Discussions

Does anyone have any info on the new tax free benefit replacing the uccb this July? Thanks a bunch.  
 
Edited by winterstorm15, 2016-04-06 20:20:07

Check online on the government website, there is a calculator that estimates what your family will receive based on your annual income

Do we still get family allowance? And we won't get uccb then anymore. Right?

The new benefit replaces the UCCB and the CCTB, making one (probably) larger, tax free, benefit.

The higher child benefit will replace the children's fitness credit. Which is a big mistake in my opinion. Any incentive to keep kids in sports is a positive.

netdog said "The higher child benefit will replace the children's fitness credit. Which is a big mistake in my opinion. Any incentive to keep kids in sports is a positive. "

The increased child benefit is FAR more than the amount the Fitness credit gave back. Kids will stay in sports if they enjoy it regardless of how much a tax break the fees used to give their parents.  
 
Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-04-06 21:19:50

It is a Liberal promise met and kept. Tax free. Some people will make out pretty good.  
 
Tax season will be a change as this will mean far smaller tax return cheques. Big ones for some.  
 
Now it is spread out the way it should be. Money for the day to day / month to month stuff.  
 
Much of the tax system has changed and those with low incomes with children saw tax system work for them by decent refund cheques.  
 
This has been rolled out to month to month benefits. Fairly rich in my opinion but a better method.  
 
The beefed up monthly allowances means less coin at the tax return time.  

Not sure how the new child benefits work as it doesn't apply to me. As a grandparent though, I can see where the child fitness credit really only applies to those families who can afford the initial cost of registration then the equipment, transportation costs etc. One of my children can afford the initial cost for their kids and if its up to $1000.00 per child they would get a tax credit of $150.00. Not bad. The other family can't afford the initial cost of many programs and enrolls their kids in lower cost activities they can afford and the kids enjoy. Their tax credit would be very minimal. It just seems that their were so many "tax credits" across the board that could be applied for by a variety of people but it really complicates filling out your tax returns and keeping track of so many receipts. Just wish they could come up with a simple, straight forward tax return and maybe just increase the personal deduction for everyone.

I will consider it a promise about half met. I used the calculator the liberals had on their site before the election. The amount was roughly double what my family will actually see. It is still a considerable increase especially since it is tax free.  
 
Anyhow in evaluating the new set up it is better. Having it not taxed and indexed to your income is a lot better system than clawing back at tax time.

netdog said "The higher child benefit will replace the children's fitness credit. Which is a big mistake in my opinion. Any incentive to keep kids in sports is a positive. "

There are some people out there who cannot afford to put their kids into sports because of the initial fees. Maybe this way they will have enough money to pay to put them in in the first place.

Doug said "It is a Liberal promise met and kept. Tax free. Some people will make out pretty good.     Tax season will be a change as this will mean far smaller tax return cheques. Big ones for some.     Now it is spread out the way it should be. Money for the day to day / month to month stuff.     Much of the tax system has changed and those with low incomes with children saw tax system work for them by decent refund cheques.     This has been rolled out to month to month benefits. Fairly rich in my opinion but a better method.     The beefed up monthly allowances means less coin at the tax return time.   "

The upside is that the old benefit was taxable. Some people may get a smaller return, but anyone who was on EI for instance, may get a larger one.

oops it was a double post from this morning.  
 
I will use this edit to reply to pwdds.  
 
I think those on low income with kids will have far smaller tax returns dollar wise because what they had been getting was taxable and added on to their income.  
 
My read is the changes will help big time 12 months a year but no massive refund check as it is not taxable income.  
 
Many tax refunds come when you are taxed too much based on income. Other benefits have been rolled in and not taxable in the new case. I am again suggesting the tax/benefit system did a reshuffle that in regards to tax refunds they will drop quite a chunk. I know I kind of repeated myself but I had to edit a double post from tge original  
 
 
 
Edited by Doug, 2016-04-07 18:50:05

Thanks all for the info. so does it go by how many kids you have or just income?

Here's the calculator to check for yourself:  
 
https://www.liberal.ca/realchange/canada-child-benefit-plan/?shownew=1  
 

I just calculated my child credit with my EI income and my job income (which is $11,000.00 difference) and the credit was only a difference of $18.00. Just to let some know. I'm not overly concerned I'm just happy I don't have to claim over $1,200 as income... It doesn't seem like a lot but when you have to save some of this money that's supposed to help you buy necessities, just to pay back at the end of the year I would much rather not have it. (I'm not wealthy by any means but it's just silly I have to have an account to put money in to just pay back at the end of the year... I know it's not like that for all, that is just my personal thoughts and opinions

I don't think parents are putting their kids in activities JUST for the tax break. Aren't we doing it for the kids?!?!

Cee Jay 55 said "    netdog said "The higher child benefit will replace the children's fitness credit. Which is a big mistake in my opinion. Any incentive to keep kids in sports is a positive. " The increased child benefit is FAR more than the amount the Fitness credit gave back. Kids will stay in sports if they enjoy it regardless of how much a tax break the fees used to give their parents.     Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-04-06 21:19:50"

when my two boys were in bowling, the tax break was literally insignificant. I think it gave me a $150 tax reduction out of about $600 spent.  
 
If they gave me an extra $15 tax free per month, it would be more than the sports tax credit.

Happy mom said "I just calculated my child credit with my EI income and my job income (which is $11,000.00 difference) and the credit was only a difference of $18.00. Just to let some know. I'm not overly concerned I'm just happy I don't have to claim over $1,200 as income... It doesn't seem like a lot but when you have to save some of this money that's supposed to help you buy necessities, just to pay back at the end of the year I would much rather not have it. (I'm not wealthy by any means but it's just silly I have to have an account to put money in to just pay back at the end of the year... I know it's not like that for all, that is just my personal thoughts and opinions "

Most people will see more than an $18.00 difference. I know if I play around with the numbers running the same parameters between last tax year and the current one (so old CCTB/UCCB payments vs. the new ones coming up), I'm hard pressed to get less than a $100 difference per month for a single child unless your income is very, very high - as in, reaching the cut-off point anyway.