Omg the damn taxes!!!

[The Options Menu]

so we're number 10. My first paragraph remains true TYVM.......but that chart only shows income taxes, not ALL taxes. For eg: many US states don't have PST, and don't even some of them not have INCOME tax? I know they all have federal.....

yeah, these states don't have personal income tax:

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Additionally, New Hampshire and Tennessee limit their state income taxes to only dividends and interest income.

TBoy, on that chart we're 10 from the bottom on personal income taxes, and that's a sampling of 30. So that puts us at #20, in a select sample of 30.

And yes, individual states in the US may well have more favourable tax regimes than Ontario, but how many of those states are in financially good shape? How many of those states have a 'good' public education system? How many of those states are the primary payer for a single payer healthcare system? How many of those states have a population over 10 million (2)? How many of those places have to cope with snow removal (Neither of the 2 with populations over 10 million.)? Additionally, one of those states is the most heavily subsidized in the US (Alaska). The bolt on the 7K per insured person cost difference for health insurance...

Even cherry picking jurisdictions it's not really apples to apples. On balance Canadians actually get pretty good value per tax dollar...

 

[elassowipo1]

so im a relatively young guy. 25yo to be exact and ran into some luck at my work place and have started making more money. so on my new payrate i was excited to see how much i was making on a 2 week paycheck..then i look at the details and noticed the damn government taxed almost $1700 off my paycheck.

it was the first time i've seen anything like this and i though i'd share...like really wtf...$1700...r u fucking kidding me? i honestly never really knew that taxes were that bad. i guess most of the time it just goes un noticed until u really look into the details.

can anyone share their point of view about a variable tax bracket compared to the fixed one? like really. why cant they just go...say 35% across the board for everyone......

Soulsphere, I can really relate to your situation. I'm also 25yo myself and over the last few years I've seen my income increasing rapidly. Like yourself its been very disillusioning to see so much of my hard earned money being taken into the hands of the Government Mafioso.

 

[The Options Menu]

Soulsphere, I can really relate to your situation. I'm also 25yo myself and over the last few years I've seen my income increasing rapidly. Like yourself its been very disillusioning to see so much of my hard earned money being taken into the hands of the Government Mafioso.

You could always give back your education, immunizations, and hospitalizations. Nobody likes paying taxes but a huge swath of that goes into paying for you up to the point where you get to pay those fine high taxes, and much of the rest goes to paying for the end of your life where you you'll likely be a public burden again... (The rest pretty much goes into maintaining public infrastructure and social welfare programs.)

Beyond Fugi restructuring the tax code (Which is interesting, and one of the better flat tax things I've read, though I'd rather see it maintain some progressive elements), I'd love to know where more 'value for money' can be had WITHOUT simply shifting costs elsewhere. (Kicking people off welfare isn't free particularly if you own property, pay insurance, or can't figure out a way to radically reduce the cost of policing, the courts, and the legal system, etc.)

 

[elassowipo1]

You could always give back your education, immunizations, and hospitalizations. Nobody likes paying taxes but a huge swath of that goes into paying for you up to the point where you get to pay those fine high taxes, and much of the rest goes to paying for the end of your life where you you'll likely be a public burden again... (The rest pretty much goes into maintaining public infrastructure and social welfare programs.)

Beyond Fugi restructuring the tax code (Which is interesting, and one of the better flat tax things I've read, though I'd rather see it maintain some progressive elements), I'd love to know where more 'value for money' can be had WITHOUT simply shifting costs elsewhere. (Kicking people off welfare isn't free particularly if you own property, pay insurance, or can't figure out a way to radically reduce the cost of policing, the courts, and the legal system, etc.)

With all due respect, calling for a lower tax burden and greater economic freedom cannot be equated with calling for the complete abolition of government or a switch to anarcho-capitalism.

 

[Gyaos]

then i look at the details and noticed the damn government taxed almost $1700 off my paycheck.

Dude, now I know your salary with a few formulas. Don't worry, that salary won't last.

Gyaos Baltar.

 

[themexi]

how old were you when you moved to canada?

Born here, actually. Why?

 

[JohnLarue]

There's a difference between tax-deductible vs. sound investments. A "good" tax shelter works because it gives you lots of deductions at the outset of the investment and eventually becomes profitable. A shitty tax shelter gives you deductions, but there's no investment return. Many tax shelters are scams because the promoters sell the tax breaks, but gloss over the underlying investment attributes. There's often nothing there.

Do you know what a "flow through" company is? It's a limited partnership. It can be one company, or it can be pool of companies.

My only point is, it ain't all roses, and tax shelters have a lot of thorns.

One should never make an investment decision where the primary motivation is "for tax purposes"

If there are tax advantages associated with an investment decision that is an added bonus

However if an investment decision can not stand on its own merit without the tax break, move on & look at another investment idea

 

[kynorth]

If you're unhappy about the government you at least have 2 choices in Canada:

Vote for somebody other than who is in government today - likely no change in your taxes

Move - likely a change, but do you really know what you're getting yourself into compared to Canada?

I lived in the US for a few years, and can tell you that if you are lower middle class their health care costs could bankrupt you if you have a major illness. If you're healthy, it's a GREAT place to live from a taxation standpoint. If you or somebody in your family is sick - look out.

Of course I wish we paid less taxes - but overall I think we in Canada have it pretty good.

