Garry Marr / Financial Post

The two men who might be considered the fathers of tax-free savings accounts in Canada, now worth more than $132 billion, appear to be in disagreement over what happens next to their brainchild.

Rhys Kesselman / iPolitics

The federal government has delivered on the first of its two major tax promises from the 2011 election campaign. Income-splitting has been extensively assessed and widely criticized for its revenue cost, its tilt toward higher-income families, and its failure to accomplish anything beneficial for the economy.

Sheena Goodyear / QMI Agency

If the Tories go ahead with plans to double the contribution limit on tax-free savings accounts, it will cost the government billions of dollars and benefit only the very wealthy, two separate studies released Tuesday say.

OTTAWA—The existing Tax-Free Savings Account scheme is projected to cost the federal government up to $15.5 billion annually when it matures, and doubling the contribution limits would shift additional billions from tax revenues into the pockets of the already well-off, a new Broadbent Institute study has found.

Bill Curry / Globe and Mail

A plan to double the amount people can put in a tax-free savings account is facing new criticism that – like income splitting – it would benefit mainly the most well-off Canadians.

James Fitz-Morris / CBC News

A new study into tax-free savings accounts says there is no justification "on either economic or equity grounds" for doubling the contribution limit without conditions.

Lee-Anne Goodman / The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Two studies on tax-free savings accounts sound alarm bells about their long-term fiscal impact if the Conservative government keeps a 2011 campaign promise to allow people to park almost twice as much money in the popular savings vehicles.

Peter O'Neil / Vancouver Sun

OTTAWA — Prominent B.C. economist J. Rhys Kesselman is horrified by the Frankenstein’s monster that has evolved from a tax policy idea he advanced in 2001.

Kelly Grant / The Globe and Mail

At a moment when end-of-life issues are at the top of the political and legal agendas in Canada, a prominent voice for legalizing medically assisted suicide is about to lose its charitable status after a federal audit of its political activities.

Bill Scarth is a highly respected mainstream Canadian economist at McMaster University. In a piece just published by the C.D. Howe Institute, a generally conservative think-tank, he argues that the pace of federal deficit reduction should be slowed in order to lower unemployment.

His key point is that the economy still has a lot of slack which will not be quickly closed just by maintaining interest rates at their currently very low levels.