Koroll & Company Blog

Planning for the future is critical but, when developing your savings plan, it is important to consider other factors such as your current financial situation and tax planning, as well as your short-term and long-term goals.

There are a number of saving tools available to Canadians, depending on your goals – Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), Registered Education Plans (RESPs), Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSP), Pooled Registered Pension Plans, and more. 

When it comes to planning for your financial future, Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) are some of the most common and useful savings tools available to Canadians.

But before you decide where to put your money, it is important to understand the similarities and differences between the two. 

While it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we ask ourselves what we want to do with our discretionary income, contributing to saving plans is critical to an enjoyable retirement.

The deadline for 2017 Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contribution is March 1, 2018, which means many of us are dealing with the annual decision of whether we should put our savings into an RRSP or a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA).

It’s time to finalize your 2017 taxes and start planning for 2018. As with every new year, 2018 has its own set of payment and filing deadlines that every taxpayer needs to know about.

Below is a listing of significant dates and information that you will want to make note of.

RRSP Contributions

RRSPs can be a great tool for reducing your tax owing.

Unlike other tax planning tools, you can utilize your RRSP until March of the following year. As such, the RRSP contribution deadline for your 2017 tax return is March 1, 2018, unless you turned 71 in 2017. In that case, you RRSP contribution deadline was December 31, 2017.

We often discuss the benefits of Tax-free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), as both tax planning and retirement saving tools.

Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) have been part of the Canadian tax system now for nearly a decade, and millions of Canadians utilize them as a savings vehicle, whether for short-term or long-term purposes.

Of all of the tax-deferral or tax-savings plans available to Canadians, TFSAs undoubtedly provide the greatest flexibility, as the TFSA rules allow taxpayers to both carryover allowable contribution room to future years and to re-contribute amounts withdrawn.

However, that very flexibility (especially the ability to re-contribute previous withdrawals) also has the potential to cause taxpayers to run afoul of the rules by getting into an inadvertent over contribution position, resulting in the imposition of penalty taxes.

Each new tax year brings with it a new list of tax payment and filing deadlines, as well as some changes with respect to tax planning strategies. Some of the more significant dates and changes for individual taxpayers for 2017 are listed below.

Most Canadians are aware that the deadline for contributing to one’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) is 60 days after the calendar year end – in order to be claimed on the return for 2016, such contributions must be made before March 2, 2017. Many also know that contributions to a tax-free savings account (TFSA) can be made at any time during the year. Consequently, when Canadians start thinking about year-end tax planning or saving strategies, RRSPs and TFSAs aren’t often top of mind. The fact is, however, that there are some situations in which planning strategies involving TFSAs and RRSPs must be put in place by the end of the calendar year. In other situations, acting before the end of the calendar year, while not required, will produce a better tax result. Some of those situations are outlined below.