Which is why I figure any large scale implementation would adjust the marginal tax rates so that anyone making over some amount (60,000?) excluding UBI would just end up repaying their UBI as part of income tax.
If we are talking about taxing UBI payments on top of the regular tax, the effective marginal tax rate will be too high. The only reasonable way is to add UBI to the net income and tax the total net income at the usual progressive scale. The problem is: do we have enough room in our tax system to do it without making the marginal tax rate for middle class ($70K-$120K) go above 45%, upper middle class ($120K-$200K) to go over 55%, and have a limit at 60% marginal rate (total for federal and provincial taxes, including Ontario "co-tax")
That's the most reasonable way to do it assuming you are financing primarily out of income taxes.
If it is done this way (i.e., completely taxed out at moderate or high income and/or is income-dependent), then it is no different from current welfare and social assistance programs. IMHO, the attractiveness of UBI is low administration costs (however, it will lead to a new problem of many government employees losing their jobs). In addition, to be successful, it should not alter the employment decision much (like current welfare does with 50% effective marginal tax on each $1 earned above some low threshold).
Pretty sure people on Ontario Works and Disability are being asked to live on much less than that now. Think that is why so many of them work for cash under the table, sell drugs, steal, or commit any other of a myriad of crimes in order to survive?
There are a couple major benefits. One is that people on welfare aren't allowed to work for additional money so they often work under the table and outside of our economy. Second, it would massively simplify the bureaucracy and expenses incurred by all sorts of application and monitoring requirements. It would also eliminate the need for the Canada Pension plan and a whole host of other support services.
