Q: Hi 5i
I am a 78 year old senior.
I have a significant portion of my investment wealth in my Non Registered account.
In my TFSA I have picked up several high yielding ETF's from Purpose Investments and other companies.
Each month I transfer out the TFSA Etf monthly distributions to support my income needs.
The following year I transfer into my TFSA the current year contribution plus my prior year income distributions that were withdrawn.
I fund this annual contribution with funds from my Non Registered account managing the capital gains/losses in this process.
I have had significant capital gains in these TFSA Etfs in addition to the significantly higher yields being paid.
I am very careful to ensure that I stay within the requirements around timing of taking out funds from a TFSA and recontributing.
Having followed this plan for a few years now, I am almost meeting my annual income needs with non taxable income from my TFSA and maintaining my original capital invested plus capital gains within my TFSA.
My goal was and continues to be reducing my income for tax purposes and managing to not having my OAS clawed back.
What do you think of this strategy and is there anything you see that I could be overlooking.
Thank you for your feedback.
I am a 78 year old senior.
I have a significant portion of my investment wealth in my Non Registered account.
In my TFSA I have picked up several high yielding ETF's from Purpose Investments and other companies.
Each month I transfer out the TFSA Etf monthly distributions to support my income needs.
The following year I transfer into my TFSA the current year contribution plus my prior year income distributions that were withdrawn.
I fund this annual contribution with funds from my Non Registered account managing the capital gains/losses in this process.
I have had significant capital gains in these TFSA Etfs in addition to the significantly higher yields being paid.
I am very careful to ensure that I stay within the requirements around timing of taking out funds from a TFSA and recontributing.
Having followed this plan for a few years now, I am almost meeting my annual income needs with non taxable income from my TFSA and maintaining my original capital invested plus capital gains within my TFSA.
My goal was and continues to be reducing my income for tax purposes and managing to not having my OAS clawed back.
What do you think of this strategy and is there anything you see that I could be overlooking.
Thank you for your feedback.
5i Research Answer:
It is hard to be specific without knowing all details, but as a general rule we think this plan really works. This should minimize turnover and annual taxation in cash accounts. It can keep investors in lower tax brackets and prevent clawback of OAS. If annual expenses are much lower than income generated, we might also look at total return funds (no distributions) for the cash account as well, which could potentially reduce annual taxes even more (deferral, and moving dividends to capital taxes).