2025 TFSA options | Page 2 | Tax Free Savings Accounts | Discussion forum

RetirEd said
Alexandra: The Conservatives under Harper tried to raise the contribution limit to $10K, which only lasted one year. Ideologically, they like measures that help those with lots of cash, and increasing the TFSA contribution limit would certainly help many Conservative supporters. But Poilievre is not Harper, so Our Mileage May Vary. Poilievre often tries to portray himself as the friend of the Little Guy.  

Everytime I look at the Conservative's ad about the common sense approach, it makes no sense to me. He promises to get rid of carbon tax, lowers overall tax, provides better jobs, lower housing prices. Anyone with half a sense will know its NOT possible to achieve all 4 at the same time. Money is a limited resource, even for the government. Just the ability to print money does NOT make it unlimited in an economic sense.

At the end of the day, Trudeau's carbon tax approach coupled with a carbon tax rebate is just dumb, a waste of resource to manage, and accomplish nothing but hatred to him and the liberals.

mordko said

Not one of the 4 objectives you listed relates to the money supply issue.

The common denominator is productivity. We have been messaging that taxes on businesses will go up and imposing more and more regulatory burdens to the point of major projects becoming very high risk.

As a result Canada has investment outflows. Partly as a result of that our productivity has been falling compared to our peers. Outflow of investments leads to fewer good jobs in the private sector and lowers productivity.

Low productivity is one of the key reasons house prices are high. In house construction industry productivity is less today than in the 90s. That means that falling house prices force builders to stop building so they won’t make a loss and puts a floor under prices. If we figure out a way to increase productivity, it would make building houses cheaper and the prices could fall.

So, I don’t see any contradiction in the 4 goals; they are common sense. Saying is easier than achieving though.  

To achieve all 4 at the same time, u need MONEY. lower tax revenue is a money outflow, a negative "money supply" in your language.

Not sure if house construction productivity improves equates to lower price, all I know is it will equate to a better profit for the developers. No one says any extra money made by developers will be used to lower house prices. if you are a developer, would you ??

The largest source of inefficiency is the government, always has always will. Any non-profit like the government will be the least efficient, thats just human nature. When its not ur own money, dont have to think twice to spend it, whether wisely or not.

Deleted... redundant.

The governments announcement in October 2023 giving a three year carbon tax holiday to home heating oil was a big catalyst that helped turn it into the political football it is today.

I hope whatever future government we have will do something about limiting emissions... our planet is clearly indicating that it cannot handle business as usual.

At least the intention was there by Trudeau and his party but climate change is about to be put on the back burner and/or denied/ignored by Conservatives here in Canada and especially in the U.S. The live for today attitude and the me, me, me first is more prevalent than ever. The ever-growing deficit in both counties is so vast and out of control it seldom gets a mention in politics. That's common sense?

We must be talking about different countries. In Canada Conservatives have been “mentioning the ever growing deficit” on a regular basis.

mordko: Yes, TFSAs are "good for the little guy." Increasing the contribution limit past what most people can scrounge up per year only helps those with the cash, though, and in this it benefits the wealthier more.

The principal benefit of TFSA legislation is to begin to address the imbalance between home ownership - an unfairly tax-favoured investment, in my humble opinion - and other ways to save and earn cash.

CAD: Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution pension plans can both be:
- indexed or not
- govenment or not
- requiring the benificiary to contribute to them or not

But a Defined Benefit pension guarantees the pension to be paid at a guaranteed rate. The pension fund operator may adjust contributions to allow this guarantee.

A Defined Contribution plan really isn't a pension at all, and it's almost criminal that they are widely called that! The beneficiary and/or employee makes contributions at a specified rate and those go into a basket of investments that may gain or lose money over the term of contribution (usually the term of employment). Companies have increasingly used DC plans to get out of the risk of having to top up pension plan funds when yields are weak or the business is shrinking.

savemoresaveoften: I agree that Poilievre's small-government-low-tax policy (like the US republicans) makes no sense without major cuts.

On the other hand, the carbon tax/rebate does address one important inequity: a carbon tax (or carbon price if you hate the word "tax") is a consumption tax, and thus a regressive tax - it takes a greater share of income from lower income earners than from high earners. That's because wealthier persons tend to not spend most of their income. or spend it on non-taxable things like investments. The rebate eliminates this effect for most taxpayers.

But I much would have preferred a cap-and-trade system, which is more targeted to where gains in carbon reduction can be found. And, sadly, much tougher to administer!

CAD: The carbon tax is part of General Revenues, as per our tax system. It is supposed to roughly balance the cost of the rebates. As mordko noted.

everhopeful: I agree - the heating oil and temporary 2-month carbon tax holidays were stupid attempts to defuse Poilievre's "axe the tax" chant, and thus a seeming admission he was right.

Is anybody aware of any promo offered by any institution(s)?

I seem to recall that BNS and TD (in different years) offered a reward if you go TFSA with them.

Myopic... tax-free nearly doubles your return (depending on marginal tax rate). Then can move $ into other opportunities. Golden!