National Post- Canadian taxes aren’t just high, they’re needlessly complicated to file
Ottawa forces you to send them information they already have, and punish you if you get it wrong.
Trust the “experts”.
…even the Canada Revenue Agency isn’t entirely sure how it all works. An infamous 2017 Auditor General report found that CRA call centres “gave wrong information to callers almost 30 per cent of the time.”
thousands of civil servants being trained in pronouns and diversity . no time to do a job
Ideally the CRA would love to do your taxes for you and perform an automatic withdrawl from your friendly bank if you owe. Not enough funds to cover it? Well, that’s going to be a problem.
This isn’t new. After decades of filing and then nearly every year being told I’m wrong and getting multiple requests per year for information and notices of reassessment I think I know the game. It literally paused during the Harper years. Lets just say the about will be fair play. There will be tears.
The conservative don’t have a plan for revenge and that’s why I won’t vote for them. They don’t realize that the government of Canada has attacked Canadians. Or if they do, they think pushing the pause button is worth a vote.
No, revenge is needed. Maybe blood, but certainly striking heavy blows to the people that voted for Justin is a must.
I still think that the much maligned Alberta flat tax is an idea worth pursuing. Might not work for more complicated personal and business taxpayers but most tax filers have simple, straightforward taxes. Your tax form would be about the size of an index card. Combine the flat tax with a voluntary auto-filing option and you have a simple, easy to understand tax system for most Canadians.
Twenty years ago Neil Boortz was pushing the Fair Tax, which replaced all federal taxes with a straight 23% sales tax, no exemptions, and everyone gets a refund for the tax that would be charged on income up to $27,000 or so. The plan was to make it a constitutional amendment so it couldn’t be endlessly jiggered for political points. We couldn’t do that here because it’s impossible to amend the Canadian constitution.
I like tax simplification but I would expect that advocates supporting low income Canadians would be opposed because waiting 12 months for reimbursement would be a financial burden.
It would be interesting to see provinces experiment with tax simplification. At one time, Saskatchewan had an education and health tax (E&H) instead of the provincial sales tax (PST), charged at the store register. Dedicating a defined percentage of consumption/sales tax revenue to specific purposes instead of into a general revenue (slush?) fund might be more palatable.
Not really expecting any radical tax changes but it is a fun thought experiment.
How about a 13% flat tax?
https://www.expatica.com/ru/finance/taxes/taxes-in-russia-104125/
I have a relative that is a CMA/CPA with an MBA. As an accountant, she has never lost to the CRA because they are almost always wrong. If you take the advice of the CRA on taxation, you will find them wrong, not 30% of the time, but closer to 90% of the time.
They are overpaid, generally incompetent, and supercilious. And yes, they are also highly vindictive. Chrystia Freeland can increase the national debt by 1/2 trillion dollars with the wave of her magic wand (from her broomstick), but don’t be late on your payments to the government or the penalties start at 10% and go up like a cliff, no matter what justification you provide.
Stop filing. Do Not Comply.
Sure, go ahead. Enjoy having all your accounts frozen, and wages garnisheed.
Yes, CRA can, and does do that to habitual tax avoiders. I know 2 people that has happened to, and yes, it was their fault for avoiding any compliance. One has no choice but to pay, even when the bastards are wrong.
We’ve gone with a certified tax firm the last couple of years due to an elevated need of requirement for tax compliance, and most importantly, an agent acting on our behalf for a possible audit due to the nature of the returns. All for $325 for their services. Money well spent. Returning to using a software return this year. It’s not easy but it walks you through a semi-complicated return without too much trouble. That said, yes, our tax system is full of loopholes and needless political exceptions and reliefs.
No income tax. An idea.
Sales tax based on need versus luxury. Most food, shelter, clothing, energy, no sales tax. Everything else a sliding tax scale on need/luxury. Basic car, 5% tax. Luxury car, 50% (?) tax. Cereal and milk, no tax, caviar, 50% (?) tax.
“One donut? GST. A dozen donuts? No GST.”
~ Rick Mercer in 1991, explaining why this was a dumb idea the first time
Surprising competence from a lifelong lefty CBC parasite and buddy of Seamus and Turdo.
Have no clue why people think Mercer is worth listening to.
Disagree.
As an expatriate Canadian, I had to file taxes a year ago for withdrawing money from my RRSP account in Canada. It was certainly unnecessarily complex. However, after going through the various forms and schedules, I came up with a number that would give me a refund of around $1000 and submitted it. This was all for a single bank transaction in June of the previous year.
To my surprise, when the refund was deposited the amount was about $250 more than I had calculated. They had corrected some error that I had made, which worked in my favour. Unfortunately I did not see where my error is, so will try to use Turbotax or something this year.
I’d bet that income tax is more complex in the USA. I’ve never been able to do it on paper.
After his mother died, a friend found her 1952 tax return. It was two pages, including personal info, income, deductions, and the tax table.
Being short of hair and long of tooth I remember a certain Finance Minister that promised to simplify the tax laws eons ago. After reading the article I decide to enter the realm of the dark underbelly of the internet and try and find some information about said Finance Minister and all I could come up with is this.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/how-to-be-a-successful-finance-minister/article1335900/
It is comforting to know the more things change the more they remain the same, or to paraphrase, “As it was in the time of Noah…..”
