Tuesday 8 December 2015

TFSA Contribution Limit Petition

Keep the annual TFSA contribution limit at $10,000 per year. That's the goal of the online petition on the official Parliament of Canada website. The Liberal government has announced the intention to reduce it back to where it was before the previous Conservative government increased the limit earlier this year. There is no good reason to do that. For those in lower income groups the TFSA is a better retirement savings vehicle than the RRSP and the TFSA is a simpler more flexible tax-free savings account in general. I don't see the government proposing to reduce RRSP contribution limits. I encourage readers to sign the petition like I already have done because it's the sensible thing to do to protect the TFSA (as I have previously written in dissecting the type of wrong-headed arguments criticizing the TFSA that misled the Liberals into proposing the contribution cutback).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No thanks. However, I will sign a petition to keep the Liberal TFSA change and to increase the GST back to 7% if it means we can improve services and infrastructure while paying down the debt more quickly. We pay taxes for many good reasons.

CanadianInvestor said...

Anon, re the taxes bit, makes me think of the quote I once read from a business executive "We know that 50% of our advertizing dollars are wasted. Unfortunately , we don't know which half." Good reasons are always invoked for taxes, some of which are actually carried out, others not. Unfortunately, we taxpayers cannot get to choose that our additional tax dollars will actually go to infrastructure or paying down debt. However, with a "tax expenditure" by the government of foregone taxation on TFSA investment income, I get to choose exactly what it is spent on.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and I expect that you would choose to spend that money for your own personal betterment rather than the community, provincial and national good. As would most individuals. No tax system is perfect, and definately not ours. However, we all have to shoulder the burden or the long term costs will be greater. Despite what Mr. Gecko thought about greed, putting yourself first will only get you so far in this life...

CanadianInvestor said...

Anon, if I am better able to save and take care of myself and be financially self-sufficient, is it not helpful to everyone else for me to avoid being a burden on others? The fact is I have no pension apart from CPP (a government program that I strongly support) so I need every bit of savings vehicles like the TFSA and RRSP, which I have always fully maxed out while being in the "Trudeau middle class". Why penalize determined savers like me because some rich people will obtain an advantage that will anyway be quite small for them - the 26% capital gains tax on the incremental $4500 (2015 limit versus 2016) for perhaps a 5% capital gain is $58.50. $4500 extra sheltered investment capital isn't much to a rich someone with a portfolio of $5 million, even multiplied by 20 years.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with CanadianInvestor. I'm in the same category and resent having my ability to save being restricted by others. I'm not rich yet am able to save a decent amount. Who thought that this would be a sin? I guess if the goal is to make as many people as possible dependent on the government, I could understand the mentality of those who resent people like me. I actually don't want to be a burden on the gov't but that appears to be a bad thing according to certain people.

I totally disagree with handling governments more of our money as they waste so much of it. I've worked in both the private and public sectors and saw how much money went down the drain in the latter. Those who want to contribute more of their money to the gov't, please go ahead and do so but do not expect others to do the same.

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