Latest news with #taxfreecash
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Canada's income gap widens, some of those who are struggling sort trash to survive
Grant Kilian likes to move fast between the tall blue recycling bins he sorts through, in Vancouver's West End alleys. Time, but more accurately, cans are money here. The faster you can fill a bag, the faster you can get paid at the return depot. A big garbage bag full of beer cans, some of which he says he crushes, at 10 cents a pop, could earn Kilian about $30 in tax-free cash. As he puts it, it's just a bit of extra money for food, bills or cigarettes when everything feels tight. "I don't do crime or steal, so it's just an honest way of making some extra money, and I'm pretty good at it. I can make $50-$60 in a couple of hours", he said. Kilian is a "binner." It's a word you won't find in most dictionaries, but it bluntly describes "a person who collects redeemable containers and other things from bins to sustain their livelihood and to divert waste from landfills," according to the definition at the Binners Project. The group, which advocates for binners in B.C., says there are more people than ever collecting things from trash cans for money in Vancouver, especially compared to past summers. Unsurprisingly, warmer months are the best times to find dozens of empty beer, soda and other drink containers in the city. Making $200-$300 a night in the summer is possible, says Kilian. Even a tenth of that, which is more of an average day's work, seems to be enough to entice many newcomers to binning, says Francis Taban, who works at the Binners Project and has been a binner himself for 12 years. "There's more than you can think of," he said. "It used to be a few guys who had maybe had a drug addiction or maybe [were] alcoholic. Now, it becomes more people losing jobs, less income, cost of living going up." The rising expenses of everyday life is a reality most Canadians feel all the time, but being a low-income earner is especially difficult right now, says Lars Osberg, a professor of economics at Dalhousie University in Halifax. People who earn less are more susceptible to job loss during economic downturns. They're more likely to experience wage stagnation or outright lose their jobs, says Osberg. "We have a rise in poverty and a rise in inequality," he said. Numbers from Statistics Canada back all that up, too. The gap between the haves and have-nots in Canada has officially never been wider. In the first quarter of 2025, the gap between Canada's highest and lowest income households reached a record high. The same report underscored how the lowest-income households, defined as the bottom 20 per cent of the income distribution range, had the weakest growth in their wages compared to a year earlier. Even in 2024, a report found one in three British Columbians didn't make a living wage, according to an analysis of Statistics Canada data by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Living Wage for Families B.C. Osberg says that situation could be turned around with targeted policies like better income supports. "We actually need a government that pays attention basically to the vast majority of people who aren't rich, who are struggling with the day-to-day cost of living." Binning is a low-barrier way to make some extra cash, and according to Taban, "afford a little bit of lifestyle." All a person needs is time and ideally something to carry cans or bottles in, which might be why so many people are taking it up, he says. It's gotten so popular in parts of Vancouver that getting to the cans and bottles first has become competitive. "It's like dogfighting. You're challenged by so many people," said Taban. He figures a person could make about $100 to $120 a week if they put enough hours into looking through bins. But he stresses it's not easy money. It's really hard work carrying around heavy bags of cans and bottles, often stinking of beer and wine. It's a tedious job, says Taban, watching Kilian lug a garbage bag with a dozen cans and some wine bottles. "He hasn't even made $10 yet."
CBC
10-08-2025
- Business
- CBC
As Canada's income gap widens, some of those who are struggling sort trash to survive
Grant Kilian likes to move fast between the tall blue recycling bins he sorts through, in Vancouver's West End alleys. Time, but more accurately, cans are money here. The faster you can fill a bag, the faster you can get paid at the return depot. A big garbage bag full of beer cans, some of which he says he crushes, at 10 cents a pop, could earn Kilian about $30 in tax-free cash. As he puts it, it's just a bit of extra money for food, bills or cigarettes when everything feels tight. "I don't do crime or steal, so it's just an honest way of making some extra money, and I'm pretty good at it. I can make $50-$60 in a couple of hours", he said. Kilian is a "binner." It's a word you won't find in most dictionaries, but it bluntly describes "a person who collects redeemable containers and other things from bins to sustain their livelihood and to divert waste from landfills," according to the definition at the Binners Project. The group, which advocates for binners in B.C., says there are more people than ever collecting things from trash cans for money in Vancouver, especially compared to past summers. Unsurprisingly, warmer months are the best times to find dozens of empty beer, soda and other drink containers in the city. Making $200-$300 a night in the summer is possible, says Kilian. Even a tenth of that, which is more of an average day's work, seems to be enough to entice many newcomers to binning, says Francis Taban, who works at the Binners Project and has been a binner himself for 12 years. "There's more than you can think of," he said. "It used to be a few guys who had maybe had a drug addiction or maybe [were] alcoholic. Now, it becomes more people losing jobs, less income, cost of living going up." The rising expenses of everyday life is a reality most Canadians feel all the time, but being a low-income earner is especially difficult right now, says Lars Osberg, a professor of economics at Dalhousie University in Halifax. People who earn less are more susceptible to job loss during economic downturns. They're more likely to experience wage stagnation or outright lose their jobs, says Osberg. "We have a rise in poverty and a rise in inequality," he said. Numbers from Statistics Canada back all that up, too. The gap between the haves and have-nots in Canada has officially never been wider. In the first quarter of 2025, the gap between Canada's highest and lowest income households reached a record high. The same report underscored how the lowest-income households, defined as the bottom 20 per cent of the income distribution range, had the weakest growth in their wages compared to a year earlier. Even in 2024, a report found one in three British Columbians didn't make a living wage, according to an analysis of Statistics Canada data by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Living Wage for Families B.C. Osberg says that situation could be turned around with targeted policies like better income supports. "We actually need a government that pays attention basically to the vast majority of people who aren't rich, who are struggling with the day-to-day cost of living." Binning is a low-barrier way to make some extra cash, and according to Taban, "afford a little bit of lifestyle." All a person needs is time and ideally something to carry cans or bottles in, which might be why so many people are taking it up, he says. It's gotten so popular in parts of Vancouver that getting to the cans and bottles first has become competitive. "It's like dogfighting. You're challenged by so many people," said Taban. He figures a person could make about $100 to $120 a week if they put enough hours into looking through bins. But he stresses it's not easy money. It's really hard work carrying around heavy bags of cans and bottles, often stinking of beer and wine. It's a tedious job, says Taban, watching Kilian lug a garbage bag with a dozen cans and some wine bottles. "He hasn't even made $10 yet."
