Ontario government gives LSIFs one more year

In its 2007 Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review, the Ontario government announced that it will extend the LSIF tax credit one more year to 2011. The current 15% credit will now continue until 2009 before the credit is reduced 5% each year, vanishing entirely for the 2012 tax year.

The government is also boosting to $7,500 the amount that you can invest in an LSIF and qualify for the tax credit, up from the current $5,000. It says this "will provide an estimated $38 million in additional financial support to the industry over three years."

That may be an optimistic figure, but it's a bit of a reprieve for the LSIF industry. They must see that as a good sign since hardly anyone took up their cause during the election, and Roger Martin's Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity in its recent annual report [PDF] implored the government not to back down on the phase-out of the tax credit (and even to speed it up).