Pensioners paid taxes all their lives.
We could at least let them pay a reduced tax on their pension or none at all.
Pensions should not be taxable....that's like punishing people because they got old.

I agree 100% with andfreeze.CPP and old age pension definitly should be tax free.

Stop the monetary inflation that taxes savers, so that politicians can say we had GDP growth when the majority of the GDP is made up of manipulated paper financial markets... stop the smoke and mirror show and lets get back to an honest economy where savings mean something and pensions will be worth something when we all get old some day.... The last 30-years we as citizens have been sold out by our elite enabling political class and that more than anything has threatened the pensions of everyone that is not covered by government pensions which are indexed to the monetary inflation.

Anyone that doesn't think these record stimulus deficits are going to cause huge inflation, high interest rates, and a collapse of all pensions... simply has their heads in the sand box. Sure younger generations will pay a huge price for this kind of crimial activity, but so will our pensioners of today once they wake up from their slumber in a few years and find out their pensions are worth pennies on the dollar.

We all need one of those golden umbrella pensions!!

Our Savings and Pensions will be worth only a Fraction of today in Years to come. Keep your Wood stove and become a Gardner, pay off the Bank if you can.

Part of my pension income comes from the Public Service Pension Plan. At one time the only money in the plan was a 7% contribution by the pensioner and was matched by the government of the day. In 2001 the contributions remained the same but with one difference a Pension Investment Corporation was formed. that now invests those contributions on the stock market and it has done very well. Today the fund has about 18 billion in it for pension benefits.

So our Government knows how to fix the private sector pension plan. So why are they now asking for ideas. I guess it would be to simple to go that route instead we will kick it around until everyone loses interest and then put it back up on the shelf.

There is no reason why not every employee and employer in the private sector should not be contributing to a pension plan besides CPP. It doesn’t provide enough for shoe laces at the best of times. And the other big problem is that people aren’t programmed for pension contributions until in their forties and fifties when there isn’t much time left for pension contributions’s to amount to very much.
Cheers

We should all take notice that pensions for politicians are far better,and kick in much earlier, than anything that the average taxpayer will ever hope to recieve!
We should also pay attention to the fact that we did not give tnem this...they gave it to themselves,much like the fat raises they also award themselves with no say from the taxpayers.
So what could we have done about that?
Nothing...and they know it.
They are also getting much bolder about pampering themselves with our tax dollars.
There was a time when they would hide it,but now they don't give a damn what we think.
Why are those we elect worth so much more than the average working stiff?
The answer to thta is they are NOT!
That's what happens when we have a system designed by politicians that renders them untouchable.
Great work if you can get it.
The biggest cause of this is normally "apathy" at the ballot box!
The Campbell government is a glaring example of what happens when we are not paying attention to the details!

It's not rocket science folks. If you want a consistent stream of income available to you when you retire, you need to contribute a significant amount towards that stream while you are working, starting when you are very young (say 20 years old).

This is essentially what a pension is for those folks that have them. It's a MANDATORY obligation that takes at least 7% of your gross income every year and pools that money into a giant investment fund. When you reitre, you start to get it back. It's basically a giant annuity that serves hundreds and thousands of people. Of course, there is also an employer contribution as well. These pension contributions are in addition to the amount you would pay into CPP, RRSP's, etc.

If the government really wanted to solve this, instead of maxing CPP out at $2,200, they would max it out at $7,000 or $8,000 and also hit the employer with the matching contribution. That would essentially accomplish what happens with pension funds now.

That will never happen though, because it would be seen as a tax increase and generally speaking, people wouldn't like it. Therefore, we have the system we have now where people basicaly fall into 3 camps:

1) People with pensions who have their future forced for them (not a bad thing IMHO)
2) People without pensions who plan early and make sure they are putting enough away and that their finances are manageable
3) People who don't do either, "live for today" (quite often in a manner that they can't or shouldn't) and hit 50 or 60 with nothing in the bank and no clue what they are going to do

The solution is easy. More money needs to be invested while people are working. The difficult part is actually making the call to force it to happen.

As for pension income being exempt from taxes, I think that's a crazy idea. For starters, pension contributions are tax deductible so you never pay tax on those amounts to start with. Second, our population demographics are such that if pensions were exempted from taxes, in a decade or so we'll have HUGE HUGE issues when it comes to funding essential services. Let the exemptions apply as they currently are, to those folks that are under a certain income level. If you have a couple who is making $60 or $70K combined with their pensions, they can afford to contribute to the things they will utilize, just like everyone else is expected to.

(1) is the way to do it as NMG said. Once people get used to "forced savings" they won't miss the money. We also have to educate our youth in their teens not in their forties.

I love this pensioners should get a lower tax rate.....DUH they already do. I don't think too many people really look at their tax returns.

1. Basic tax credit. 2009 is $10,320. Meaning you won't pay any tax on this first amount of income.

2. Age Amount. Can be as much as an additional $6,408 that you don't pay tax on. (AGE amount? Maybe for seniors......?).

3. Pension Income Amount. Up to another $2,000 for those people getting a pension. Mmmmm could those people be seniors getting a pension.......no can't be!

4. Spousal Amount. There are probably a tonne of pensioners where the wife stayed at home. Nothing wrong with that. But the government looks out for those people too. You get another $10,320. Where you don't pay any tax.

So let's add this up let's say you get all of these tax credits and your spouse didn't have any income. So you could make $29,048 before paying a cent in income tax. And let's not forget that even if you say made $40,000 you still wouldn't pay much income tax because you don't get out of the lowest tax bracket until you hit $40,726. Yeah, those poor pensioners that maybe paid $1,000 of tax on $40K. That's a whopping 2.5% income tax rate!!!

Go into any hospital or clinic in this country and I guarantee you will see a high number of seniors using the health care system. So we shouldn't charge them a few dollars on their income tax return especially if they can afford it? Good luck running a balanced budget on this line of thinking. We live in one of the best countries in the world because we all pay into a tax system that works.

Is the system perfect, of course not. It will never be perfect get over it!!!!

As for pension planning for the future. Let's get everybody contributing to CPP. Yeah, it may not result in everyone living in a mansion at retirement, but it will be a whole lot better than what people without any forced plan are doing right now.

People in this country do live for today. Just look at all the nice new vehicles, ski-doos, 4 wheelers etc in this town. Ask any of them if they have a solid plan for retirement. I bet if you find 10% had a plan you would be doing good. They all think that they can contribute when they are 50 or in their next life.

Not everyone that works for the government is a politician. Many of us worked long hard hours for our wages and the pension plan that we have. They used to have many truck drivers , tradesmen, technicians , cooks and the list is long. Not so anymore. Most of this work has gone to the private sector that now gouge the tax payer a lot more then those “lazy government worker”
Cheers

Retire says " then those lazy government workers" you are speaking from absolute ignorance. I have worked private and government and saw no difference with lazyness in either except in private workers get hosed more.

I agree, pensions should become one of the few incomes that are tax free.