Higher taxes discourage business investment, business startups, entrepreneurialism and investment in education
By Jake Fuss and Tegan Hill The Fraser Institute Before Canadians go to the polls on Oct. 21, they should understand each party’s tax plan, which unfortunately range from bad to worse to downright naive. Let’s start with the NDP and Green Party, which have similar plans. Both propose a new “wealth tax” and would…
Property taxes should reflect the level of services used by ratepayers: Fraser Institute
The commercial property tax rates in Calgary and Edmonton are two to three times higher than residential rates, with little rationale, says a report released on Thursday by public policy think-tank the Fraser Institute. The report said businesses in the two cities pay much higher property tax rates than residents, which can lead to businesses…
Liberal and Tory proposed tax cuts insufficient to improve Canada’s diminishing tax competitiveness
By Tegan Hill and Ben Eisen The Fraser Institute With less than a week before Canadians go to the polls, there has been little focus on Canada’s tax competitiveness, which is unfortunate given the major real-life impact of tax policy on Canadians. Yes, both the Conservative and Liberal party have pledged to cut personal income…
Big promises by big governments cost a lot. Just like interest payments go up on an unpaid credit card, interest payments on our national debt are also going up
As a 22 year old, I’ve not been very actively politically – until now. The federal election has definitely made me more engaged. Once I join the workforce, over time, I’ll likely be investing over half of my income not into a home or family needs, but into governments through taxes. That realization has motivated…
Governments and taxpayers need to look more closely at several factors, including transportation, impact and costs
Listen to the promoters and you would think the Vancouver-to-Seattle-to-Portland high-speed rail proposal is a great idea. For many, high-speed rail is a panacea that promises to solve all of our transportation and environmental problems. But governments and taxpayers need to look more closely at several factors, including transportation, impact and costs. High-speed rail has…
It’s right for Canadians to value a just society that leaves no one behind. But relying on ever-increasing spending to do so is driving us toward bankruptcy
I know what it means to live in poverty. I grew up in a large family in a small village in Cape Breton, the fourth of eight children. My father was a wonderful man who struggled with alcoholism his whole life. We had no running water and only a coal stove to heat the house.…
There’s no hiding from the success tax, but several things can help legally reduce or even eliminate the amount your estate or your heirs pay
There’s no official estate tax in Canada but we do have what I call the success tax. It's what we pay if we’ve been financially successful in a lifetime of investing and asset accumulation. The more successful you’ve been, the greater the tax could be. If you have assets that will be taxable when sold or when deemed to have been…
Let’s be very careful about electing a government that’s bribing us with our own money
Before we select our next set of national leaders in the Oct. 21 federal election, we should be paying attention to matters that don’t usually concern us day to day, like the treasury. What the treasury does we call fiscal policy, but it’s essentially budgeting: determining levels of revenue (taxes) and expenditure (all the programs…
The reasons for that include market uncertainty, geopolitical turmoil and home-grown tax changes
High net-worth Canadians are shifting their focus from generating wealth to preserving what they have, with 82 per cent saying it's more important than ever to 'future-proof' their wealth, says a new study released Wednesday by RBC Wealth Management. The reasons for that include market uncertainty, geopolitical turmoil and home-grown tax changes. "While investment and…
When a dollar earned triggers higher taxes and simultaneously reduces benefits, what’s left to spend or save?
A look at effective tax rates across provinces shows that many low-income families in Canada take home 40 cents or less on the additional dollars they earn. The marginal effective tax rate – which accounts for how much you pay in additional income taxes and lose in federal and provincial transfer benefits when you earn…