One strategy is to not have a refund but have your tax adjusted right away. If you have an office plan, that’s usually done for you. Otherwise, you simply need to fill out a government form and get your employer to sign it which shows you are doing regular contribution. That way, your tax refund is already take care of when it comes to RRSP. No need to plan for a refund.

That said, tax refund appears to be something many people look for … I would personally do what Kenny recommends which I have done in the past.

Cheers!

It’s a little late for this now, but for anyone who planned to reinvest the refund into their RRSPs, I recommend doing an RRSP gross-up at the end of Feb instead.

A gross-up basically gets the multi-year refund into your RRSP sooner. Normally you’d get a refund this year, invest it for a smaller refund next year, which generates a smaller refund the year after, etc. Instead you put all that money in before the tax deadline, and pay yourself back with the tax refund.

To figure out your grossed-up amount take your RRSP contributions and divide them by (1 – tax rate). So if you contributed $1000 and pay 40% tax your grossed-up amount is $1666. Which means if you add $666 to your RRSPs just before the deadline, then file your taxes, you’ll get back $666.

If you do it the ’slow’ way you’d get back $400, and then the year after get back $160, then $64, etc.

Another strategy is to save it within a TFSA! It’s a good way generate the most tax savings.

Thanks!