Recently unveiled was Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 2025 federal budget. It comes with the plan to build Canada strong through spending less, investing more, and invigorating the economy for Canadians, by Canadians.
RELATED: New Laws And Policies Coming To Canada This November You Should Know About
We’ve broken down a few of the most relevant parts of the federal budget that will directly affect Canadians. From taxes to buying new homes, this is everything to keep an eye on as the country shifts into 2026.
A Stronger Financial System
Disproportionately affecting seniors, newcomers, and other vulnerable populations, fraud scams are becoming more and more sophisticated. It may be a ghost text, a mysterious link, or a phony bank email that attempts to trick the unknowing into handing over their hard-earned money.
“Chapter 4: Protecting Canada’s sovereignty and security” is particularly focused on defending Canadians. In section 4.3, the federal budget notes that the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reported that Canadians lost $643 million to fraud– a near 300% increase since 2020.
Budget 2025 plans to develop a “whole-of-government National Anti-Fraud Strategy”, working cross-sectoral to protect Canadians from evolving fraud schemes. Moreover, the Bank Act will be amended to require “banks to have policies and procedures to address consumer-targeted fraud”, among other relevant regulations.
Eliminating the Goods and Services Tax for First-Time Home Buyers
Buying a home is something that many Canadians want to do, but cannot. Considering that certain parts of Canada– B.C. especially– have devastatingly high costs of living, even the idea of purchasing a home is expensive.
Budget 2025 will be eliminating the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for first-time home buyers on new homes up to $1 million. GST will also be reduced for first-time homebuyers on new homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.
This is to bring down the costs of newly-built homes, so that the reality of owning a home becomes closer to being realized.
Federal Benefits
Since Canada’s tax system is based on self-reporting, some individuals may miss crucial federal benefits that they’re eligible for.
For lower-income individuals, Budget 2025 is introducing automatic federal benefits. The amendment to the Income Tax Act will allow “the CRA the discretionary authority to file a tax return for a taxation year on behalf of an individual.” As long as you meet all the criteria, then the CRA will take care of your taxes.
Before the tax return it filed, the CRA will contact individuals with all the tax information it has. Individuals will then have 90 days to review it before sending it off.
For more information on the 2025 federal budget, you can check here.
You might also like
