Taxes are killing us.

[Bar Sinister]

Income tax is just the tip of the iceberg, when tax is mentioned a lot of people jump to thinking about income tax, forgetting the other 47 taxes we encounter daily, some disguised as fees, levis, surcharges, etc. etc. etc. The human race has got to smarten up taxes, fat and garbage is killing us. To the best of our ability we should be boycotting retail outlets and substituting flea markets, and yard sales. Just the other day I got another credit card in the mail, (which I have absolutely no intention of activating) I guess about a month ago I signed some paper to get 10% off some patio furniture I was buying...............and people are wondering about all the credit card fraud.......... no wonder with so many millions of them out there. When I was a kid stores were open about 44 hous a week, now they are closed about 44 hours a week. This "shop till you drop" mentality is killing us between trips to McDonalds and A & W. Not to mention all the extra pollution caused from driving to these places (for which we pay more tax)

I can't find any better comparison of tax rates than this than this, but I have no reason to doubt its accuracy.

Total Tax Wedge single worker (most recent) by country

Of course if you count payment for certain government services as taxes then the rates might go up. However, such services would still have to be paid for whether they were provided by government or the private sector.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I can't find any better comparison of tax rates than this than this, but I have no reason to doubt its accuracy.

Total Tax Wedge single worker (most recent) by country

Of course if you count payment for certain government services as taxes then the rates might go up. However, such services would still have to be paid for whether they were provided by government or the private sector.

About what I would have expected, Bar. I have seen studies which show that tax burden in USA and Canada is comparable. What surprised me is that Iceland is so low on the list. I would have expected to be up there along with the rest of Scandinavia.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

If you really want to depress yourself, go through a 1999 income tax form with your 2009 data and compare what you'd have paid then to what you pay now. The revenuers have significantly jacked up the effective rates with various little calculating tricks that superficially look neutral, like applying the tax brackets to deductions as well as income, while pretending to lower the actual rates. I've actually read a document from Revenue Canada (that's what it was called at the time) that talked about its "tax expenditures" and it took me a while to figure out what that was. It turned out to mean money it could have taxed away from you but didn't; Revenue Canada apparently viewed the income it lets you keep as an expense to itself. I've suspected ever since that the core attitude at what now calls itself the Canada Revenue Agency is that every penny you make belongs to it except what you can prove is yours, according to rules it gets to make up.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I've suspected ever since that the core attitude at what now calls itself the Canada Revenue Agency is that every penny you make belongs to it except what you can prove is yours, according to rules it gets to make up.

That indeed seems to be the prevailing attitude at CRA. I used to invest in tax shelters (I haven’t for a few years now, we have a Corporation, and that acts as officially recognized tax shelter). When it comes to auditing the tax shelters, CRA does seem to make up the rules as it goes along.

In one of the tax shelters, CRA gave it preapproval, said everything was OK. When it came to auditing it after three years, CRA reneged on preapproval and denied the whole thing, assessed the full amount of tax with interest. We are fighting the case in the courts now.

 

[Machjo]

Taxes need to be kept simple and clearly defined, on paper, otherwise taxpayers risk getting screwed. As for high or low taxes, that's another matter. But to have 1001 vaguely defined taxes with 1001 exceptions to each one is not the way to run a democracy. The basic rule ought to be that if the average 15-year old (because at 15 they can legally hold a part-time job already) cannot understand it, then it's too complicated... if we believe in democracy of course.

 

[Machjo]

Perhaps Canada could even adopt a kind of 15YO (15-years-old) law, whereby if it can be proven in court that this or that law is too complicated for the average 15-year-old to understand, then it becomes non-binding on the citizen who is charged with violating it. This would put pressure on the government to word its laws in a clear, precise, and concise manner.

 

[YukonJack]

Machjo, an even simpler tax would be CONSUMPTION TAX.

You pay tax on everything you buy, not on what you earn. Same percentage for everyone.

The more you consume, the more taxes you pay.

Democracy at work. CRA and all its attached freeloaders (lawyers, accountants, etc.) getting their long-awaited and long-overdue termination as tormentors of honest citizens and perhaps they could find a REAL job where they might actually produce something of value.

 

[JLM]

Machjo, an even simpler tax would be CONSUMPTION TAX.

You pay tax on everything you buy, not on what you earn. Same percentage for everyone.

The more you consume, the more taxes you pay.

Democracy at work. CRA and all its attached freeloaders (lawyers, accountants, etc.) getting their long-awaited and long-overdue termination as tormentors of honest citizens and perhaps they could find a REAL job where they might actually produce something of value.

Yep, Consumption is the most straight forward and easiest to collect and keeps some of the riff raff out ot it.

 

[YukonJack]

"Yep, Consumption is the most straight forward and easiest to collect and keeps some of the riff raff out ot it."

Of course, those who love their paycheck reduced by 30-40%, along with free-loading lawyers and accountants would be against it.

I can understand the lawyers and accountants. They would be out of a lucrative "job".