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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, September 14,1994 11 Welfare Stats still Droppinçi fBusiness & Financi The number of people relying on social assistance has declined for the fifth month running. Community and Social Services Minister Tony Silipo announced the social assistance statistics statistics today for the month of August. "This continuing decrease is a reflection reflection of our government's achieve- New Location for Johnathan's Country Patch Johnathan's Country Patch celebrated the opening of its new location location on King Street in Bowmanville this past week. A friendly scarecrow scarecrow was on hand, handing out apples and waving to passers-by to mark the big opening. / Çrancf Opening ! Sep 10th @ 10:00am / off all Greenware UU /O dSy r00d0Pen ' na 1 r-n/ off all Greenware I •"% fr\ grand opening I Vz ZO week Sep 12 to 17 . Come have some coffee and cake with us and stock up on your greenware! Sign Up for Pay Seminars Oct 1 Spring Plate You will learn • Antiquing • Shading • Blending Register by Sep 17 . $45 „ Nov 5 Sgraffltolng You will leam • Sgraffito • Uncterglaze • Sponging Regbter by Oct 22 . $40 . Ceramics Dec3 Canadian Old World Santa You will team • Ant Register by Nov 19 . $45 „ 164 Base Une Rd. E Bowmanville 697-3073 , Mon, Wad, Fri, Sat:1Q-5:30Tue, Thur:10-9 j This promotion is not valid inconjuntion with other promotional merits," said Mr. Silipo. "Our plan is working and our province's economy is growing again." "jobsOntario Training has already succeeded in creating 50,000 jobs and putting 19,000 people on social assistance back to work," he said. "Our new program, jobLink Ontario - geared specifically to people on social social assistance - will build on that success." The Minister said the five-month decline means that since March 1994, there are almost 23,000 fewer households, households, or almost 37,000 fewer individuals, individuals, receiving assistance in Ontario. Ontario. The caseload decline represents a 3.3 per cent decrease since March. The number of people requiring social assistance in August declined by 2,133 households (0.3 per cent), when compared to the previous month (July, 1994). In total there were 670,083 households, representing representing 1,324,113 individuals including heads of households, spouses and children receiving assistance. This follows a 1.3 per cent decline in July and a 0.4 per cent decrease in June. The decline, which began in the month of April, represented the most significant month to month decrease in the social assistance caseload since July 1989. For General Welfare Assistance (GWA), there was a 0.7 per cent decrease decrease in August compared to July. This represents an estimated total of 2,500 households, or over 3,000 individuals. individuals. In total, there were 344,000 households, or 607,000 individuals, receiving GWA. The Ministry of Community and Social Services recently announced its social assistance case file investigations. investigations. These are designed to quickly quickly and accurately identify people's changing circumstances - to reduce over-payment and help ensure the province's social assistance dollars go to those people who are most in need.-Mr. Silipo said the decline, since March, in the number of people on social assistance could be in part a result of this new practice, in addition to initiatives such . as jobOntario Training. CSB Sales Remain Strong Because of Payroll Deductions Sales of Canada Savings Bonds on the Payroll Savings Plan remained strong in the Oshawa area during 1 1993. CSB representatives who are gearing gearing up for this year's campaign noted that in Oshawa alone, some $30.4 million worth of Canada Savings Bonds was sold last fall, of which $4.5 million was on the Payroll Savings Savings Plan. In Whitby, CSB Payroll Savings Plan sales totalled $1,144,300 on 687 applications; in Pickering, payroll sales reached $1,538,000 on 872 indi- ■ vidual purchases; in Ajax, $970,700 on 567 applications; and in Bowmanville, Bowmanville, $404,000 on 260 applications. In Uxbridge, $273,300 worth of CSBs were sold on 170 applications and in Port Perry, $218,600 on 111 applications. In all, some $1.7 billion worth of CSBs was purchased through payroll deductions by employees at 16.000 companies ana oigamzations across Canada. Many of these companies regard regard the Payroll Savings Plan as an "effective low-cost" employee benefits benefits as well as a secure savings vehicle. vehicle. This year, the payroll savings campaign in the Oshawa area will be headed by Leo Kozel, who will be calling on companies and organizations organizations over the next few weeks. Kozel, who is entering his first year as a CSB Payroll Savings Plan representative, said mimy employees regard the CSB Payroll Savings Plan as a "very important" benefit. Anyone Anyone who is interested, he added, can find out more