Foreign Currencies Gains and Losses

As we all know, it’s been a roller coaster week in tariff news. The Canadian dollar started to sink, although not to its lowest historical level-yet. The 30 day pause in implementation of the U.S. tariffs has provided a wake up call: What effect will such a Black Swan event have on portfolios and, by extension, retirement plans?

Three more provinces have released their provincial budgets throughout March and April. Neither New Brunswick’s released on March 19, nor Saskatchewan’s on March 20, included significant tax changes. However, Ontario’s new Conservative government released its highly-anticipated first budget on April 11; and it includes some tax changes that residents of the province will be happy with. Here’s the round-up:

Get ready for the last minute T1 filing rush! According to the CRA, just over 10.6 million tax returns were filed as of April 1; against a total of over 30 million in the last tax season. While electronic filing is the preferred choice for filing again, the average refund has decreased.

Health transition planning is an emerging trend, to be discussed in May at the CE Summits tour with special guest expert Karen Henderson. One way advisors can help is to keep an eye on recent tax issues for disabled Canadians – particularly those with diabetes. These taxpayers have struggled to access and retain two important government benefits, The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP).

Taxpayers may be rightly concerned about three new provisions regarding the taxation of mutual funds and ETFs. These changes affect retirement income certainty for Boomers’ investment funds that will be subject to new income calculations on redemptions of the investments, starting with fiscal years that begin after March 19, 2019.

The government continues to expand the Employment Insurance (EI) benefits available to Canadians, most recently to enable workers to take training supported with the new Canada Training Credit. But, when statistics show that EI take-up rates are on the decline*, are increases in EI premiums warranted?

Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) benefits payable were released on April 1 for the second quarter -  but unfortunately, seniors won’t be getting a raise. However, there is some good news about Canada’s public pension system, especially for low-income seniors who have employment or self-employment earnings, and for tens of thousands of seniors who haven’t been getting their CPP benefits.