Letters to the editor - Editor:
Shakespeare's romantic comedy 'Much Ado About Nothing' may draw a few more laughs than federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's ground-breaking news of the new tax-free savings account, but maybe only a few more.
This new tax break, for us working-class types, came into effect Jan. 1 and lets us salt away up to $5,000 a year without having to claim the interest on our income tax. So, let's take a look at a Canadian bank's website, for example, to see what that means. It has what it calls a 'Bonus Savings Account' and with a minimum balance of $5,000, you earn the princely annual interest rate of 2.25 per cent.
The new tax-free gift from the feds allows us to take that whopping $112.50 in interest and ignore the Canada Revenue Agency completely at tax time. Using the lowest tax rate of 15 per cent, you can forget the $16.88 you would owe in taxes before Jan. 1. Subtracting P.E.I.'s tax-the-tax numbers, that leaves you with an additional whopping $14.61 of disposable income.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I know I will sleep better at night. Well, that is, if I had an extra $5,000 in my bank account.
Lloyd Kerry,
Charlottetown
Reflections on a new tax break
Editor:
Shakespeare's romantic comedy 'Much Ado About Nothing' may draw a few more laughs than federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's ground-breaking news of the new tax-free savings account, but maybe only a few more.
This new tax break, for us working-class types, came into effect Jan. 1 and lets us salt away up to $5,000 a year without having to claim the interest on our income tax. So, let's take a look at a Canadian bank's website, for example, to see what that means. It has what it calls a 'Bonus Savings Account' and with a minimum balance of $5,000, you earn the princely annual interest rate of 2.25 per cent.
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