Client letter: What the 2016 budget means for you

Here’s text for a client letter covering some key points from this year’s federal budget. We hope you find it useful for sparking client conversations.

Dear [Client/Prospect name],

The new Liberal government delivered its first federal budget on March 22 in Ottawa.

While you’ve probably seen plenty of media coverage, I thought you would appreciate an overview of how some of the budget items relate to investments and taxes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent heavily in this budget, leading to a projected $29.4-billion shortfall this year. The good news? Part of that spending may benefit you:

OAS eligibility returns to age 65 – great news for folks born April 1, 1958 or later.
The Canada Child Benefit replaces the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the Universal Child Care Benefit. The CCB is tax-free, unlike before, and government says nine out of 10 families will receive more in child benefits than under the current system.

The bad news is, the government also took things away:

Switches between corporate-class funds will no longer be tax-free after September 2016. If you are planning to change funds, let’s talk about rebalancing prior to then.
The promised small business tax cut has been frozen at 10.5%. If you’re a business owner, let’s talk about other ways to save tax.
Special tax treatment for insurance policy transfers to corporations. If you own a business and were planning on doing such a transfer, we should revisit that strategy, as it’s no longer tax-advantaged.
The Children’s Fitness and Arts Tax Credits will be phased out by 2017.
There will no longer be education and textbook tax credits as of January 1, 2017, but the impact should be relatively minor.

I hope you find these highlights useful. If you’d like to discuss these and other federal budget initiatives and how they affect your financial plan, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

[Your signature]

[Your name]

(03/22/16)