lazy about pulling out the spreadsheets to figure out amounts…mojo1701a posted:He was surprised when I told him he should call his bank or broker to transfer cash within each other to get around having to pull the January 1 contribution room reset. I think a lot of people don’t understand that “money in an RRSP/TFSA” != “investment” - like literally do not realize you can hold cash in these types of accounts.
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Aug 16, 2022 21:21
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Mantle posted:I know there are anti-money laundering rules about the source of funds account holder having to match the TFSA account holder […] Bringing this over from another thread - I didn’t know this and haven’t been able to easily find out more online. It’s now occurring to me there could be some prerequisite steps in our savings plan, so uh, i guess I’ll make the post I’ve been waffling on. My partner and I have been together for ~8 years. When we started dating he was working toward going back to school, then living primarily off his savings while studying. When we eventually moved in together, I funded the bulk of our joint expenses since I was the sole earner. We’ve been common law and filing taxes together for a while now. He recently landed a job in his new field so this is the first we’re looking to combine and live off two incomes. I make about 2x his salary, since his position is entry level and I’m well established. We have no debt since we paid off the remaining mortgage on our tiny condo when it was up for renewal earlier this year. I withdrew a big chunk of my TFSA (which was maxed) to do this. I also have an RRSP, where I typically just put in enough to take the sting out of the upper tax bracket I’m in. My partner used all of his easily accessed savings for school, so he has plenty of contribution room available in his TFSA and only a small amount saved in an RRSP. We used his education credits against my income. We do not currently have any shared accounts. Housing prices suck, but we’d like to upgrade as soon as we can afford it to something reasonable (a townhouse, a small house, nothing big). Hopefully the condo is enough of a down payment on its own, although I’m leery of a big mortgage so we’ll see. We’d also like to be looking at retirement in 20-30 years, ideally, although that would have us retiring young so it’s flexible. Being able to aggressively save is new and exciting. We’re planning to prioritize like this:
Since he has so much room in his TFSA and I need to wait for mine to come back, I was planning to transfer money to him to put into his account. I never thought about tripping any anti-money laundering alerts. Do we need to take some extra steps with the bank before just… doing that? Or does anything else stick out as really stupid? (Maxing both TFSAs out is going to take us some time, that’s why there’s no fifth bullet point.)
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Sep 13, 2022 22:58
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The 2022 tax brackets are:quote:
So for example if I made $110,392 where that top 10k would be taxed at 26%, I would put 10k into my RRSP to get that higher rate back (anticipating a lower rate in retirement).
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Sep 13, 2022 23:15
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Okay wait, apparently I know nothing about spousal finances. We need to track and report on gifts? Don’t old school couples just dump everything into one account? How does this work?  The generation above me is the first in my family to have any money to speak of and they’re very conservative (being retired or close to it) so they mostly just give me advice that isn’t right for me at all. I find financial stuff overwhelming, I can crunch numbers but my fancy STEM degree didn’t include studying legislation. Mantle posted:You could be ok with this, depending on the state of your relationship with your partner. Thank you for bringing this up, I appreciate the lookout. We’re planning for the long term so we’ve been thinking about this all as “our money” - maybe it’s not so simple though. Breaking up would suck and we obviously don’t plan on it, but I could afford to lose the investment if it came to that. We’re not dipping into my emergency fund or anything. Being financially independent (particularly of my parents) is important to me. pokeyman posted:I wouldn't call it "really stupid" but stopping RRSP contributions at a tax bracket cutoff seems kinda arbitrary. If you fill up your TFSAs then I'd fill up RRSPs before opening a taxable account. I guess it does look arbitrary doesn’t it lol. With my TFSA maxed out I was just striking a balance between paying down debt and keeping some amount flowing into my RRSP. The “extra” went to the car loan and then to the mortgage until this year. When I reach the point where I have more money to set aside than the TFSA can accommodate, it will go to my RRSP for sure. Also thanks everyone for the replies.
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Sep 14, 2022 01:49
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Yeah I skipped caveats like this but no one pour one out for me, obviously we’re doing well to have a condo paid off (even if it is tiny). I’m not trying to dodge my tax burden at all. The goal is really saving for retirement and all I know is “max out your TFSA first, your RRSP defers tax to when your income is lower.” But also, Postess with the Mostest posted:married people have enough tax advantages and really don't need one more huge one I’ve always heard this but since filing common law I literally don’t understand what these advantages are. The only benefit we got was transferring education credits. Did we mess up big time and miss out on something? Or is it more about two incomes means overall lower income taxes, as compared to what we’d pay if it were a single income? But that seems unrelated to marriage… Anyway I feel like I have some serious reading to do, so thank you all.  Turns out I knew even less than I thought!
