To follow last month’s urgent warning concerning the need to file a T3 Trust Return for any bare trust registrations, the CRA issued an update indicating they would not be enforcing those requirements for 2023 (except at their specific individual request).

To paraphrase the update, we’re quoting their post from last Friday (March 28th) titled New – Bare trusts are exempt from trust reporting requirements for 2023:

“In recognition that the new reporting requirements for bare trusts have had an unintended impact on Canadians, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will not require bare trusts to file a T3 Income Tax and Information Return (T3 return), including Schedule 15 (Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust), for the 2023 tax year, unless the CRA makes a direct request for these filings.”

Spring Mortgage Update

Courtesy of John-Andrew Newman, NewmanMortgages.com

Note: While Fiscal Agents is not in the mortgage business, we are more than happy to recommend (without any referral fee) Newman Mortgages, led by John-Andrew Newman. Re-posted here is his recent Spring update sent to his online audience.

In like a lion, out like a lamb. Sound Familiar? Rate increases came in like a lion throughout 2022-2023 and are now quietly coming down like a lamb.

The 5 year insured FIXED rate just hit 4.79% and the last time we saw a rate like this was over a year ago.

For those who don’t know, an Insured mortgage rate is the mortgage category for home buyers with less than 20% down and these rates also apply to most renewal mortgages. This is the lowest rate category in Canada but there are also more restrictions for insured rates versus conventional rates which is provided by the big banks and credit unions. Both have their own advantages.

For more information on how the different mortgage categories, see the following articles:

• CMHC: Choosing the right mortgage for you

• CMHC: Insured and Uninsured Residential Mortgage Data

• The Mortgage Group: Insured, insurable and uninsured mortgages…what’s the difference?

  
  

What’s behind rate door number two? The Variable! The Bank of Canada has left the Prime Rate @ 7.20% (AGAIN) so nothing to report on variables rates yet but look for variable rate cuts to start happening by the end of this year. How fast and how far will variable rates fall is yet to be determined and very hard to predict. My guess is not that fast at the start which makes choosing the right mortgage even more confusing. The old cliché of it’s not about rate, its about the right mortgage could never be more profound, especially when everything in life just costs more with little room for error.  

For more information on why mortgage rates change, see these articles:

• Bank of Canada: What’s behind your mortgage rate,

• Canadian Mortgage Trends: Fixed mortgage rates in Canada resume their decline amid economic volatility .

If you need some help on what type of mortgage or rate to choose, refer to the link below for an article that I was featured in at Money Sense.ca. Scroll down article and check out the table of personal scenario’s I cataloged from real live mortgage files. These scenarios are coupled to Fail-Safe mortgage product suggestions to help you make the better choice. Maybe I I will send a separate E Blast out right after this with just the article and the table for reference, it’s purely education. As usual, contact me if you need help going through your own scenario. At Newman Mortgages, initial reviews are a complimentary part of the process.

For more information on the different mortgage rate categories, see this article:

• MoneySense: Fixed or variable mortgage rate: Which should you choose in 2024? (Featuring yours truly)

  
  

Always here to answer questions or have a chat, feel free to reach out anytime.

Kindly.

John-Andrew Newman

Email) john@newmanmortgages.com

Direct) 905 630 2705