Tax Benefits For You and Your Family
In the previous week we discussed some of the major changes that the new year brings to your corporate taxes; however, here are a few things to keep in mind for your personal taxes:
Universal Child Care Benefit
Households of single parents as well as all families will see an increase of the UCCB for children under the age of 6 to $160 per month (rising from the previous amount of $100 per month). For children from the age of 6 to 17, families will be receiving a $60 new benefit every month. This will come into effect as of July 2015; however, it should be noted that the child tax credit will be completely eliminated in favour of increasing the UCCB.
Children’s Fitness Tax Credit
This credit will double to $1000 and will be refundable the year following this one.
Child Care Expense Deduction
This deduction will increase by $1000 for each of the respective age groups for the 2015 tax year.
Income Splitting
Income splitting measures will now allow the parent who earns more to transfer upto $50,000 of taxable income to the spouse in the lower tax bracket. This will enable families to claim a non-refundable tax credit upto $2,000. The eligibility for this applies to all families where one parent is working and the other is either staying at home or is in a lower tax bracket.
Employment insurance
The new annual premium EI rates will rise to a maximum of $930.50 (an increase of $16.82 from the previous year). Having that said, the weekly EI benefit cap will increase by $10 (to $524 as opposed to $514 from the previous year).
Other provincial changes that Ontarians will come across is the ability to construct 5 to 6 storey buildings out of wood in an attempt to strive for construction cost savings. This is in addition to new requirements being introduced to strive for energy efficiency for some 22 household products (including TVs, microwaves etc) as well as increased shipping costs to the US or international shipping through Canada Post by 1.8%.
If you have any further questions, please contact your accountant or feel free to contact us. We can be reached at info@apbs.ca or give us a call at 416-495-1098.
