By Sheryl Smolkin

It’s almost two weeks since the 2017 federal budget was tabled, so there is lots of “second day” commentary in the mainstream media to draw on for this issue. Saskatchewan also tabled a budget including some provisions that will impact your bottom line.

In the lead up to the federal budget trial balloons were floated regarding making employer-paid premiums for health insurance taxable benefits and changing the taxable rates for capital gains, but none of these dire predictions came to pass.

In the Ottawa Citizen, Kate McInturff, a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives wrote that the budget is a first step to better the lives of women in Canada. She reports that the government will spend $100.9 million over five years to establish a National Strategy to Address Gender-Based Violence — a problem that has directly affected more than one million women in the past five years.

Erin Anderssen at the Globe and Mail offers seven things to know about Canada’s new parental benefits. Once the provinces pass job protection legislation, parents will be able to stretch their leave out for 18 months, but this will mean stretching benefits at a lower rate. The government is expected to move quickly, but the changes may not happen until next year.

Contrary to pre-budget expectations, Lee Berthiaume notes in a Canadian Press article that life-long pensions for veterans were not included in the Liberal government’s second budget. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s new fiscal plan did contain new spending for veterans and their families, specifically $725 million in promised additional benefits over five years. Still, as welcome as the new money will be, the big question for many veterans is how the government plans to bring back life-long pensions as an option for those injured in uniform.

Hello Uber tax, goodbye transit credit says CBC News. The proposed levy on Uber and other ride-hailing services will for the first time impose GST/HST on fares, in the same way they are charged on traditional taxi services. The non-refundable public transit tax credit — a so-called boutique tax credit introduced by the previous Conservative government — will be phased out on July 1. The credit enabled public transit users to apply 15% of their eligible expenses on monthly passes and other fares toward reducing the amount of tax they owe.

And closer to home, the Saskatchewan budget hikes provincial sales tax to 6% and for the first time, the tax will apply to children’s clothes. CBC presents an analysis of how the PST hike will hit you in the pocketbook.

The government will also wind down the government-owned Saskatchewan Transportation Company, which it says would have required require an anticipated subsidy of $85 million over the next five years.

There were 574 layoff notices attached to this budget, including cleaners in government buildings and workers at the Saskatchewan Transportation Company.

Other notable provincial budget measures include:

• The exemption for the bulk purchase of gasoline is being scrapped and a tax exemption for diesel fuel is being reduced to 80% of the amount purchased.
• So-called sin taxes on booze and cigarettes are going up.
• Various tax credits — including for education and tuition expenses — are being eliminated.
• Effective July 1/17saskatchewan will apply provincial sales tax to life, accident and health insurance premiums.
• The Saskatchewan government says it will offset some of the tax increases by reducing income taxes by a half-point on July 1, 2017 and by the same amount on July 1, 2019.

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By Sheryl Smolkin

We’re back and there is more than ever to share with you! We took a two-month break, but our favourite bloggers were still hard at work. So we have lots of great stories to tell you about in the weeks to come.

The Liberal government’s first Federal Budget was tabled last month. It eliminated some measures enacted by the Conservatives and others will be phased out over time. On the Financial Independence Hub, Paul Phillips from Financial Wealth Builders gives a financial planner’s perspective on Budget 2016. One surprise he notes is the elimination of the tax deferral on fund switches within a mutual fund corporation.

The significance of not having a great credit rating may not hit until you apply for a credit card or mortgage and are either turned down or not approved for the amount you need. Blogging on Money after Graduation, Bridget Eastgaard discusses five easy steps to build good credit. Because 18% of credit reports contain errors, she regularly checks her credit report to ensure her student loan payments have been properly recorded, no credit cards were opened under her name through identity theft, and that companies have complied with her requests to close credit accounts.