by calling 416-593- 2104. As in past years, Ontario led the country in terms of cash and payroll sales. Total CSB sales in the province province in 1993 reached more than $2.3 billion, of which $594.5 million was on the Payroll Savings Plan. Del's Mortgage Watch Today's Best Rate for First Mortgages. MORTGAGE RATES BEST RATES AS OF: SEPTEMBER 13, 1994 5 Year 9.750% 7 Year 10.240% 10 Year 10.450% 25 Year 11.100% 6 Months 7.250% 1 Year 8.200% 2 Year 9.250% 3 Year 9.375% 4 Year 9.625% WE ALSO ARRANGE: • Second Mortgages • Credit Lines • Personal Loans It Rays to Compare - Call 697-3300 jjT ^ FINANCIAL LTD. i Division Street MORTGAGES Bowmanville by Brian Costello STUDENT DEDUCTIONS The students are school bound. Tuition, books and living expenses are higher even though the interest, rates earned on our savings are lower. As a result, it will be even more difficult to afford the high cost of schooling. There are, though, some ways to ease the burden, thanks to tax deductions. It's imperative, though, that we talk to our students right away so they can give us the information necessary to ease the education cost any way we can. If a student returned home to a summer job he or she is allowed to claim the transportation costs as a moving expense. Effectively, they came home to work, not vacation. As a result, they can claim transportation costs including air, plane, train or car expenses plus food and lodging along the way. If they incurred expenses to break a lease or utility contracts they may also qualify to use these expenses as tax deductions. When post secondary students return to school they generally are not allowed moving expenses. However, if the student wins a bursary or scholarship they get some extra breaks. The first $500 of bursaries or scholarships is tax free. They should subtract it from the total received before declaring it on their tax return. Therafter, moving expenses are deductible against this type of income. It's important that parents, and especially spouses, use every tax deduction they can as the student may then be returned as a tax deduction. In addition, some tuition and the fulltime student deduction can be transferred to a parent or spouse. As a result, there can be substantial tax relief when it comes to paying education costs. With today's economic environment dictating that many mature students attend school to assist in retraining, spouses can get even more tax relief. Normally when it comes to claiming child care expenses it's the lower income spouse who has to claim the costs. However, when the lower income spouse attends post secondary school the higher income spouse gets to claim these expenses. As a result, it's often advisable for a spouse to attend school when they are out of work. The cost of education can be effectively wiped out by the child care deductions. If you borrow money for education purposes the interest generally is not tax deductible. However, there is at least one tax case where an individual received a student loan that wasn't really necessary as he was being supported by his parents. He invested the loan and made money. The interest cost was considered a tax deductible investment cost. However, there are few chances of this strategy passing today. As a result, we can pretty well count on paying the full cost of tuition out of our pockets unless we use constructive tax strategies. A lot of .parents have been very successful using investment strategies to get money to the children so they can pay their own education costs. Age isn't necessarily important. . Some parents with businesses employ their sons and daughters. The salaries are tax deductible to the business but virtually tax free to the student as they get their normal tax deductions plus tuition, moving expenses and the fulltime student exemption. Others use trusts already set up to provide income for the students who then pay their own tuition. The rationale in these last examples is to get the income taxable in the child's name rather than the parent earning it, paying tax on it, and paying the expenses out of after tax income. Many parents have found the value of the systematic withdrawal plan. If your student is over age 18 watch what can happen. If you give your student $30,000 or so, neither of you has a tax liability. If the student invests the money in a good quality mutual fund that pays back the investor's principal before the yield, the income will effectively be tax free as it's really only the return of their original investment. Eventually there will be taxable income but that's after the education is paid for. In fact, many parents and spouses get to transfer the fulltime student deduction and some of the tuition to their tax return even though the student has a good income. In fact, parents who have used this strategy in the past have paid for their childrens' educations, received tax deductions and now „ have more money than they started with.