First Time Home Buyers Benefit from New Federal Budget

First time Calgary home buyers were not forgotten in the Canadian Federal budget this year, and in fact are benefiting in more ways than one from the changes that were made.

The new budget was announced on January 27, 2009, and gives first time buyers the ability to claim a 15% tax credit on an amount of up to $5,000 of starting and closing costs such as legal fees. This translates to about $750 of tax savings.

Additionally, the government made changes to the Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP), increasing the RRSP withdrawal limit by $5,000 to $25,000. The Home Buyer’s Plan allows first time home buyers to withdraw money from their RRSPs – tax free – to use as a down payment. The Calgary home buyer(s) must then repay the amount withdrawn over 15 years. To learn more about the Home Buyer’s Plan, you can visit the HBP information page on the Canada Revenue Agency website.

If you’d like to read some better breakdowns of the recently announced federal budget, you can check out the article on MSN Finance or on Million Dollar Journey (a great finance blog).