1997.
Finance Minister Martin proclaimed the latest pension cost hike would fix CPP for 75 years.
Liberal math is problematic at best.
Some day folks will figure out that Govt,Media, Business, Institutions, NGOs etc are all reading from the same script of lies. Always.
If I need assistance from CRA on a tax matter (personal or business), I call 3 times and see if I get the same answer at least twice. Sometimes an added bonus is getting someone who has a working knowledge of the English language.
Stop the defamation of the mighty Moose!
It is time that Canadians were represented by a symbol that more aptly captures the true spirit of Canadians and our place in the world.
The lowly field mouse.
I read an article which stated that most Canadians pay 55% of their income to the various levels of government – municipal property taxes, provincial sales taxes, federal GST, Carbon and Income Taxes.
I was introduced to the British comedy “Little Britain” about 5 years ago. There is a wonderful recurring catchphrase of “The Computer Says No!” That is the way I feel now.
I don’t blame the phone agents. They only pass on what they have been told, and I find them easy to talk too. The mistakes are happening higher up. I had to pay back some of my CERB (I was overpaid and I suspected that at the time) but what a complete mess. Their webpage had the wrong information so my payment went to my income tax – so it was overpaid. It took three phone calls to fix because the person (further up the chain) who supposedly could do it screwed it up. And even after it was fixed, I was still getting notices for the next three months that I had to repay it.
This is your country on the Liberals.
I was fillin’ out my tax form on April 31st,
Feelin’ parched and somewhat worn to satisfy the thirst
Of some old faceless revenoor hold up in Ottawa,
I knew when he was thru ‘er I violate some law.
Maybe I’d forgot a calf, left out a bale or three,
I was certain I’d lose half when he was thru with me.
So what is the point of givin’ a hundred and ten percent
When all I get from livin’ is to pay the federal rent?
Or fund a golden pension and grease an MP’s hand
Without so much a mention as I struggle on the land.
So, instead of sendin’ cash this year to fund a senator’s tour.
I’ll give ’em what they hold so dear-I’m paying with manure.
“information they already have”
lol no kidding.
ontariowe trillium benefits hing on a completed tax return.
their latest habit 3 times now, 2020 2021 2022 they foul up one line and my tax acct has to RESEND documents to get my trillium on track.
after the 1st time l just told them ‘whatever you did with 2020 do it again’
dont ask details, *thats why l hire a tax accountant*
Taxes, if they are to exist at all, should be a flat amount per person.
Not a rate.
No deductions. No credits. No exemptions.
A simple amount per person.
No different than any other good or service. You don’t pay for a meal based on your income. You don’t pay more for a haircut based on your income. Taxes s/b no different.
If the gov’t can’t make do with what it receives, then gov’t must be trimmed. And for the first time, gov’t would have cause to oppose the privately-owned and deceptively named central banks that print money out of thin air which causes inflation. On purpose.
As a side-note, inflation ends not b/c the people who purposely created it are “fighting it” by raising interest rates. Rather inflation ends when the market discovers the new prices for goods and services based on how much money the Bank of Canada has printed. It takes time to realize how much less purchasing power the dollar now has and adjust accordingly.
Yet in all, all, all of this we’ve barely heard a peep from the Canadian rank-and-file about oppressive taxation (like we saw with Proposition 13 in California – okay it was about property taxes but still…), nor has not a single Canadian federal political party made bold, Reaganesque tax reform/reduction part of its policy platform. Funny that.
One can only guess that either (i) none of the Canadian political class believe in actually cutting taxes; or (ii) tax reform has been polled by the “wise men” (snicker) of Canadian political consultancy and found not to be popular.
The conventional wisdom will be that far too much of Canada is dependent of suckling the tax-funded teat of the government subsidy; however, tax reform has found powerful resonance in the US where, despite a national mythology of rugged individualism and self-reliance, a significant chunk of America is on the government teat too.
Perhaps it’s just a failure of the Canadian imagination.
Indeed, you nailed it. In both countries, virtually everyone wants to be on the government teat. Eventually, there’s more takers than makers, and both governments keep encouraging more takers to come and take more.
Leftists governments solution to this is to BORROW AND SPEND MOAR!
This doesn’t end well.
Bring BACK Ralph Klein.
Nothing vexes Canadians more than mentioning a Flat Tax.
They are mostly a stupid, brain-washed people.
They always want the government to DO Something.
And tax time shows us what the federal government does the best: steals.
The trick is don’t write anything off and your golden.. Big fat bloated government is broke broke broke.. Stick your head up and get it chopped off.. In 74 different languages..
Stop producing.
I recommend that all wage workers,be paid their gross taxable income and be left to remit the CPP,EI,Workers Comp and every other levee imposed on employers..
Employers are unpaid collectors of tax,for a vindictive and ungrateful bunch of parasites.
The average wage worker,reads only their net income,turning a blind eye to the theft and destruction government wreaks..
The fact that “Information provided by CRA,even when in writing,cannot be used as evidence..Means they are LIARS.
They can lie to us,with impunity.
Yet they freeze our bank accounts and rob our mail,when they suspect we might be lying to them,using their forms and their explanation there of.
And they always assume we are lying,because they always do.