UnatcoAgent
Diamond Member
- Oct 25, 1999
- 5,462
- 1
- 0
UnatcoAgent
Diamond Member
- Oct 25, 1999
- 5,462
- 1
- 0
Originally posted by: Magnum375
How much were you expecting?
I was thinking of upwards to 30-40 percent...
OUr taxes are not as high as everyone makes them out to be.
Atleast ours is spent majority of the times on the greater good of the people with good social/health care programs.
Compared to well we wont talk about the American spending now with the debt reaching or has it surpassed 6 trillion???
Atleast ours is spent majority of the times on the greater good of the people with good social/health care programs.
Compared to well we wont talk about the American spending now with the debt reaching or has it surpassed 6 trillion???
I dunno with the way Bush is running your country with his "job creation" plans your dollar keeps dropping while ours is rising.
I mean its not always good to have a strong dollar. OUr government on purpose keeps ours lower the the States. It allows for us to have a trade surplus as our goods are cheaper more readily avaliable creating more jobs more economic growth etc
I mean its not always good to have a strong dollar. OUr government on purpose keeps ours lower the the States. It allows for us to have a trade surplus as our goods are cheaper more readily avaliable creating more jobs more economic growth etc
I like a lot of american stuff...your military hardware is second to none.
I have to say though, your training SUCKS. I mean, I've done exchanges/exercises with American artillery units and, I mean...you guys learn one way to clear your rifles? No cross-training for crew positions? Bad oversights there...
And why does Canada rule? We have Tim Hortons.
I have to say though, your training SUCKS. I mean, I've done exchanges/exercises with American artillery units and, I mean...you guys learn one way to clear your rifles? No cross-training for crew positions? Bad oversights there...
And why does Canada rule? We have Tim Hortons.
Tax surprise: Most of us pay less than Americans
In Canada, it's only the better off who fork out more
By Rosemary Speirs
Feature writer
November 6, 1999
Toronto Star
We've all heard that Americans pay less taxes than Canadians. But in fact, for more than half of Canadians, the grass is still greener here at home.
In Canada, governments tax upper middle-income earners and the rich much more stiffly, and go easier on those with lower incomes. The poor, and those in the lower middle-income ranges, end up with more in their pockets in this country than they do in the States.
For simplicity's sake, the cutoff point comes at about the $60,000 level, slightly above the average Canadian family income.
This isn't what the tax-cutting advocates emphasize - people like Reform leader Preston Manning, conservatively-minded media commentators, and the executives of Canada's largest corporations. Taxes, they chorus, are a big factor in the so-called "brain drain'' of talented Canadians and help account for the shift of corporate head offices to south of the border.
In very rough figures, the federal finance department calculates that Canadians pay an average 35 per cent of their income in taxes and Americans pay 30 per cent - 5 per cent less.
But before you rush off to the States, consider some of the lesser-known facts behind the broad 5-per-cent generalization.
Statistics Canada took a look at what Canadians and Americans have left in their pockets in a 1998 study by Michael Wolfson and Brian Murphy. The researchers compared the disposable income of Canadian and American families - what's theirs to spend after taxes and deductions.
"Families . . . living in the United States are not necessarily better off in terms of disposable income, than their Canadian counterparts,'' they concluded. "Indeed, roughly half of Canadian families had disposable incomes in 1995 that gave them higher purchasing power than otherwise comparable U.S. families.''
This was true even though the U.S. economy is better off in terms of output per capita, and even though the average American income is about $5,000 (U.S.) more a year than the average Canadian. "The reason is that the very rich in the United States pull up the income average much more than in Canada, while those at the bottom of the U.S. income spectrum have less purchasing power than those in Canada.''
Wolfson and Murphy found the first 35 per cent of Canadians are "absolutely better off'' than their American counterparts, largely because of more generous government benefits to low-income Canadians. And beyond that, up to the halfway mark of the population, differences in their disposable incomes were negligible. In a yet-unpublished update of these findings, the two StatsCan researchers confirmed the general trend through 1997.
Their study is a reminder that our tax and transfer system redistributes wealth in Canada - softening the extremes between the very rich and the very poor. It's the flip-side of the picture: the Canadian advantage of a more egalitarian society that is often forgotten in the current debate over tax cuts.
"The grass is not greener on the other side,'' says Muriel Hurst, a registered nurse from Toronto who is paid about $27,500 (U.S.) at the hospital in Bob Dole's hometown of Russell, Kansas. She's making less than she did in Toronto, and while taxes and rents are lower in her rural community, she finds herself having to pay half of her medical insurance plan costs, and must pay malpractice insurance.
Overall, she says her expenses may total less, but she's not as far ahead as she expected - and she misses the quality of life she was able to afford in a Canadian city.
