The New Year is often a time of change – from a new diet or workout regime to new laws or benefits. This year is off to a great start with new tax credits that could yield greater refunds for Canadian families. Isn’t that great news to kick off the year?
Caroline Battista from H&R Block Canada highlights some of the new credits for 2015:
- Increases to Universal Child Care Benefit: Parents with children under 18 will start to see an increased benefit in July 2015. For children under six, the monthly amount will go up from the current $100 to $160. A new credit for parents with children between the ages of six and 17 means they will now receive up to $720 a year ($60 a month). The increase for January to June will be paid in a lump sum in July 2015 and will then be paid monthly after that.
- New Family Tax Cut: Designed as a limited form of income splitting, the Family Tax Cut allows qualifying families to save when one spouse earns considerably more than the other. The new tax measure provides a credit to families with children under 18 equal to the tax savings that would be realized if up to $50,000 of taxable income were transferred from the higher income to the lower income spouse or common-law partner. The key is that they must be in different tax brackets to get the most benefit.
For example, taxable income in excess of $43,953 is taxed at the federal rate of 22 per cent instead of at 15 per cent. If one spouse has an income of $50,000 and the other has $30,000, the first spouse has $6,047 of income that is taxed at a rate of 22 per cent. By splitting this income with the second spouse, the entire $80,000 will be taxed at the rate of 15 per cent resulting in a family tax savings of $423. The maximum credit is capped at $2,000 and in order to qualify the family must have a child under the age of 18 at the end of the year who normally resides with them throughout the year.
- Pumped up Children’s Fitness Tax Credit: The Children’s Fitness Tax Credit can be claimed by either parent for qualifying activities such as swimming and soccer. The amount you can claim has doubled to $1,000 and is retroactive for 2014.
In addition to these new credits, there are plenty of other opportunities to increase your tax refund or reduce you tax owing. For example, the First-Time Donor Super Credit provides extra credit for first-time donations. Did you know that? A Leger survey found 72 per cent of Canadians didn’t know.
If you’re unsure of what you can claim, an H&R Block tax professional can walk you through what’s new for your tax return this year. For more information please visit www.hrblock.ca
One of our readers is going to win a gift certificate for one regular return (T4) that can be used at a retail H&R Block location. Value: approx. $100. To enter to win, just fill in your name and email address to get started!
Hopefully this will save us a few bucks! good neews
I think the new family tax cut (income splitting) will be useful.
The Income splitting sounds good.
I think it’s wonderful
I am super excited about the new tax savings. With a family of 6 we can use all the help we can get.
I think it’s beneficial only to a very specific family type: two parents, one home with the kids. Single parents and families where both parents work aren’t set to benefit much from the changes, and that’s a bummer. My own family is actually made up of a working parent and a stay at home parent, however, so I do liket hat it will benefit me personally.
I think it is absolutey fantastic!!
i think it’s interesting will effect families in different ways
I am not sure yet. lot of teh advertsiing is negative but you post a postive light on it!
I think it’s great, especially if you have younger active kids.
Hopefully, families will be able to save some money.
I think it will be very helpful. Not sure how/if it will affect my family but it sounds pretty good so far.
I think its great!
I’m hoping we see a benefit.
Hopefully they will be helpful but it doesn’t always turn out that way
Hopefully families will find it beneficial. It isn’t applicable to us.
It’s always good to see extra tax breaks for families!
Increase to Universal Child Care Benefit sounds good, hope it helps all of us.
As someone who has one child aging out of the program this summer, I think its awesome. I was really worried about losing that money as we rely on it, so its nice that it will increase for my youngest three 🙂 I think its good! Will help a lot of low income families.
I think most will help alot of families!
I think it’s great, hopefully it will help out more families!
It sounds like a good idea.
WoO HoO! I think the new family tax changes are awesome! I had my first little guy in November and had heard a little about some new deductions but I’m happy to have found your review. It’s great that we can share incomes as I made quite a bit less than my Husband this year being off on maternity leave. Another added bonus is the nice bump in Child Care Benefit 🙂 We’ve filed with H&R Block many times in the past and always had a smooth transaction. We would pay the little extra and receive our refund on the spot, I always seemed to get audited and that would hold my refund up to 3 months. I had enough of that and switched to H&R Block when they first started offering cash back that option. I’ve filed online the last 2 years myself but with the new changes and having a baby I think I’ll leave this year to the professionals! Thanks so much for the info and awesome giveaway. We all know it will be put to good use 🙂
not much use to me. :\
Does not mean any deductions for myself but it might help a few people.
I’m liking the sound of the tax credits so far. As a stay at home mom, the income splitting is especially appealing to me and my family. Taking a look at our situation, I think we will be getting a good refund as a result of these changes.
I think its great for those with children
Looking forward to the increase in UCCB–every little bit helps!
I love H&R Block and I think the changes are GREAT!
I’m very happy with them! Raising kids is expensive so every bit helps!
I hope this will actually help some. I’m glad to be getting extra money for the kids, everything seems to be increasing in price.
Great news! Hopefully it will help out some families in need!
I think it will be a benefit for many families. There are still come questions I have but I think I will read more info about it to see which way we would benefit more when we file.
Thank you, I wanted more information about income splitting
Love the income splitting!
It’s good, it’s more fair to have the salaries splitted
seems good, not sure how much it will affect our family, we’ll see!
great for families
It’s awesome! Love that we are getting more money each month for the kids, it will REALLY help. Can’t wait to receive that retroactive payment in July!
As a brand new parent, I am so excited to take advantage of these programs for our family. Thank you so much for your helpful post!
I’m excited about the changes, I’m hopeful that possibly this year I won’t have to pay.
glad to see the sport credit is going up! keeping kids active is SO important but can be a huge expense for famililes!
I’m always happy to see changes that help us out.
Families need all the tax breaks they can get.
sounds good so lets hope it is really as good as it appears
with my daughter going to be a mommy in May I hope it helps her out.
Think family cuts are beneficial for a certain tax bracket – I believe firmly the benefit should reach universal. I understand it is a UTOPIAN idea… Being Realistic is to survive.
Eva Mitton-Urban
Personally, I think for the most part they’re garbage. They took away the option to have my children counted on the TD1 forms through my employers. Instead I get a 60/month that I PAY taxes on at the end of the year. Bah.
The Active Sport tax credit not a credit we see in hand. Its non refundable. Yay. Not.
Can’t wait for Harper to take a seat.
/end rant.
ha. although weirdly I do like to do my taxes manually so if I win this, it may be an learning experience.
They look ok, I will wait to see what happens with my return.
The family cuts should help out family out !!
this will help out a lot,woot woot for the new tax cuts
I am very happy with the new tax changes for families this year, especially the increase in the UCCB, that will definitely help!
I love how families are going to see an increased benefit! Tax season is so stressful for me I love getting a little extra back even a tiny bit
I think it does not do enough to help the poorer families and two working families. I would prefer that they rose the personal exemption limit to benefit all.
Income splitting sounds good
Anything that helps give bigger refunds to families is always welcome. It’s getting tougher, and families need a break.
I love to see the new tax cuts. I wouldn’t have known about them without this post! thanks so much
Everything!!!!
These sound cool! Would be helpful