Since Jan. 1, 2009, Canadians over the age of 18 can contribute up to $5,000 annually to a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) and any unused TFSA contribution room is carried forward for future years.
But if at any time during a calendar month you have exceeded your TFSA contribution limit, you will be subject to a tax of one per cent per month. To avoid further tax charges, you will need to withdraw the excess contributions from your account. And to avoid the one per cent tax charges altogether, do not exceed the $5,000 annual limit or your personal TFSA contribution limit in a given year.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) issued letters to TFSA holders who may have over-contributed to their TFSA on June 1, 2010. If you received a letter, you will be required to provide more information to CRA. You can also request relief of this tax if the tax liability arose because of a reasonable error. For more information on TFSA’s, please refer to www.tfsa.gc.ca.
Census Debacle
Many organizations are calling for the Harper government to re-instate the mandatory long form census. The government announced last month that it was going to turn the long form census into a short voluntary form because they received privacy complaints from Canadians. The change could also cost taxpayers $30 million dollars.
The issue has gained momentum with the resignation of the Chief Statistician of Statistics Canada.
Many groups including businesses, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Council on Social Development and many others point out that the quality of data collected voluntarily becomes unusable and cannot be compared over time. The move also puts Canada out of step with how other western countries collect data.
The Census is used to help all levels of government develop policies and programs to address a wide range of challenges ranging from affordable housing, public transit and health services to new electoral riding distributions. It is also important to genealogists.
New Democrats have called for the re-instatement of the census long form as it is the only comprehensive data collected in Canada to gather concrete data about Canadians in their local neighbourhoods.
@Subhead - For Body Text:<t-2>Protecting the food we eat:A Need for a Federal Food Policy<t$>
A recent report issued by the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture and the Ecology Action Centre show that only 13 per cent of the food dollar we spend goes to local farmers.
This is down from the 17 per cent we spent on local food 11 years ago. It is a surprising find, given that many Canadians seem much more aware of the benefits of buying local food.
Federal New Democrats recently issued a “Food for Thought” report that outlines the need for a national food policy. The report is based on consultations with community groups, farmers, and other stakeholders. The report recommends that the federal government develop a national strategy to address food-related issues.
We also recommend incentives to promote local food production, local farmers markets, stronger environmental and health standards for imported food, and proper labels on food with information on its origin, nutritional value, and whether it has been genetically modified. As always, please contact me at my office with any concerns or questions at (902)-861-2311 or 1-888-701-5557.