So when Reform leader Manning gets up in Parliament, as he did last month, comparing taxes levied in Toronto and Chicago, and asking therefore why a bright university student should stay in Canada "one day after graduation,'' he's really raising an upper-middle-class issue.
The tax advantage of a move to the U.S. isn't obvious until you get beyond that $60,000 a year mark. Also, it's too simple to just throw around tax rates in the two countries, without factoring in other paycheque deductions for pensions and unemployment.
Canada's CPP and EI premiums are lower than U.S. social security deductions. As well, taxes levied by American states vary much more than provincial taxes in Canada. So do local and municipal levies.
A Canadian moving south would pay no state tax in Florida, but in New York would be hit by a state levy of 6.9 per cent.
So the lure of lower U.S. taxes depends very much on who you are and where you are going. Tax calculations on actual tax rates paid, after social security deductions in Ontario and, say, New York state, show surprisingly little difference even in the middle income range.
Using Statistics Canada's measure of "purchasing power parity'' in the two jurisdictions ($1.25 Canadian can purchase as much as $1 American, even after GST and other sales taxes are added at the till), we compared the proportion of income going in taxes and social deductions. (see accompanying chart)
Result: A two-earner family with two children making $50,000 a year in Canada would pay 15.2 per cent in taxes and deductions. An American family of four making a comparable $40,000 in U.S. dollars would pay 15.9 per cent.
A Canadian family with two earners and two children making $75,000 would pay 23.6 per cent. A similar American family making a comparable $60,000 (U.S.) would pay 21.6 per cent.
At the $75,000 Canadian level, an American advantage is starting to emerge, but hardly big enough to make a move to New York for economic reasons alone.
Not when you factor in Canada's free medicare and lower education costs, which would make all the difference to a family with children in school and anticipated medical bills.
"New York City is the mecca for half a dozen professions, but it is the high tax centre of North America,'' says Dave Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation. "They pay federal tax, state tax, property tax, sales tax and the shelter costs are absurd. Clearly, migration to the States is only partly decided by taxation.''
Linda and Wayne Timson have learned life in the U.S. isn't necessarily cheaper. The couple moved to California with their two children in 1995. Wayne is a customer service engineer for the Canadian company Nortel, which transferred him to its American operations at a salary higher than he and his wife had earned together in Canada. She estimates it at just under $60,000 (U.S.)
So far, she's not permitted to work in the U.S. and says life in Manteca, a hi-tech community 110 kilometres from San Francisco, "is very expensive.'' Even with a higher family income, and somewhat lower taxes, the pair are hit with paying 12 per cent of their health care plan, or about $70 a month (Nortel picks up the rest), and with hidden fees they hadn't been warned about (such as the $10,000 in fees before purchasing a home).
"I expected much lower taxes after what we'd heard in Canada,'' she says. "Taxes overall are slightly lower, but when you take into account the hidden expenses and the cost of living, I don't believe we are any further ahead.''
To give them their due, the corporate leaders who are pressuring Finance Minister Paul Martin to lower taxes to halt the "brain drain" understand that the attraction of higher U.S. wages and lower U.S. taxes is an issue only at the upper income echelons.
In Canada, it's only the better off who fork out more
By Rosemary Speirs
Feature writer
November 6, 1999
Toronto Star
We've all heard that Americans pay less taxes than Canadians. But in fact, for more than half of Canadians, the grass is still greener here at home.
In Canada, governments tax upper middle-income earners and the rich much more stiffly, and go easier on those with lower incomes. The poor, and those in the lower middle-income ranges, end up with more in their pockets in this country than they do in the States.
For simplicity's sake, the cutoff point comes at about the $60,000 level, slightly above the average Canadian family income.
This isn't what the tax-cutting advocates emphasize - people like Reform leader Preston Manning, conservatively-minded media commentators, and the executives of Canada's largest corporations. Taxes, they chorus, are a big factor in the so-called "brain drain'' of talented Canadians and help account for the shift of corporate head offices to south of the border.
In very rough figures, the federal finance department calculates that Canadians pay an average 35 per cent of their income in taxes and Americans pay 30 per cent - 5 per cent less.
But before you rush off to the States, consider some of the lesser-known facts behind the broad 5-per-cent generalization.
Statistics Canada took a look at what Canadians and Americans have left in their pockets in a 1998 study by Michael Wolfson and Brian Murphy. The researchers compared the disposable income of Canadian and American families - what's theirs to spend after taxes and deductions.
"Families . . . living in the United States are not necessarily better off in terms of disposable income, than their Canadian counterparts,'' they concluded. "Indeed, roughly half of Canadian families had disposable incomes in 1995 that gave them higher purchasing power than otherwise comparable U.S. families.''