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Are pension investment returns included in my tax-free lump sum?'
Write to Pensions Doctor with your pension problem: pensionsdoctor@ Columns are published weekly. Dear Charlene, Please can you help me understand how the tax-free element of a Sipp (self-invested personal pension) works? I have a Sipp from which I have already taken several withdrawals. My question relates to the basis of the 25pc tax-free cash part element. Using hypothetical figures, if I started with an uncrystallised amount of £300,000, I understand I can withdraw up to 25pc from that tax-free. If I then crystallised some of my pension and withdrew £10,000, that leaves a balance of £290,000. Being the beneficiary of a defined benefit pension, I didn't need to access any more of my Sipp funds again for a while, by which time the remaining £290,000 had grown to £330,000. My question is – if I take some more tax-free cash in future, is the 25pc tax-free benefit based on the £290,000 figure, or on the new, higher value of £330,000? Any clarification would be much appreciated. Regards, – Jonathan Dear Jonathan, Although tax-free cash is often thought of as a one-off event, you don't have to take it all at once. You can take it in stages or chunks, as you've chosen to. You're correct that most people can take up to 25pc of the value of their pension pots tax-free, subject to an overall lump sum allowance of £268,275. The money and investments in pensions like Sipps that have not been accessed are known as 'uncrystallised funds'. So the £300,000 uncrystallised Sipp value in your hypothetical example could give you a tax-free lump sum (25pc) of up to £75,000 in one go, assuming you still have plenty of the lump sum allowance left. If £75,000 was paid out, three times this amount, the remaining £225,000, would be moved into your chosen income option, such as drawdown. What is left in the pot is labelled as crystallised funds. Without any new contributions being paid into the pot, there would be no uncrystallised funds, and no further tax-free cash available from it. The same principle applies if we look at releasing smaller chunks of tax-free cash instead. When taking the tax-free lump sum of £10,000, you would crystallise a total of £40,000. The £10,000 tax-free lump sum is paid out and £30,000 is moved into crystallised funds. This can stay within the same Sipp, but the value is labelled and tracked separately. The remaining £260,000, out of the initial £290,000, is still uncrystallised. The uncrystallised funds are what you can take more tax-free cash from in future. You can take an income from the crystallised, drawdown funds as and when you need to, but no more tax-free lump sums will be available from them. The exact mechanics of this will depend on your pension provider, but investment growth (or loss) will usually be allocated in proportion across the uncrystallised and crystallised drawdown funds in your Sipp. The individual investments and cash may not be earmarked specifically to either part. If you took any taxable income, the value is deducted from your drawdown funds, and the split adjusted accordingly. The opposite would apply to any new contributions paid in – the value (and any tax relief) would boost the uncrystallised pot value. Assuming no new money has been paid in or income taken out, the hypothetical Sipp now valued at £330,000 would be approximately split as £34,000 drawdown and £296,000 uncrystallised funds. Up to 25pc of the £296,000 uncrystallised funds could be taken as a tax-free lump sum at that point, or £74,000. But as I mentioned earlier, you also need to have an eye on the lump sum allowance, and possibly the old lifetime allowance too. If you accessed a pension before April 6 2024, you would have used a percentage of the lifetime allowance at the time. This includes when your defined benefit scheme started. There's a standard calculation to work out how much of the new lump sum allowance you've got left. I've covered the calculations before, but the main point is that if you'd already used 100pc of your lifetime allowance, you'd have no remaining lump sum allowance left using the standard calculation. If you have protection from the old lifetime allowance, the starting allowances in the calculation will be higher. For any pensions accessed on or after April 6 2024, you should deduct the value of the tax-free lump sum you took from the remaining lump sum allowance each time. Although the new lump sum allowance makes things simpler for people accessing their pensions now for the first time, people who have already taken money out or have started to be paid a pension before April 6 2024 still need to have a copy of the old rulebook to hand. In my view, the best way to do this is to get regulated financial advice on your real personal circumstances before you make any further withdrawals. You'll have to pay for advice, but it could help you maximise your tax-free cash, put your mind at rest and help avoid any costly mistakes. Wishing you a long and happy retirement, – Charlene
