Juggling Dynamite

The new Federal Budget released yesterday has significant implications for capital assets held by individuals and corporations. See: Feds raise capital gains inclusion rate to 66.6% starting June 25.

The taxable portion increases to two-thirds from one-half on capital gains above $250,000 realized annually by individuals and all capital gains realized by corporations and trusts.

This will undoubtedly incentivize some asset sales before June 25 and prompt consideration of whether some capital assets, like real estate and equities presently held in corporations, can be transferred to individual owners for greater tax efficiency. Accountants will be busy.

The latest government initiative to try and keep home prices at unaffordable levels is to extend the term of debt amortization to 30 years from 25 for government-insured mortgages (available where property prices are $1 million or less). Making people debt slaves for even longer does little to help the housing unaffordability and debt weighing on Canada today. Lower shelter prices and less debt are the way back to greater stability.

The solution to debt is not more debt, says Doug Hoyes, Co-founder of Hoyes, Michalos & Associates. Here is a direct video link.

Andrew Chang lays out the worse-for-buyers-math in this segment.

The federal government is allowing longer mortgage repayment periods for first-time buyers with insured mortgages on newly built homes. Andrew Chang explores the pros and cons of 30-year amortization vs. the previous 25-year rule for prospective homeowners. CORRECTION: At 1:38 in this video, we miscalculated that 20% of $500,000 is $125,000. It’s $100,000. It has been edited out for clarity. Here is a direct video link.

Danielle was a guest with Jacqueline Hansen and Elmer Kim on CBC’s Weekend Business Panel. You can view a video clip of the segment here.