Canadians Now Paying Lower Income Taxes Than Americans, OECD Data Shows

[Frankfooter]

What we do look at are source deductions (which include CPP, EI, federal& provincial tax) health tax, HST, WSIB premiums, carbon tax, union remittances. Those are just off the top of my head, if I keep thinking i’ll Come up with more instances of government’s hand in our pocket. So when someone offers to cut the corporate tax by 1 %, it doesn’t add up to much because there isn’t a whole lot left to save tax on.

But you also need to include benefits like this.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-ag...y-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html

 

[JohnLarue]

And I'm sure when you're running your business, while you calculate lemonade sales you don't include benefits like, say, sales?

Sales are not benefits stupid

 

[JohnLarue]

But you also need to include benefits like this.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-ag...y-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html

No you do not
That is a separate issue all together.
Incremental benefits for Canadians relative to the US should be considered , however as a separate exercise
1. The relative value each Canadian receives from these benefits will vary & vary a lot
2. taxes are paid from the day you start to spend until after you die, the child benefit pays patents maybe 18 to 30 years for multi-child familes , zero if you don't have kids or if your kids are over 18 already.
a) The benefits received will vary significantly across Canadians . You would need to calculate a weighted across the the taxpaying population, o for those with no kids or grown kids and 1 each for kid for tax paying parents with kids
b) it is not a ongoing benefit , taxes are never ending. Parents will only receive these benefits for maybe 25% to 40% of their tax paying years, 0% for those taxpayers without kids or grown kids
3. Other non cash benefits from Government ie health Care, subsidies also vary depending upon usage.

There is no way you can accurately calculate average or marginal utility from these benefits, so adding them to precise tax burden calculations produces results which are not precise
Comparing imprecise tax burdens is a useless exercise and misleading

In addition any estimate of the value of the non cash benefits is just that an estimate and is subject to misinterpretation. in your case misinformation and exaggeration

Is there benefit? sure, that is obvious, however as pointed out already each of us must determine if we the value get for the incremental tax paid is justified

However the big reason is you will get it wrong.
Sadly we have witnessed your (lack of) math skills

 

[K Douglas]

Gotta disagree. Taxes are taxes and benefits are benefits. Whether we receive fair benefits for what we pay in taxes is a totally different discussion.

Canadians PAY much more in taxes. We also get more benefits. Both statements on their own are undeniable. Trying to weight them against each other is harder, if not impossible, to quantify.

At least someone on the left here has some common sense. Thank you for your input.
The two main benefits we as Canadians get over our American counterparts are paid maternity leave and universal healthcare. Although every year we are paying more an more healthcare out of pocket. I'm anywhere from $1500-$3500 per year.

 

[Orion1027]

Here’s an exercise in futility, as there will me those who dispute the number. Let’s compare Tax Freedom Day in the US and Canada.

In 2017, Americans will pay $3.5 trillion in federal taxes and $1.6 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total tax bill of $5.1 trillion, or 31 percent of national income. This year, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 23, 113 days into the year.Apr 18, 2017

Canadian family will celebrate Tax Freedom Day on June 9. ... The earliest provincial Tax Freedom Day falls on May 21 in Alberta, while the latest falls on June 25 in Newfoundland & Labrador. The Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day for Canada arrives on June 18.Jun 9, 2017

The Americans celebrate the day 57 days earlier than we do!! So how can anyone argue that we pay less tax than do Americans? Please don’t try to feed me the line of “benefits”. We have some of the most tedious and priggish politicians imaginable. They’ve yet to see a tax or revenue tool they didn’t like.