The 2019 Federal Budget is scheduled for March 19, 2019. The contents of the budget are always a secret until the moment the Minister of Finance begins to deliver his budget speech. Often, the government introduces legislation to close loopholes, or override a court decision that it disagrees with. There are often a few surprises too. However, due to the budget secrecy, trying to precisely predict the budget’s tax measures is a fool’s errand. That said, there are some preferential tax changes that have been promised by the current government, but have yet to be enacted—these include:
- remove all GST on new capital investments in affordable rental housing (2015 election platform);
- modernize the Home Buyers’ Plan to allow withdrawals in the case of a job relocation, the death of a spouse, marital breakdown, or a decision to accommodate an elderly family member (2015 election platform);
- accelerated CCA for electric vehicle charging stations (Budget 2016);
- a tax-free benefit to support families of fallen community heroes (Budget 2017);
- extending the mineral exploration tax credit (2018 Fall Economic Statement);
- giving non-profit journalism organizations qualified done status (2018 Fall Economic Statement);
- a refundable tax credit for labour costs of news organizations (2018 Fall Economic Statement);
- a temporary non-refundable tax credit for the cost of digital news subscriptions (2018 Fall Economic Statement); and
- retroactively ensure that the business income of communal organizations retains its character when flowed out to members of the organization (2018 Fall Economic Statement).
