The federal government of Canada changed the rules to make bankruptcy more expensive for many Canadians in 2009. The government has adopted an income test to determine how much a person must pay while bankrupt, and to determine how long a personal bankruptcy in Canada will last.

Under the old rules, each bankrupt was required to prove their income to their trustee each month, generally by submitting copies of their pay stubs. If their income exceeded a set amount, the bankrupt was required to pay a penalty of half of the amount they were over the limit.

Those rules still exist, but with an added twist. If on average the bankrupt’s income is more than $200 over the limit each month, the bankruptcy period is extended by an extra year, and the bankrupt is required to make surplus income payments for an additional year.

in 2009 a single person with no dependents and no unusual expenses is permitted to earn $1,870 per month, after taxes. If they earn $2,470 per month, they are $600 over the limit, so they are required to pay a surplus income penalty of $300 per month. Even worse, because their surplus income is over $200 per month, their bankruptcy will last for 21 months, as compared to a bankruptcy with no surplus income that can end in 9 months. They are required to pay the $300 penalty for 21 months, so obviously the cost of the bankruptcy is double what it was under the old rules.

The above example applies in the case of a first bankruptcy. In a second bankruptcy the bankruptcy period is automatically extended to 36 months.

It is critical that a knowledgeable bankruptcy trustee is consulted before bankruptcy is filed, to do a detailed estimate of potential surplus income. Here’s why:

A quick review may indicate that the bankrupt is expected to earn $1,000 every two weeks, or $2,000 in a typical month. Since $2,000 is only $130 above the limit of $1,870, it would appear that this person can expect to be discharged from bankruptcy in nine months. However, that may not be the case.

Twice each year a person who is paid bi-weekly will receive three pays. In those months their income is $3,000, or $1,130 over the limit. If they have two of those three-pay months during the bankruptcy, their average surplus income will be higher than $200 per month, and their bankruptcy will be extended for an extra twelve months. Obviously expert advice is required to accurately estimate the payments required in a bankruptcy in Canada, and that advice should be obtained before you decide to go bankrupt.

Mortgages are given on behalf of people by a bank when they want to buy a house. It is usually as a result of the fact that they do not have the ability to pay for the house themselves.

So the bank will front the money for the house and then the person on whose behalf they have done this will have to pay the bank back. Until they have done this with the full amount of interest as well, the house will actually belong to the bank and this is the way that it works all over the world.

So if you think about the Canadian market at present, you might be interested or surprised to hear that there are now five million people in the country that have mortgages out on their homes. This is as a result of the economic situation and it means that not all of these people were new home buyers, some of them have been forced to use a mortgage as a way of helping them survive as they did not have any other way of doing it. Right now you are also likely to find that interest rates are quite high and there are probably quite a lot of people who are questioning whether or not they have done the right thing in taking on more debt.

Deciding to take out a mortgage should not be a matter of a quick judgment. You should really make sure that you give yourself ample time to take a whole lot of factors into account. This does not mean that you are only going to look at the amount of money that you have borrowed. You also need to decide what amount of time you will take to pay it back and of course there is also the interest rate to take into consideration. The length of payback time and amount of money that you borrow are going to have a direct impact on the interest rate that you are likely to receive.

Given that the current state of the economy is not so good, there are many money lenders that have gone bust. In addition to this, the requirements for getting credit are now a lot stricter. All of this is good but could really slow down the way in which the market grows. This is something that now the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation is there to stop. It provides insurance for those people that want to buy a residence using a mortgage. They don’t do it for a business though.

The Corporation does more than this though and is also a great source of accurate information on the housing market in Canada. They will also help to finance projects that are focused on the renovation of properties and promote the development of housing.

One could say that homeowners in Canada have a lot of things to be thankful for and this is true if you think about the fact that their mortgages are guaranteed. It is a great comfort in a time where there are many people that are just unable to get their act together financially. It is important to protect homeowners in this volatile market and this is what is happening in this country. If you want to get a Canadian mortgage then this is probably one of the best times to do it.