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Sep 15, 2022 01:04
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I don’t think it’s weird. I bought life insurance while my partner was in school, because if I’d keeled over he would have been screwed on the mortgage/housing/career situation. I actually haven’t cancelled it yet, partly because it’s dirt cheap and partly because a family member made ominous rumblings about people needing to pay taxes on things to inherit them? I don’t know what that’s about at all but I want to look into it a little before I cancel. I don’t think it’s true if things are going to a common law spouse (maybe they were just fishing for inheritance info lol). Edit. Wait you asked for recommendations. I spoke to a broker and I recommend doing this. For life insurance you need to fill out some paperwork to get a legit quote and how much information you need to provide varies depending on your circumstances and what type of life insurance you want, but a broker will be able to give you a sense. kaom fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Sep 21, 2022 |
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Sep 21, 2022 22:43
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Applying losses against previous years is wild, guess that’s to help you out if you’re in a bad spot now with no sign of market recovery? Too bad for me that my losses were in my TFSA but paying down my mortgage was worth it.
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Nov 24, 2022 22:12
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Re. rationale on paying down the mortgage, we were up for renewal so we could make a penalty-free payment. I’m not sure it was financially optimal compared to accepting a higher interest rate and hoping to win out with the investments increasing in value, but it’s close enough I’d have to actually calculate it out now with the benefit of knowing exactly what the market did. At the time it was more about reducing our risk than anything, since we didn’t know if markets would rebound as rates went up (we could have lost on both fronts) and we had a relatively short window (1-2 years) in which we were hoping to be spending money on a new home. If we were only looking long term I’m not really sure if we would’ve done the same thing. We also had no idea if house prices would start coming down, so whether we needed the TFSA for that or for retirement was also up in the air.  I guess put us in the “psychological safety” bucket, not so much number crunching.In the end we’re moving next month and did need the full home equity, but we don’t need anything more out of our savings, so I think it worked out okay?
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Nov 26, 2022 01:11
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Is keeping my emergency fund in a basic savings account a bad idea? I’ve always thought I should avoid investing it so that it’s immediately available in case of, you know, emergency, but maybe this is wasteful? I have room in my TFSA. I also have a line of credit that I’ve never used, which I’ve heard I should be “counting” as part of my emergency fund, but I’m not. One of the times I had to use this fund was when my car was towed and impounded and I had to show up, cash in hand in the middle of the night, to get it back so I could get home. (Note this was not my fault, this towing company was later sued by other people who could afford to.) That was leaner times. I think there’s a good amount in here now for my circumstances, but I’m not sure if I’m throwing money away having it sitting in cash like this. Maybe that’s just a loss you have to accept so you have the security of it being quick to get at?
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Aug 2, 2023 23:54
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Jenkl posted:I wouldn't count a LOC as part of my emergency fund, definitely not at face value. qhat posted:Seconding not counting the line of credit as an emergency fund, whoever told you that is a moron. It can be taken away at a moments notice, like for example when the bank gets nervous about people losing their jobs. If something might not be there in an emergency, then it’s not an emergency fund. This advice felt suspect to me so I ignored it but I couldn’t put my finger on why. Thanks, now I have an answer if anyone brings it up again, which will hopefully keep them out of a risky situation too! Jenkl posted:If you have a large enough amount you could ladder GICs or similar to ensure you always have X maturing where that's say monthly expenses.The big banks are awful for HISA's. I use EQ bank but as I understand it there are others with even better rates now. These are interesting ideas. I’d never thought about laddering, that might be something I could work toward. Sounds like I should revisit how much is in there and figure out if this makes any sense for me. Wealthsimple also has a HISA with 4% that you can only access once you’ve deposited 100k with them. Maybe that’s a good long term goal, since I have an ETF there already? If the offer still exists by then lol.
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Aug 3, 2023 20:12
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That’s so frustrating, I hope they do the right thing. Separately, does anyone know of a mortgage prepayment calculator that lets you put in multiple types of prepayment? I’ve been using https://itools-ioutils.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/MC-CH/MC-CH-eng.aspx We’re considering a one-time payment at the end of the year in addition to a small top-up each payment. With this calculator I can only enter one or the other. I just want to see how the numbers shake out to figure out what we can afford and how much of a difference it would make (a tiny top-up makes a huge difference over the amortization period!). Thanks. 
