Petition to the Government of Canada
  Whereas:
  
    The current income tax system for seniors gives couples numerous ways to lower taxes, while singles get none;
    Senior couples can split their pension income thereby allowing them to pay less tax and qualify for the Age Credit plus Old Age Security (OAS) with limited or no clawbacks;
    Senior singles have no such benefits, pay higher taxes, often forfeit the Age Credit, and endure OAS clawbacks;
    When one partner dies within a couple, his/her RRSP/RRIF and TFSA can be rolled into the RRSP/RRIF and TFSA of the remaining partner;
    A single person’s RRSP/RRIF is cashed upon death and declared as income, which results in higher taxes, often 50%;
    The cost of living for a single person is two-thirds of the cost of living for a couple;
     Single person households are growing faster than any other type of household in Canada, according to Statistics Canada; and
    Of the six million seniors in Canada, over one-third are single seniors, many of them women and this demographic will continue to grow.
  
  
    We, the undersigned, Single Seniors for Tax Fairness and single citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to offer tax benefits to senior singles equal to those now in place for senior couples, which would include:
    1. Offering single seniors a reduction of 30% on their income to be taxed (for example, if a single senior has a taxable income of $100,000, reduce the taxable amount by 30% to $70,000); and
    2. Upon death, allowing single seniors with an RRSP/RRIF and/or a TFSA account to transfer it to the RRSP/RRIF and/or TFSA account of a beneficiary of choice.