3 ms·
> Quick googling says income tax has doubled in 2017. reply This is not true, and was likely posted by a conservative hardliners. Canada uses an after-price s
by Pxtl 9y ago
> Quick googling says income tax has doubled in 2017.
reply
This is not true, and was likely posted by a conservative hardliners.
Canada uses an after-price sales tax like the USA, but in higher quantities - it will vary between 5% and 13% depending on province. Also, all provinces are currently implementing a carbon pricing system, so some provinces will have an additional sales tax on carbon intensive goods like gasoline. Unlike VAT, they're above the printed cost of the time, not included. These have been quite stable for a long time.
Also, Canada has income tax. Like the Americans, we run on a graduated income tax system, where you pay no tax at all on the first $11,000ish dollars you earn, and then in each tax bracket you pay increasing percentages on the money that falls within that bracket. There has been modest increases in the highest tax brackets to pay for a cut in the second-lowest bracket. Also some "boutique" exemptions have been closed or reduced recently.
In every case, there are taxes paid separately to both the federal government and provincial governments.
The biggest rising expense here on Ontario is not taxes, but "hydro" which is what Canadians call electricity (so much of it is generated by hydroelectric dams and power companies market themselves as hydro companies because of it). Ontario has had a history of mismanaging electrical bills, and that process has come to a head and so energy prices have skyrocketed recently.
While our taxes are normally somewhat higher than Americans, it hasn't been really a huge problem historically. Only now it's starting to come to a head with cost of living as the crazy housing market has driven mortgages through the roof and the hydro crisis have come together to create a cost-of-living problem in the Toronto area.
Finally, we have municipal property taxes (comparable to British council taxes). These are priced based on the value of your real-estate property. These are generally stable, as councils are very price-sensitive and are hesitant to raise them outside of a crisis.
- jankotek 9y agoHere is source for doubled tax, looks like google parser is wrong https://pasteboard.co/hMazP1hHs.png https://pasteboard.co/hMazP1hHs.png
- smnrchrds 9y agoThat seems to be a case of bad web scraping. If you see the article the numbers were supposedly taken from, you will see compeltely different results: http://taxtips.ca/taxrates/canada.htm http://taxtips.ca/taxrates/canada.htm
- smnrchrds 9y ago> In every case, there are taxes paid separately to both the federal government and provincial governments. I would like to just add that unlike the US, where some states do not have state income taxes, all provinces in Canada have provincial income taxes, and with the exception of Alberta, all of them have provincial sales taxes.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ChemicalWarfare 9y agoBeer prices in Ontario are pretty insane (about twice as expensive) compared to the bordering US states even factoring in the exchange rate. I'm used to $11 12 packs of Molson on the MI side of the border, walking into a Beer Store in ON is always a price shock.
- Pxtl 9y agoThat's entirely due to sin taxes, though. Not the higher "cost of living". If liquor taxes have an appreciable impact on your budget on a middle class programmer's salary, you have a problem and it's not the money.
- refurb 9y agoGreat summary. In terms of income tax, the rates aren't all that different in Canada, but the income level when they kick in is. For individuals: Top rate - US - $418,000+ taxed at 39.6% Top rate - Canada - $220,000+ taxed at 33% Also, provincial taxes tend to be a percent of your federal tax. It's been a while since I lived there, but Alberta used to be 50% of whatever your federal tax rate was. No home mortgage deduction either and the equivalent of a 401k (RRSP) limits contribution to 18% of your income up to a max of ~$20K.