Observational Personal Finance essays, stories, case studies and how to articles with a distinctly Canadian Point of View, from the Chief Kibitzer of Personal Finance. Paying it forward as best I can.
For those that have not followed me since 2005, allow me to say, I told them so. Back in 2009, I warned Inflation was coming with all this stimulation, and here it comes (in 2021). Mark my words this is only the beginning.
Year-over-year consumer price growth (+3.4%) in April rose at its fastest pace since May 2011 amid the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly because prices fell sharply during the early months of the pandemic. As some regions extended restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, causing employment losses for some Canadians, prices grew 0.5% month over month in April 2021, the same growth rate as in March 2021.
Prices rose in every major component on a year-over-year basis. Transportation prices (+9.4%) increased in April, mainly because of higher gasoline prices compared with April 2020.
Funny no mention of the Trillions being poured into the Economy by every Government world-wide? Maybe they ran out of ink? The Moore’s Law like growth of Real Estate prices not too much of a factor?
Transportation went up a lot, but Food and Shelter are going up big time too.
The Food thing is going to get worse, with the inability to get the migrant workers that our farms rely on into the country. Is it a good thing we need migrants to do this job? That is for another days discussion. Oh and Electricity prices in Ontario went “back up” when they changed back to a “peak” and “off peak” billing again.
I write certain articles yearly, as an update on previous articles. Not many things change in my financial world, unfortunately, my ability to deposit in my son’s RDSP is one of those.
For those unsure let me recap. I cannot make a deposit directly to my son’s RDSP (a TD Direct Investing account). I must first put money in my Direct Investing trading account. Once the money is in the trading account, I must then call Direct Investing phone service, to then transfer the money to my son’s RDSP.
The Route for Money to My Son’s RDSP
Over the years I have had many reasons given. I received an update from someone who has an RDSP where he is the beneficiary, who can directly deposit to that account. This confused me, so I continue to ask yearly, to Direct Investing, why I cannot do the deposit.
This years response follows:
Only the account holders can transfer cash to the RDSP account.
This would be the same for any registered plan account.
Due to online privacy and security concerns, trade and account related inquiries are handled by our investment representatives. By phone, we can securely access your profile to assist accordingly. If you feel that the representative has not adequately addressed your concern, you may ask to speak with a Manager.
Given my son now has a TD savings account, I will test the validity of this explanation. I will attempt to set up a transfer to his RDSP. I will also need to file his taxes for next year, but that is for another story.
Addendum, I forgot that last year two smart folks Bobby Vu and Steven Reeves commented that I could try “Paying it as a Bill”. This would entail setting up a bill payment to TD Direct Investing with my son’s RESP account number. I have set this up and am attempting to see if it works.
Previous Discussions on Topic
RDSP : Laying the Ground Work (first things first) What needs to be done BEFORE you can apply for a Registered Disability Savings Plan? A major aspect of this is the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), make sure you click on this page to get started.
RDSP and TD Aggravations pretty much the day after I opened the account, I noticed the deposit issue.
I have written many articles about taxes, I will include a few at the end of this article.
Reasons folks tell me they haven’t done their taxes:
I Don’t Owe Anything
Are you sure about that one? Unless you do your taxes, you can’t be sure you owe nothing. If you are owe nothing, why not do your taxes? Get it done. If you are owed money, you enjoy loaning the government money? That is what you are doing if you are owed a refund, and you don’t file your taxes. Who can afford not getting all their money they earned? I suppose Elon Musk maybe?
I Can’t Be Bothered
Usually followed by, “the CRA will come get me if I owe money”. You do realize if you owe money, and haven’t filed they start charging interest on the money owed? This is not the IRS, but the CRA can garnish your wages, if you ignore them long enough.
I Had No Income
Well, that is a great reason to file your taxes. How else will you get HST rebates and many other things? Find someone to help you file, if you can’t do it yourself. Many support programs rely on you showing you have no income, and your taxes is where that can be done. For young folks this is important as well, for things like OSAP, if they are going to claim they are self-supporting. For RDSPs this is important for disabled young folks so they can receive the Canada disability savings grant at a higher level and Canada disability savings bond. The Bond is $1000 if you put no money into your RDSP account for the year (i.e. free money).
I Can’t Get Into My CRA
Yes, that was a big problem for about 800,000 of us, but that is not an excuse (evidently). You needed to spend a while on the phone with the CRA to clear that up. They also (evidently) fixed the problem for a lot of folks too?
