Federal Budget 2015

[logicalview]

1.9 million Canadians contributed the max to the TFSA.

Thats 5.1% of Canadians. As Captain pointed out, people making 80K (or less - how much less?) contribute 75% of the assets into the total TFSA's held. Again that number dwindles down to who really benefits.

How many of that 5% of Canada can now double that?

Stats are wonderful things. You can manipulate numbers to produce whatever result you want, depending on your agenda. Let's break down your "5.1%" of Canadians. I wonder how many Canadians under the age of 18 contributed to a TFSA. I would guess "zero" percent, but I'm just basing that on my friend's six year old, who is a lot more interested in playing soccer right now then setting up a TFSA. Now how many Canadians between the ages of 18 and the age of 25 set up TFSA's? I would guess almost zero percent, as they would just be starting to earn money at that age and have a lot of other expenses that eat up their starting salaries.

So very limited to no take-up of the TFSA program by anyone under 25 in Canada, I would bet. Yet there are over 10 million Canadians living here right now who are 25 years old and under, or 30% of the total population. The TFSA program isn't aimed at them. It's aimed at people in their prime earning years. That's the point. Speaking of which - how many people are there in Canada over the age of 65? Around 5 million. They also aren't contributing to TFSA's. They don't need to. So we've eliminated over 15 million people already from the denominator in your flawed equation.

Then you have stay at home parents, people on disability etc. and in special circumstances, who can't or don't need a TFSA. But let's not worry about removing them, let's leave them in. But, and here's the big BUT - you mentioned that only 1.9 million Canadians MAXED out their TFSA's. Interesting that you went there. Lots of people have TFSA's, but for whatever reason, didn't max them out. I have a TFSA, but for various reasons, I didn't max it out last year. I plan to this year though. It's a timing issue.

The fact that 1.9 million Canadians not only have TFSA's, but maxed them out, out of a total of say, 19 million Canadians that the program is targeted for, is excellent. This program has been extremely popular, and there are good reasons why.

[maryjane48]

but the facts are this budget will not help the avg canadian , in fact they gambling

[logicalview]

but the facts are this budget will not help the avg canadian , in fact they gambling

they gambling? What the hell are you talking about? Oh never mind...

[bob vernon]

They're not gambling. It's a sure thing that oil will be up to $78 a barrel by the fall and remain there for the final 6 months of the fiscal year, guaranteeing a higher flow of cash, balancing the budget.

[twobits]

We raided the contingency fund in order to give billions of tax cuts to the richest of Canadians. If the rich didn't get their tax cuts we'd have more money in the contingency fund. We flogged our GM shares at rock bottom prices ( I wonder which staffers has friends over at Goldman Sachs? ) to make the fudged math work - so Stephen could gift his buddies for the election.

2 weeks and technically speaking that would have been a extra 3 million dollars per Canadian for the tax coffers.

Something you need to understand is credibility when posting. You have none when you cannot even do basic math. Taking your own supplied numbers, the Gov't could have realized an extra 100 million if they had waited an extra two weeks to sell the GM shares. I think the current Canadian population is somewhere around 35 million so basic math tells me that would be less than 3 dollars per Canadian, not 3 million dollars per Canadian.
I would also not quit your day job as anyone with half a brain does not try to make money timing stock market prices. If you were that knowledgeable in market timing, you would certainly not be posting here on Castanet threads.......you would be on a beach somewhere tropical instead of your bedroom laptop trying to devolve us to grade one math.

[goalie]

There you go:

People who make less than $80K/year (middle class) account for 75% of TFSA assets. Assets, not number of accounts. They are TFSA prime users and prime beneficiaries of the increase.

But thank you for your yet another uneducated opinion.

You said less than 40k. Now it's less than 80k. That's not the same thing at all. Glad you proved me right.

[Atomoa]

Something you need to understand is credibility when posting. You have none when you cannot even do basic math. Taking your own supplied numbers, the Gov't could have realized an extra 100 million if they had waited an extra two weeks to sell the GM shares. I think the current Canadian population is somewhere around 35 million so basic math tells me that would be less than 3 dollars per Canadian, not 3 million dollars per Canadian.
I would also not quit your day job as anyone with half a brain does not try to make money timing stock market prices. If you were that knowledgeable in market timing, you would certainly not be posting here on Castanet threads.......you would be on a beach somewhere tropical instead of your bedroom laptop trying to devolve us to grade one math.

My math may have been wrong in my little quip, but that doesn't make the CPC flogging our shares at a huge loss in order to give tax cuts for the rich the right thing to do.

100 million isn't chump change.

[twobits]

My math may have been wrong in my little quip, but that doesn't make the CPC flogging our shares at a huge loss in order to give tax cuts for the rich the right thing to do.

100 million isn't chump change.

Yes it pretty much is when you are talking about a multi billion dollar stock sale. Which by the way would not have happened on one day but was spread out over weeks or even months so the return was an average price. But you wouldn't understand that cuz I seriously doubt you have ever personally traded a stock that was issued in your name given your comments here..

I can't wait for your brilliant observation six months from now that will say if the Gov't had only waited until that point in time to sell those shares, taxpayers would have realized an additional 25 million. We will not however expect a chirp from you had a sale six months from now realized 25 mill less than what was received.

"Math wrong in your little quip"? Yup, just about 3 million dollars wrong per Canadian citizen vs. 3 dollars per Canadian citizen. And that is just a "quip" to you? You have years ago lost any credibility with myself in your posts. The only reason I waste any keystrokes responding to the BS in your post here is in the hope that others reading actually scrutinize what you post before they believe it as anywhere near accurate. Anti Gov't propaganda at least has some measure of fact behind it for the weak minded. Your propaganda doesn't even meet a third grade level math smell test.

[Atomoa]

Yes it pretty much is when you are talking about a multi billion dollar stock sale. Which by the way would not have happened on one day but was spread out over weeks or even months so the return was an average price. But you wouldn't understand that cuz I seriously doubt you have ever personally traded a stock that was issued in your name given your comments here..

I can't wait for your brilliant observation six months from now that will say if the Gov't had only waited until that point in time to sell those shares, taxpayers would have realized an additional 25 million. We will not however expect a chirp from you had a sale six months from now realized 25 mill less than what was received.

"Math wrong in your little quip"? Yup, just about 3 million dollars wrong per Canadian citizen vs. 3 dollars per Canadian citizen. And that is just a "quip" to you? You have years ago lost any credibility with myself in your posts. The only reason I waste any keystrokes responding to the BS in your post here is in the hope that others reading actually scrutinize what you post before they believe it as anywhere near accurate. Anti Gov't propaganda at least has some measure of fact behind it for the weak minded. Your propaganda doesn't even meet a third grade level math smell test.

Do you need a hug, because Peter Mansbridge and many economists also referred to the CPC flogging of the GM shares at a huge loss. I actually just repeated Peters question to Joe Oliver.

We sold the shares at less than what we paid for them. Had we waited 2 weeks, Canada would have had another 100 million or had we left the shares in a public trust to be sold off at a time of maximum profit, we would have gotten even more.

That's alot of coast guard stations that didnt have to be closed!

[Captain Awesome]

Federal govt is not supposed to be in stock buying/selling business to begin with.