Robb Engen is a well know blogger at Boomer & Echo and over the years he has shared lots of ideas about how to more effectively earn and save money. While he does not encourage calls from his office on evenings and weekends, he says it is a fair trade off because his employer covers his cell phone bill. In fact, he estimates that he has saved more than $9,500 over the last 12 years (144 months x $66 per month) because in a series of jobs over that period he has never spent a dime out of his own pocket on a cell phone plan.

As the balance in your RRSP grows over time, it can be hard to resist the temptation to tap into your nest egg in an emergency or just because you “need” something that is above and beyond your current budget. Retire Happy’s Sarah Milton gives three good reasons why withdrawing money from your RRSP before retirement is not a great idea.

And finally, personal finance maven Gail Vaz-Oxlade recently announced she has written her last blog. While we know from personal experience that blogging week in and week out can be challenging, her fans (myself included) will miss her consistently great advice. Fortunately, most of the archived blogs are timeless.

So for those of you who are considering buying a home this spring, we are linking to one of her better articles. She makes a great argument for spending a little time saving for a down payment rather than locking yourself into a mortgage payment that strangles your cash flow while you pay exorbitant amounts in interest and insurance premiums.

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By Sheryl Smolkin

By now you may be aware that there are changes to the Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) withdrawal rules in the 2015 federal budget. But you may be wondering what difference it will make to you.

The basic purpose of the tax deferral provided on savings in registered pension plans (RPPs) and registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) is to encourage and assist you to accumulate savings over your working career in order to meet your retirement income needs.

Consistent with this purpose, savings in Saskatchewan Pension Plan and RRSPs must be converted into a retirement income vehicle by age 71. In particular, unless you purchase an annuity, an RRSP must be converted to a RRIF by the end of the year in which you reach 71 years of age and a minimum amount must be withdrawn from the RRIF annually beginning the year after it is established (alternatively, the RRSP savings may be used to purchase an annuity). This treatment ensures that the tax-deferred RRSP/RRIF savings serve their intended retirement income purpose.

A formula is used to determine the required minimum amount a person must withdraw each year from a RRIF. The formula is based on a percentage factor multiplied by the value of the assets in the RRIF. The percentage factors (the RRIF factors) are based on a particular rate of return and indexing assumption.

Until this year, a senior was required to withdraw 7.38% of their RRIF in the year they are age 71 at the start of the year.  The RRIF factor increased each year until age 94 when the percentage that seniors were required to withdraw annually was capped at 20%.

The existing RRIF factors were in place since 1992. The 2015 Federal Budget adjusts the RRIF minimum withdrawal factors that apply in respect of ages 71 to 94 to better reflect more recent long-term historical real rates of return and expected inflation. As a result, the new RRIF factors will be substantially lower than the existing factors.

The new RRIF factors will range from 5.28% at age 71 to 18.79% at age 94. The percentage that you will be required to withdraw from your RRIF will remain capped at 20% at age 95 and above. Table 1 below shows the existing and proposed new RRIF factors.

TABLE 1: EXISTING AND NEW RRIF FACTORS
Age at January 1	Existing Factor %	New Factor %	Age at January 1	Existing Factor %	New Factor %
71	7.38	5.28	84	9.93	8.08
72	7.48	5.40	85	10.33	8.51
73	7.59	5.53	86	10.79	8.99
74	7.71	5.67	87	11.33	9.55
75	7.85	5.82	88	11.96	10.21
76	7.99	5.98	89	12.71	10.99
77	8.15	6.17	90	13.62	11.92
78	8.33	6.36	91	14.73	13.06
79	8.53	6.58	92	16.12	14.49
80	8.75	6.82	93	17.92	16.34
81	8.99	7.08	94	20.00	18.79
82	9.27	7.38	95+	20.00	20.00
83	9.58	7.71
SOURCE: BUDGET 2015 ANNEX 5.1

By permitting more capital preservation, the new factors will help reduce the risk that you will outlive your savings, while ensuring that the tax deferral provided on RRSP/RRIF savings continues to serve a retirement income purpose.

