Canadian Personal Finance Blog

My interim tax assessment arrived yesterday in the mail and it is about what it was last year with the exception of a 1 line addition that has me wondering:

SWC - 50% Solid Waste Curbside Service $41.00

So this is a surcharge on top of what I normally pay for my Garbage Collection, I guess. Why am I paying this new “fee”? I need to do some investigating because it shows up as a Special Charge, not as part of my regular charges. My concern also is there may be more of these kind of “Special Fees” that will appear on my taxes as Ottawa City Council wants more money too.

TFSA the Follow On

So most of the Canadian financial blogging community seized on this part of the budget and there were some excellent reviews of what it might be used for. My question about whether you should use the TFSA or the RRSP was kind of addressed by Michael James in his posting: Tax Free Accounts vs. RRSPs so have a read of that posting too.

My bottom line is if I could find $5000 extra (say by cutting my discretionary spending, like I keep telling myself I should) my retirement pay ins are fairly good, so I might take advantage of this capability, but I’d need to make a solid plan for it as well.

RRSP Times Up!

Remember Friday is the cut off for your 2007 RRSP contributions, keep that in mind. I believe some banks are staying open late for you to do your last minute RRSP shopping and such. For those of us who buy a little at a time, we’ll drive by the banks and chuckle quietly knowing you are having fun.