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Aug 16, 2023 23:40
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Is there a place to read more about insurance products that isn’t also trying to sell them to you, outside of asking lots of questions ITT? I loaded up on personal insurance a few years ago because I was our sole income and took a job where I didn’t get any coverage through work. I’ve cancelled some of it since then, but I still have term life and critical illness and I don’t know if I still need them… I had no idea at the time that I could make the term on the life insurance shorter, either, because I spoke to a bunch of brokers who didn’t mention it. 
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Sep 13, 2023 03:34
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Jenkl posted:No, there really isn't. Ask away. I can tell you now I'm going to ask you what exactly are the needs you're trying to fill (what worry do you think the insurance will make go away?) It’s really our mortgage. I don’t want my partner to lose our home if I can’t work/die. Several years ago when I got the insurance I was our only income, now he’s also working but I earn 2x what he does and he would only be able to cover expenses other than the mortgage. I had extended health and disability insurance that I’ve cancelled now that I have some coverage through work again. What I still have: Term life - 275k 20-year term Critical illness - 100k - if I never claim it, I get the premiums “back” when I turn 65 and coverage ends (I think this will be about 50k that I’ll have paid them over 35 years, obviously they’re not giving me any interest or inflation adjustment here) My RRSP+TFSA would take a big chunk out of the mortgage if I died and my partner applied the funds to it. I have no idea how those would be taxed before getting to him - they would cover maybe 5-6 years of mortgage payments? kaom fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Sep 13, 2023 |
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Sep 13, 2023 23:03
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It might be very particular to my experience, but with CI I was specifically thinking about “what if I need treatment that I can’t get at home” because I’ve seen that happen to two families now, one where one of the parents had to leave for weeks at a time for specialized care, and another where a child was diagnosed with cancer while visiting family in another province and not cleared to fly home. You don’t need to spend the money on treatment, so it can go to things like those travel costs for yourself and for your family to see you. I’m still not sure if I need it. It’s not offered through work, and what I have is not cheap. I have to think about this more. Jenkl posted:Last random though - because group insurance typically has a simplified payment structure (e.g., one premium for every employee), insurance for a healthy person is typically going to be cheaper outside of your work - something worth considering if you are electing particularly high coverage amounts. Thank you so much for this post. It doesn’t sound like I got suckered into a total lemon, so I think I can complete a more holistic look at everything when my work coverage is due for renewal later this year. My employer gives us a budget to put toward various options, and I think any surplus goes into a healthcare spending account - I should probably explore whether I’d be better off taking the cash and using it for personal coverage outside work. I already meet an exclusion for a medical device to the tune of 2k every 2 years because there’s a cheaper version insurance and MSP both consider “good enough” for my condition so I have to pay out of pocket for the difference in quality of life.
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Sep 14, 2023 05:41
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Hey congrats on putting together a plan to save and pay down debt, that’s awesome you’re going to be able to do it so quickly!  pokeyman posted:I would go with whichever you're more likely to stick with. This is my vote too. The only thing not mentioned is I’d also check if your employer does any kind of contribution matching, just in case there’s free money available there to help with your savings.
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Oct 21, 2023 20:51
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I think I see what Toalpaz is assuming - a 25% tax rate for both cases. So they have 1000$ in income and either invest that in an RRSP in full, paying 25% on withdrawal, or for the TFSA they pay that tax upfront (750$ being left to invest).Toalpaz posted:what a scam... they're the same! With an RRSP you’re planning for the scenario that your income tax rate is lower in retirement. This is why the advice is generally to prioritize a TFSA when you’re young, then work on the RRSP in your higher-earning years.
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Dec 15, 2023 08:38
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I’ve always received T4s at the absolute last second, and once actually past the deadline which had me calling the CRA in a panic. Getting it on time mattered because I used to paper file (my partner refuses, although I’m still a little uncomfortable using 3rd party software for this…).
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Feb 20, 2024 07:42
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 04:35 |
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Employer sent out T4s at the last second (as usual). Then they emailed today with a new, corrected version. How cautious do I need to be to make sure this matches what the CRA has on their site? It’s pure luck I was too lazy to organize my donation receipts and file this past weekend…
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Mar 5, 2024 02:11
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