The conservatives have promised to increase the TFSA limit to $10,000 if they balance the budget next year. Who knows if they will keep their promise.
It's not the 1 and 2 year scenarios I'm worried about (or even this party vs. that), it's the 5, 10 and 20 year and future demographics. Think about the day when the first investors arrive at retirement with full TFSAs and empty RSPs that's zero tax revenue. I'd like to believe we'll get there but we do live in a pretty socialist country.
But is the government really making much tax revenue on RSPs?? They still grow tax free and you're only paying income tax on withdrawal.
Sure that taxable amount will grow between deposit and withdrawal time, but (in general), at no greater rate than the government could grow the value of the initial tax amount. Assuming they can make as wise an investment decision as you can.
There's also the consideration that
most people would pay taxes at a higher marginal tax rate during their working years than in retirement. So theoretically the gov't could be actually losing money in the long term on the RSP.
Or am I missing something obvious here?