As illustrated in Table 2 below, the new RRIF factors will permit close to 50% more capital to be preserved to age 90, compared to the existing factors (Table 1 above).

TABLE 2: CAPITAL PRESERVED UNDER THE RRIF FACTORS
Age at January 1	Under existing RRIF factors	Under new RRIF factors	Difference (% more remaining)
71	100,000	100,000	–
80	64,000	77,000	20
85	47,000	62,000	32
90	30,000	44,000	47
95	15,000	24,000	60
100	6,000	10,000	67
1 For an individual 71 years of age at the start of 2015 with $100,000 in RRIF capital making the required minimum RRIF withdrawal each year.
2 Age 71 capital preserved at older ages is expressed in terms of the real (or constant) dollar value of the capital (i.e., the value of the capital adjusted for inflation after age 71). The calculations assume a 5% nominal rate of return on RRIF assets and 2% inflation.
SOURCE: BUDGET 2015 ANNEX 5.1

By reducing your RRIF withdrawals, you can retain more assets in your RRIF—assets that will continue to accumulate on a tax-deferred basis to support your future retirement income needs should you live to an advanced age. In addition, if you do not need your minimum RRIF withdrawal for income purposes, you can save the after-tax amount for future needs — for example, in a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), if you have available TFSA contribution room.

Of course, if you need more money sooner, you can withdraw it from your RRIF and pay the tax owing. Any money that you withdraw from a RRIF will increase your income for the purposes of calculating the Old Age Security clawback and eligibility for the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Also read: RRIF rules need updating: C.D. Howe

By Sheryl Smolkin

Prime Minister Harper’s 2015 pre-election budget included several goodies for both people who are saving for retirement and seniors in the deccumulation phase. As you probably know by now, annual TFSA contributions have been increased from from $5,500 to $10,000/year and seniors will be permitted to withdraw money more slowly from their RRIFs so their savings will last longer.

If you are already a senior, you will be happy to know that Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail characterized seniors as the runaway winners in the Budget. You got more elbow room to manage withdrawals from your RRIFs and a new tax credit to make your homes more accessible. Older Canadians are also major beneficiaries of the new $10,000 annual contribution limit for tax-free savings accounts and there is some financial help for people who look after gravely ill relatives

One of the sources of controversy after the budget was passed is whether it is safe to go ahead and top up your TFSA for 2016 before the budget is actually passed by Parliament. My take was that this is a majority government and there is no way the budget provisions will not become law. Jonathan Chevreau quoted me in Experts: go ahead and make that extra $4,500 TFSA contribution now: I just did.

And  since then Canada Revenue Agency has clarified the timeline of new TFSA limit. In a statement, they said:

“This proposed measure is subject to parliamentary approval. Consistent with its standard practice, the CRA is administering this measure on the basis of the budget announcement. Financial institutions may immediately allow existing and new account holders to contribute up to the proposed maximum.”

In a Maclean’s article, Stop pretending the TFSA expansion won’t be felt until 2080 Kevin Milligan notes that the most important feature of TFSAs is that room accumulates through time, starting at age 18. The annual limit started at $5,000 in 2009, moved to $5,500 in 2013, and the budget has now moved the limit to $10,000 from 2015 forward.

This means that 10 years from now in 2025, every Canadian who is age 34 or older will have full possible contribution room of $141,000. For a couple, that would be $282,000. The net result he believes is that very few people in the future will have any need to pay much tax on investment income as TFSAs will provide almost total coverage of assets.

Finally, Gordon Pape says in his Toronto Star column: RRIF withdrawal changes – it’s about time. His preference would have been for Ottawa to eliminate the minimum withdrawals entirely. After all, everything in an RRIF will eventually be taxed when the plan holder or the surviving spouse dies. The feds will get their share sooner or later — they always do. But he will take what he can get!

We will discuss the RRIF changes in more detail in a future blog on savewithspp.com.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.