Interesting summary from the National Post yesterday,
Proponents of expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) have spread inaccuracies and myths about the risks and costs associated with it. These misrepresentations are now being spread by political parties in the runup to the federal election in newly announced plans on retirement security.
The April 30 tax filing deadline is fast approaching. We want to remind all of our clients that are starting to organize their tax forms and documents that our TAXplan Personal Tax Return Organizer will help you organize your forms and will help ensure you haven’t forgotten any documents. For clients with self employment income and or rental income please contact us for organizer forms. Going through the form is the easiest way to organize all of your income and expenses.
As an aside, one of our favourite finance and money saving blogs, walletpop.ca has posted a good series of videos over the last month called The ABC’s of Taxes. They answer a lot of common questions about Canadian taxes and hi-light some good tips. As always, you can also contact us for any of your tax questions.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
To all of our clients with friends or family in Japan, we hope that all are safe. We have spoken with clients today who are concerned about the financial impact of the disaster to global and Canadian markets. We would like to direct you to some articles that outline the responses of similar economies to disaster as well as what the immediate response has been today in the markets.
Firstly, in “Advanced economies at advantage in disaster”, from the Financial Post, they propose,
researchers who have studied similar disasters in rich countries reach a reassuring conclusion: human resilience and resourcefulness, allied to an ability to draw down accumulated wealth, enable economies to rebound quickly from what seem at first to be unbearable inflictions — be it the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York or Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the worst in Japan’s history.
Please read the full article here.
And secondly, as the North American markets near close, the S&P/TSX Composite Index is down less than .50%. Markets around the world have responded in different ways. While the Japanese markets saw losses today, indices from other parts of the world mimicked the Canadian response. For further details on today’s response please read “Japanese stocks crushed but other exchanges hold steady” from the Globe and Mail here.
For further details on global markets and your portfolios please contact us at any time.
We’d like to use the post this week to outline some of the effects that Libyan civil unrest may have on your portfolio. We have all seen price increases at the gas pumps over the last week but how a crisis in the Middle East affects oil prices and how commodities prices affect the Canadian economy is not so clear. I have attached some excerpts from a couple of articles to highlight some points. It is important to note that unrest in Libya affects oil prices both directly and by the threat of unrest spreading through the Middle East. Specifically, however, rising oil prices affect Canada’s economy in many ways and the net results are difficult to predict.
Today from the Globe & Mail (full article here)
Brent crude rose to $118 a barrel and U.S. oil hit the highest price since September, 2008 on Monday as fighting in Libya disrupted its supplies and renewed concern of wider disruptions in the Middle East.
We would like to welcome our TAXplan clients to the mailing list. With the RRSP deadline looming (March 1) and the tax deadline following not long after we would like to address some FAQ’s for clients organizing their finances and financial documents.
Q. How much can I contribute to my RRSP?
A. The maximum you can contribute to your RRSP can be found on your Notice of Assessment or by calling CRA TIPS line at 1-800-267-6999. Note that a maximum contribution may not be your best strategy. Give us a call and we can run some quick calculations to help determine your optimal contribution.