Home for the Holidays ~ Practical Applications

Home sweet home.

There's no place like home.

Home is where the heart is.

Home is where you go when you have nowhere else to go.

Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. ~ Robert Frost

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. ~ Mother Teresa

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. ~ Maya Angelou

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Very wise words, indeed.

Because no matter how you choose to slice it (or quote it), no matter who we are, no matter what our gifts or challenges may be, to truly function to our full potential in the world, we all need a home.  Not just a house, but a home.  A place that's ours and ours alone (or ours to share with loved ones), a place that gives us that sense of peace, belonging and security.

As the parent (or other family member) of a person with a disability, it might well be something you often think about.  What will happen to our loved one when we are no longer able to provide them with a home (or if, for some unforeseen reason, they should lose the home they now have)?  Where will they make their home?  Will it truly feel like a home or will it just be some place to lay their head?

And so it was that a nice article by PLAN entitled "Home Ownership and Taxes" landed in my inbox this evening. The different types of home ownership (direct ownership versus principal residence trusts) are discussed and compared from both a legal and a practical point of view, as are the tax implications involved in a trust situation.

And I'm pleased to note that although PLAN is BC-based, 95% of the article appears applicable to Nova Scotia, thanks to income tax being a federal issue. 

The only caveat I would note would be under the heading "Property Transfer Tax" near the end of the article as the issue of how much (or whether or not you will even pay) what we in Nova Scotia call a deed transfer tax varies not just by the Province but, in our case, by the municipality in which you reside.

And, on a little less legal, but no less necessary note, I leave you with the story of Greg and his family's fight to find him a true home (again courtesy of PLAN).  To remind us all to never, ever give up.