About

Canadian Money Help is a personal finance reference site for Canadians. It publishes calculators and plain-language explainers built directly on the rules as written by the Canada Revenue Agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Service Canada, Revenu Québec, and provincial finance ministries.

The site exists because the authoritative Canadian sources are fragmented across dozens of government pages, and most consumer sites that aggregate them dilute the math with affiliate promotions, product tables, or advice that does not apply to the reader’s actual province. Canadian Money Help keeps the math clean and keeps the citations visible.

Who this is for

The core reader is a Canadian adult, usually between 30 and 65, who needs a specific number for a specific situation. Typical questions:

• “How much Canada Child Benefit will we get with two kids and $74,000 family income?”
• “What is the Ontario land transfer tax on a $680,000 purchase in Mississauga?”
• “What does OAS clawback look like once pension income crosses the threshold?”
• “RRSP or TFSA for this year’s contribution, given my tax bracket now and expected bracket in retirement?”

The site is also written for newcomers filing their first Canadian tax return, near-retirees reconciling CPP and OAS timing, and any Canadian who has been told a specific number by a bank, realtor, or insurer and wants to check it against the official rule.

What this is not

Canadian Money Help is not an investment advice site, a financial planner’s marketing page, or a comparison engine for credit cards and bank accounts. No portfolios to buy, no courses to enrol in, no referrals to a paid tax service. Where a professional is actually required (a complex estate, a non-resident filing, a business reorganization, a disputed CRA assessment), the page says so and directs the reader to a CPA, tax lawyer, CFP, or licensed mortgage broker. It is a publisher, not an advisor.

The site is also not a content farm. Calculators are built one at a time and reviewed against the underlying source before publication. The library grows slowly and deliberately.

Who runs it

Canadian Money Help is edited by Ben Stevenson and published by Kernel Media, an independent Canadian digital publisher based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kernel Media owns and operates a small portfolio of Canadian reference properties. It is not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with any bank, lender, insurer, or financial services company.

The editor holds no CPA, CFP, CFA, or licensed-advisor credential. The editorial qualification is reading primary sources (CRA bulletins, CMHC underwriting rules, Finance Canada technical notes, provincial finance acts) and translating them into calculators and prose that match the source. For any question requiring professional judgment, the relevant calculator or guide names the right professional category and stops there.

Methodology

Every calculator on the site follows the same build pattern:

1. Rule lookup. The math is copied from the primary source (CRA T4040, CRA Benefit Year Summary, CMHC Underwriting Rules, provincial finance act, or equivalent) and the source is linked on the calculator page.
2. Bracket and threshold transcription. Tax brackets, contribution ceilings, phase-out thresholds, and premium rates are transcribed from the current published year. The reference year is shown on the page.
3. Implementation. The math runs entirely in the reader’s browser as JavaScript. No input leaves the device. No server-side call is made when a calculator is used.
4. Verification. Each calculator’s output is spot-checked against a worked example from the source (CRA sample calculations, CMHC scenarios, provincial budget technical papers) before publication.
5. Reviewer note. Each page carries a “last verified” date and a named reviewer.

Update cadence

Tax tables, benefit amounts, contribution ceilings, and CMHC rate schedules change. The site is reviewed monthly against the most recent CRA, CMHC, and provincial bulletins. Larger update passes happen after the federal budget (typically March or April), after the CRA publishes Benefit Year numbers (typically July), and in late November when the next year’s contribution room figures are announced.

Each calculator shows its last-verified date. If the date is older than 90 days at the time the reader loads the page, that is the signal to double-check the number against the primary source before acting on it.

Editorial principles

1. Cite the source. Every numeric claim links back to the CRA, CMHC, Service Canada, or provincial page it was taken from. Sources are shown on the calculator page, not hidden in a separate references section.
2. No affiliates inside calculators. Calculator output is never interrupted by ads, product cards, or lead-capture forms. The tool is the product.
3. Plain Canadian English. Pages use Canadian spelling and everyday language. Acronyms are defined on first use. Jargon that does not change the math is cut.
4. No speculative advice. Pages describe how a rule works and what the number looks like for a given input. They do not tell the reader what to do with that number.
5. Named reviewer. Each calculator names the person who verified it. Errors are the editor’s responsibility, not a committee’s.

Source stack

The calculators on this site draw from:

• Canada Revenue Agency (income tax, CPP, EI, RRSP, TFSA, FHSA, HBP, CCB, OAS, RRIF, capital gains)
• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (premium schedule, stress-test rule, insurable limits)
• Service Canada (CPP retirement benefit, OAS eligibility, EI benefit parameters)
• Revenu Québec (Quebec income tax, QPP, QST, welcome tax)
• Provincial finance ministries (provincial income tax brackets, sales tax, land transfer tax)
• Department of Finance Canada (budget technical papers, draft legislation)
• Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (mortgage qualifying-rate guidance)

When a source changes, the change propagates through the site from the root table down, so provincial variants and anchor calculators stay consistent.

How the site pays for itself

Calculators never contain ads, affiliate links, or lead-capture forms. Any monetization lives on non-calculator pages (guide articles, reference posts) and is clearly disclosed where it appears. The site runs at a deliberately near-zero revenue level for its first twelve months so that the calculator work establishes its own credibility before any commercial relationship enters the picture.

Contact and corrections

For corrections to a specific calculator, email the contact address with the calculator slug (the part of the URL after /tools/) and what the expected number should be. Accuracy corrections are the highest-priority work on this site and are typically handled the same day they arrive.

For press, partnership, or general feedback: see the contact page.

See also: Privacy and Disclaimer.