Canadian bank earnings forecast bright but housing, NAFTA cloud outlook + MORE Feb 20th

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Aaron Wudrick is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
Are you paying all the tax you’re legally required to pay—and if not, is that okay?
That’s the question at the heart of the controversy over offshore tax havens, whereby mostly wealthy individuals structure their financial affairs to minimize their tax burdens. It’s a different question than issues around tax evasion—a black-and-white issue where the laws prohibiting it should be properly enforced, meaning the authorities should pursue violators and prosecute them as appropriate. By contrast, tax avoidance—where people use legal means to reduce the amount of tax they have to pay—is a much trickier subject. It primarily raises a moral question: is it wrong for people to try to legally minimize their tax burdens?
Large data leaks known as the Panama Papers in 2016 and Paradise Papers in 2017 have shed light on just how widespread the phenomenon of this aggressive tax planning is…

TORONTO _ The forecast for Canada’s biggest banks is bright thanks to U.S. tax reform and higher interest rates, but as they report first-quarter results this week, domestic mortgage demand and the North American Free Trade Agreement could cloud the long-term outlook, analysts say.
Earnings estimates for the 2018 fiscal year are being revised upwards by some analysts to account for the impending bump from recent interest rate hikes and a U.S. corporate tax cut from 35 per cent to 21 per cent that took effect on Jan. 1.
CIBC World Markets analyst Robert Sedran lifted the assumed average growth rate for the sector in fiscal 2018 from seven per cent to nine per cent, “turning what was already expected to be a good year into a better one.”
However, analysts say the impact of stricter rules surrounding uninsured mortgages as of Jan. 1 and tumultuous NAFTA negotiations will weigh on the Big Five banks.
“We believe short-term gains could fade shortly after earnings season as ‘the usual’ sector overhangs weigh on H1/18 performance, namely the housing market and NAFTA,” National Bank of Canada Financial Markets analyst Gabriel Dechaine told clients in a research note…

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The forecast for Canada’s biggest banks is bright thanks to U.S. tax reform and higher interest rates, but as they report first-quarter results this week, domestic mortgage demand and the North American Free Trade Agreement could cloud the long-term outlook, analysts say.

The most difficult thing about saving money is getting started and finding small ways to save here and there. No matter where you are with your personal finance, anyone can turn the tables by taking the first step in the right direction.
Here are 7 practical personal finance tips you can follow to boost your money savings and secure your financial freedom:

Create an Emergency Fund to Cover Unexpected Expenses

One of the most important steps of personal finance planning involves taking care of unexpected risks. Apart from creating provisions for health and life, you also need to build a corpus to meet unforeseen financial expenses. Unless you have an emergency fund in place, you may have to pledge your gold or break your existing investments. Doing this will not only jeopardize your long-term personal finance goals but also keep you from leveraging the power of compounding interest. So, make sure you set aside at least six months of your household expense as an emergency fund in liquid assets…