This was true even though the U.S. economy is better off in terms of output per capita, and even though the average American income is about $5,000 (U.S.) more a year than the average Canadian. "The reason is that the very rich in the United States pull up the income average much more than in Canada, while those at the bottom of the U.S. income spectrum have less purchasing power than those in Canada.''
Wolfson and Murphy found the first 35 per cent of Canadians are "absolutely better off'' than their American counterparts, largely because of more generous government benefits to low-income Canadians. And beyond that, up to the halfway mark of the population, differences in their disposable incomes were negligible. In a yet-unpublished update of these findings, the two StatsCan researchers confirmed the general trend through 1997.
Their study is a reminder that our tax and transfer system redistributes wealth in Canada - softening the extremes between the very rich and the very poor. It's the flip-side of the picture: the Canadian advantage of a more egalitarian society that is often forgotten in the current debate over tax cuts.
"The grass is not greener on the other side,'' says Muriel Hurst, a registered nurse from Toronto who is paid about $27,500 (U.S.) at the hospital in Bob Dole's hometown of Russell, Kansas. She's making less than she did in Toronto, and while taxes and rents are lower in her rural community, she finds herself having to pay half of her medical insurance plan costs, and must pay malpractice insurance.
Overall, she says her expenses may total less, but she's not as far ahead as she expected - and she misses the quality of life she was able to afford in a Canadian city.
So when Reform leader Manning gets up in Parliament, as he did last month, comparing taxes levied in Toronto and Chicago, and asking therefore why a bright university student should stay in Canada "one day after graduation,'' he's really raising an upper-middle-class issue.
The tax advantage of a move to the U.S. isn't obvious until you get beyond that $60,000 a year mark. Also, it's too simple to just throw around tax rates in the two countries, without factoring in other paycheque deductions for pensions and unemployment.
Canada's CPP and EI premiums are lower than U.S. social security deductions. As well, taxes levied by American states vary much more than provincial taxes in Canada. So do local and municipal levies.
A Canadian moving south would pay no state tax in Florida, but in New York would be hit by a state levy of 6.9 per cent.
So the lure of lower U.S. taxes depends very much on who you are and where you are going. Tax calculations on actual tax rates paid, after social security deductions in Ontario and, say, New York state, show surprisingly little difference even in the middle income range.
Using Statistics Canada's measure of "purchasing power parity'' in the two jurisdictions ($1.25 Canadian can purchase as much as $1 American, even after GST and other sales taxes are added at the till), we compared the proportion of income going in taxes and social deductions. (see accompanying chart)
Result: A two-earner family with two children making $50,000 a year in Canada would pay 15.2 per cent in taxes and deductions. An American family of four making a comparable $40,000 in U.S. dollars would pay 15.9 per cent.
A Canadian family with two earners and two children making $75,000 would pay 23.6 per cent. A similar American family making a comparable $60,000 (U.S.) would pay 21.6 per cent.
At the $75,000 Canadian level, an American advantage is starting to emerge, but hardly big enough to make a move to New York for economic reasons alone.
Not when you factor in Canada's free medicare and lower education costs, which would make all the difference to a family with children in school and anticipated medical bills.
"New York City is the mecca for half a dozen professions, but it is the high tax centre of North America,'' says Dave Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation. "They pay federal tax, state tax, property tax, sales tax and the shelter costs are absurd. Clearly, migration to the States is only partly decided by taxation.''
Linda and Wayne Timson have learned life in the U.S. isn't necessarily cheaper. The couple moved to California with their two children in 1995. Wayne is a customer service engineer for the Canadian company Nortel, which transferred him to its American operations at a salary higher than he and his wife had earned together in Canada. She estimates it at just under $60,000 (U.S.)
So far, she's not permitted to work in the U.S. and says life in Manteca, a hi-tech community 110 kilometres from San Francisco, "is very expensive.'' Even with a higher family income, and somewhat lower taxes, the pair are hit with paying 12 per cent of their health care plan, or about $70 a month (Nortel picks up the rest), and with hidden fees they hadn't been warned about (such as the $10,000 in fees before purchasing a home).
"I expected much lower taxes after what we'd heard in Canada,'' she says. "Taxes overall are slightly lower, but when you take into account the hidden expenses and the cost of living, I don't believe we are any further ahead.''
To give them their due, the corporate leaders who are pressuring Finance Minister Paul Martin to lower taxes to halt the "brain drain" understand that the attraction of higher U.S. wages and lower U.S. taxes is an issue only at the upper income echelons.
Mt Tremblant is awesome... I go there every year and stay in the Hilton condos right in the ski village.. wicked place!!!
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