Sweet Money

Today I logged into my bank account online before going out to pick up a few things. I noticed I had a deposit of $52 in my account from "Canada Pro". So I am thinking...ok the next GST is not until October and the next HST is not until December...so what is this??? It always freaks me out when I get unexpected money from a company because I think what if they realize its a mistake and they take it back?!

So I googled it. Like I always do when I want to know the answer to something, I google. And I figured it out. It is a new thing called the Ontario Sales Tax Credit. There was a small blurb about trying to give us some relief on all the sales tax we pay. Ok whatever. It's for single people that made under $20,000 last yr and for couples under $25,000. I actually made more but with my RSP contributions it put my taxable income under $20,000 so I guess thats why. So the schedule for this payment is August 2010, November 2010, February 2011 and May 2011. So it will go like this:

• Oct 2010 - GST
• Nov 2010 - Sales tax credit
• Dec 2010 - HST
• Jan 2011 - GST
• Feb 2011 - Sales tax credit
• Apr 2011- GST
  
• May 2011 - Sales tax credit
• Jun 2011 - HST
• July 2011- GST
• Oct 2011- GST
  

This is as far as I know because I don't know if the sales tax credit is only for those 4 payments or if it keeps going after that. This is definitely a nice little surprise I must say. It seems like we are being taxed to death in Ontario but I do appreciate these little things.