I would like to hear from all my lovely CD friends:

Can we ask Canadian govt to make the settlement fund tax free. When we bring 10000CAD or more out of which we pay for GST and PST for everything purchased for basic settlement and food. Can we ask that amount to be refunded , so that we can save allmost 15% of our hard earned money of our savings made back home. I don't think govt needs to collect such huge amount after paying ROLF. Atleast for few months new immigrants can be given privelige of buying things tax free. I know it looks complicated but then people who come from third world and poor country cannot affort this for sure.

Views please

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mazza karo all the time.

Hi FF,

I can understand where you are coming from, but here, when you file your income tax returns, based on your income, you can also claim GST/HST credit. This credit can be claimed only by one member of the family whose income is lowest. The amt of credit depends on the number of people in the family (including children, in wch case, credit is more), and household income (from all sources in the world). One can claim this credit every year, but normally only during first couple of years, a family end up getting a substantial refund as the annual household income during that time is kind of low.

So normally for a new resident, the amt of refund for GHT/HST credit can compesate for the tax exemption that you are talking abt.

I hope this helps.

P.S.: GST/HST is sales tax

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