First the facts directly from CTV:
- Commitment of $3 billion a year in debt paydown (National debt now stands at $483.4 billion and the debt charges in 2006/2007 are $34.8 billion)
- Elimination of capital gains tax on listed stocks donated to charity, effective immediately
- Tax credit of up to $2,000 for employers who hire apprentices
- New $1000 grant for first- and second-year apprentices
- Reducing the Right of Permanent Residence Fee from $975 to $490, effective immediately
- Increasing immigration settlement funding by $307 million
- Fitness tax credit for up to $500 in eligible fees for physical fitness programs for each child under age 16
- New tax credit for textbooks, which is to provide a tax reduction of about $80 per year for a typical full-time post-secondary student
- Elimination of current $3,000 limit on amount of scholarship, bursary and fellowship income a post-secondary student can get without paying federal income tax
- New $500 tax deduction for tradespeople, for costs in excess of $1,000 for tools they must acquire as condition of employment
- Tax credit on cost of monthly public transit passes, or passes of longer duration, effective July 1, 2006
- Increase to $2,000 the maximum amount eligibility for pension income credit, effective 2006
- The budget proposes $460 million ($1 billion over five years) to further improve Canada’s pandemic preparedness
- The agenda also includes $19 million per year to Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
- Up to $320 million in 2005-2006 to fight polio, tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS and to help low-income countries cope with natural disasters or sharp rises in commodity prices
- Additional $2 billion over two years to the farming sector, which includes cash to assist farmers in transition to more effective programming for farm income stabilization and disaster relief
- $5.5 billion for the Wait Times Reduction Transfer, including a six per cent rise in health care transfers this year and next
- $52 million yearly to the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control
This has something for everyone. The average working class canadian family should see somewhere from $1000 to $1400 more per year. The budget put money back in students pockets, parents pockets, farmers pockets, blue collar worker pockets, white colloar worker pockets, aboriginal pockets, child care spaces, low income housing, relief of our national debt, and money for our military, criminal justice system, prison system and any other category of Canadian you can think of.
Well done Minister Flaherty. Well done.
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Don’t forget the .5% tax increase for the lowest income tax bracket!
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Adam, I think you may have missed my blog (before I revamped). It is not linked directly within my site anymore but take a look at this link
https://officiallyscrewed.com/archives/00000102.html
It clearly outlines where income tax revenue is generated. And I assure you, the lowest tax bracket makes up so little of the nations income tax revenue that the 0.5% hike could have been left out. I am pretty sure the whole point is to decrease the expanding rift between the tax brackets and where the revenue is generated.
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I’m fairly certain we all have to pay this .5% hike because of the graduated taxation system. We now pay 15.5% tax on our first $35,595 earned, regardless of how much we make, so I’m not sure what your point is.
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My point is that the lowest earning 50% of Canadians pay less than 5% of the Income tax collected by the government and the top 10% earning Canadians pay over 50%. And the gap is growing.
And these are not my numbers but those of Stats Canada.
Anyway you cut their numbers, the bottom half of earning Canadians pay pretty much squat into income tax.
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What does that have to do with everyone having to pay an extra .5% in income tax?
But since you’re on that track.
How much money do the lowest earning 50% of Canadians make? 5% of the total? Higher than 5% of the total?
How much money do the top 10% earning Canadians make? 50% of the total?
You can’t compare percentages like that.
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OfficiallyScrewed.com » Layman’s Budget Part 1 - CEC
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Except for that, you have to take into account the “real” value of these costs… I don’t know about you, but my combined tax rate (in AB) is actually 26% on 32G. Now, when you figure in the child tax credit, for example, 1200 bucks a year amounts to $100 a month. Before tax. If that’s divvied out as taxable income, even at a 15% tax rate, you’re only going home with $1020… which is more like $85 a month ($74, if it’s calculated at the provincial level as well), which just doesn’t get you much these days. Especially when childcare costs are comparable to rent for some.
Pair that with a government that gave their highest tax cuts to corporations (elimination of certain surtaxes, lower business taxation rates) and rich folk (hello- who does a GST cut affect the most… um, consumers?), then add the fact that the tax credit is likely to count against other forms of relief that a family may already be receiving (CCTB), the tax credits the Conservatives are offering are actually an insult!
Go ahead and tax the people that are making money, and stop cutting social programs! What do I care if you only take home 90 thousand this year instead of a hundred? I’m really tired of the whole “I earned it, I should get to keep it”. If that’s the case, we should start basing tax rates on job performance instead of income so that people are truly driven to help themselves…