Benefits for Families in British Columbia

Family Tax Cut

The federal government announced a new tax credit that they are referring to as the Family Tax Cut.  This tax change is intended to create tax savings by allowing income splitting for families when one spouse is in a lower tax bracket than the other.  Because our tax system is bracketed, tax rates increase with the level of income.  With this new tax credit, the higher-earning spouse may transfer up to $50,000 to the spouse in the lower tax bracket, which can provide up to a maximum of $2,000 in non-refundable tax savings.  Depending on the tax brackets, this can be a helpful tax savings for families.

This new tax credit will be available for the 2014 tax year and subsequent tax years.  To be eligible, your spouse or common-law partner must be a resident of Canada on December 31st of the tax year.  You must have a child who is under the age of 18 at the end of the year who ordinarily lives throughout the year with you.  For spouses with a marriage breakdown, to claim the credit you must have not been living separately for a period of 90 days or more beginning in the year. This should provide some tax relief for families with young children trying to make ends meet.

BC Training and Education Savings Program (BCTES)

The BC provincial government announced a new RESP savings grant.  The intent is to get families in BC to start saving and planning for their children’s post-secondary education.  The BC government will contribute a grant of $1,200 to eligible children.  This program is to start in 2015.
To be eligible for the BCTES grant, a child must meet the following three criteria:

1. The child was born in 2007 or later;
2. At the time of application, the child and a parent/guardian of the child are residents of British Columbia;
3. At the time of application, the child is the beneficiary of a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) with a participating financial institution.

If your child or children are eligible, please contact your Rogers Group Financial advisor in August.
Children are eligible for the BCTES grant on their sixth birthday up until the day before their ninth birthday. Some eligible children will be approaching nine in August 2015; therefore, the application period has been established as follows:

BCTES Grant Application Period for Eligible Children
Birth Year	Firstday of eligibility	First day to apply	Last day to apply
2007	child’s 6th birthday in 2013	August 15, 2015	August 14, 2018
2008	child’s 6th birthday in 2014	August 15, 2015	August 14, 2018
2009	child’s 6th birthday in 2015	August 15, 2015 or the day the child turns 6 (whichever is later)	August 14, 2018 or the day before the child turns 9 in 2018 (whichever is later)
2010 or later	Day the child turns 6		Day before the child turns 9