I am Dead
Yes, this is a reason, for you. OK a bit morbid, and maybe not that funny given the COVID times that we are living in. Someone needs to submit your taxes in this instance (your executor most likely), to make sure the CRA knows this as well.
Other Fun Tax Articles
Some other articles I have written over the ages about Income Tax in Canada
First thing is about the Disability Tax Credit and if you are disabled you should absolutely apply for the DTC. You can apply later and have it applied to when your disability started. Go do it, please.
Best Excuses for NOT Doing Taxes on Time, OK you caught me I cribbed some topics from this one. Mostly a humorous article, but there really are not many good reasons for not doing your taxes.
“… you’re bottom feeding scum that try to bully everyone for nickels and dimes when you aren’t a top shelf customer to begin with…”.
Comment about negotiating for a better price
I am assuming that if the writer is an actual call center employee, they do not speak for their employers (officially). They could easily have been a troll trying to have a laugh as well.
Throughout that article I stressed the importance of being polite with folks on the phone (my daughter works in a call center and I know how crazy some people can get). Politeness is the key when dealing with service folks. Many times they cannot do anything, but if you are polite they will pass you on to someone who can.
I am glad that this one article keeps getting folks reading, and hopefully getting better deals, but, things are changing out there. My inability to get to the Customer Retention group to get a better deal (Cable and Phone service), I will be trying again, but there is hope.
Media Maven Preet Banerjee says he has had an interesting “deal” proposed to him. He set up Rogers Internet in his new Fortress of Solitude in Downtown Gotham (North), and realized two weeks later that he might need a higher monthly bandwidth limit. Did this cause him to give up? NO! He called and he must have used one of his Jedi mind tricks because they gave him a higher monthly limit and they charged him less for it? (This was not the deal you negotiated).
We Deserve Better Deals
I realize that not all of us have a Fortess of Solitude or Jedi mind tricks to fall back on to get a better deal, but Ellen Roseman wants us to get those better deals (and wants to make sure we don’t get ripped off). If you have a chance to listen to this up beat lady talk, do it! She told some scary consumer stories, but she also gave me hope that we can all get a better deal (if we just stay persistent).
It is your right as a consumer to get the best deal that you can get.
I continue to fight to get better deals. Be polite, but also be firm, if you are a good customer. Why should only new customers get good deals? This is true for all services, not just ISPs, but Banks, and other service providers too. This is a rewrite from many years ago, but still very true.
To help more families and people living with disabilities access the Disability Tax Credit, and other related support measures like the Registered Disability Savings Plan and the Child Disability Benefit:
* Budget 2021 proposes to update the list of mental functions of everyday life that is used for assessment for the Disability Tax Credit. Using terms that are more clinically relevant would make it easier to be assessed, reduce delays, and improve access to benefits.
* Budget 2021 also proposes to recognize more activities in determining time spent on life-sustaining therapy and to reduce the minimum required frequency of therapy to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. To ensure these changes enable applicants to have a fair and proper assessment of their eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit, the government will undertake a review of these changes in 2023.
It is estimated that, as a result of these measures, an additional 45,000 people will qualify for the Disability Tax Credit, and related benefit programs linked to its eligibility, each year. This represents $376 million in additional support over five years, starting in 2021-22.
It is the final line of that statement that makes me less paranoid about this.
Caveat Disability Tax Credit
As with previous changes, these will not come into play until after the Budget (2021) is passed by parliament. What the results of the review ends up doing, remains to be seen. My concern is still with the “…Using terms that are more clinically relevant would make it easier….” phrase. This suggests the Doctor filling in the T2201 forms will need to know the correct vernacular for the forms.
RDSP : Laying the Ground Work (first things first) What needs to be done BEFORE you can apply for a Registered Disability Savings Plan? A major aspect of this is the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), make sure you click on this page to get started.
RDSP : Working with The Account Now that you have succeeded getting your Disability Tax Credit (DTC) you need to open an RDSP account with a bank or such, but how is that done? It is not as easy as you might think. This page outlines many of the issues that have arisen for my family working with an RDSP account.
Disability Tax Related Topics Thanks for my RDSP and DTC work I then had to learn a great deal about the tax implications of having a disabled child.
Autism Specific Articles Being the proud Father of a child on the Autism Spectrum I also ended up writing a great deal about Autism specific things as well.
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