 

[wet_suit_one]

Hmmm.... Discussions about taxes. EXCELLENT!

First off, Fuji my man, the top tax bracket varies from province to province. It ranges from 39% in AB to 48.44% in Quebec and Nova Scotia (see here: http://www.taxtips.ca/marginaltaxrates.htm ).

Also most Canucks don't pay that much in taxes. See here for ACTUAL amounts paid: http://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/taxcomparison.htm . While the rate paid on your last dollar earned may be at a high rate once you're in the top bracket, all the dollars earned before that were earned at a lower rate. Most Canucks make 75K or less so most pay 23 - 28% in ACTUAL TAXES. A lot to be sure, but not 50% or anywhere close to that.

Of course this is income tax. Once you roll in property taxes, health care premiums, EI, CPP and consumption taxes (good thing SP's don't charge GST eh?) it's a whole lot more to be sure.

That said, make you max 18% contribution, make money in the stock market (capital gains you only pay tax on 50% of the gain and dividends are taxes more cheaply than income).

Don't be a wage slave (or aim not to be), make the money in business deal and dividends. That's where the real money is anyways.

As for hating taxes, well, there are plenty of places in the world where you can go and pay ZERO taxes. Most of them are the most loathesome shitholes (Aghanistan is one and it gets better from there) where you better bring a BIG FUCKING GUN and lots of men at arms, because they are deadly dangerous places with no rule of law (i.e. the people there will steal your money and kill you JUST LIKE THAT!), but most people never consciously believe they're paying for peace and security and all the wonderful things that brings like not having a huge firefight in the street outside your house and being blown to pieces by a bomb or shit like that..

Finally, as for government folks stealing all kinds of money, I agree that a certain amount of corruption and a fair amount of waste exist. That said this is one of the least corrupt countries on earth, and when the PM only has it in him to not pay taxes on $300,000 (at most about $110K) is this really the kind of graft you're worried about? I mean there are countries in Africa where the leaders have siphoned off BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Name me one politician in Canada who's stolen or been rumoured to have stolen even a paltry $10,000,000.00 TEN MILLION and I'll eat a a whole suit, shirt, tie and dress shoes and videotape for your vieiwing pleasure. $10,000,000.00 is real money, but in the grand scheme of the $$'s our governments are throwing around (Feds 250 billion+ every year, smaller provinces I'm not sure, but in the billions in every single case) $10,000,000 is almost nothing but a number that seems rather large to most people.

You can shop around for better taxing jurisdictions, but you probably won't have the life you have in Canada. Of course, that's not such a bad thing. Why not make peanuts in the Dominican Republic (or save up 100G's and move there for good) and live a nice relaxed life? It's better than the rat race and the cold that we have up here, plus with you're 100G's down there, you're waay better off than you are here. Live life lean down there and it would probably be pretty good. Of course, I'm not sure where they are in terms of law and order and all that, but it's not Mexico (so far as I know) with a raging drug war where the chief of police gets whacked in a major city on a regular basis.

The shit ain't bad in Canuckistan even with the taxes. Learn how to play the game right, you might even make a million or two (note we had one of the world's highest per capita number of billionaires in this country at one point, so it's not like you can't make it big here). Work hard and work smarter and you too can have the life we all envy and pay sweet fuck all (or very little) for taxes. As a man of the age of 25, I suggest the book 10 Secrets the CRA doesn't want you to know. There's a few gems in there that will save you big on taxes over a lifetime of work.

The sooner you learn, the more you save, so get reading there laddie!

 

[AJstar]

35% is too high for a flat tax rate. Maybe 20%?

If you took out all deductions, loopholes and enforced reporting (no under the table crap) it could be 15% across the board and would generate the same gross revenue. Imagine a single page tax return. A low flat tax would make cheating not worth the effort or risk. Then again this is Canada,why make anything easy?

 

[flubadub]

nicely put, wet suit one.

 

[markvee]

Why not just have a collection dish, like at church, so that everyone can voluntarily contribute what they want to government?

This way, both the contributors and the non-contributors would have a direct say in the size of government.

 

[themexi]

Why not just have a collection dish, like at church, so that everyone can voluntarily contribute what they want to government?
This way, both the contributors and the non-contributors would have a direct say in the size of government.

Why not have a list of the programs the money will be spent on clearly laid out on the tax forms & have the taxpayer assign portions of his taxes to them & have it honoured????

We're always told that government is in service to the people so le's treat it like a service instead of tyranny & let people vote with their wallets.

You would see for sure what the people wanted then.... Beloved programs like education & healthcare would get the bulk of the funding & hated ones like welfare would shrivel...

If I even had that small amount of choice I would pay every cent they demanded of me....




I think that the whole budget thing should be done differently....

Parties during the election should provide their budget & tax proposals for their term in office to the public for review BEFORE the election.....

It should then be a point on the ballot for voters... They can then have a choice to elect the party AND vote to make sticking to the budget a confidence issue....

That way the voters Know what they are really voting for & incoming government knows that if they do not perform as they have promised to, the voters have already Directly voted no confidence in advance....

Pretty much ensures that the voters know what they are voting for AND eliminates parties saying one thing to get elected & then doing another....

And don't give me that tired old crap about politicians having the best of intentions but circumstances beyond their knowledge conspired against them...... There is more than enough precedent for that type of crap in the past that any politician that promises something they haven't been able to CONFIRM they can do is either a Liar or too incompetent for the job....