Kevin Klein- Mr. Prime Minister, here’s a way you can make housing more affordable
Here in Canada, we do the opposite. We tax homeowners on every dollar they earn, then sit back as they hand over thousands in interest payments to the big banks — banks that, in turn, report record profits and pay taxes on that very interest. It’s a perfect circle of government and corporate revenue, and everyday Canadians are stuck in the middle.
The federal government is effectively double-dipping. It taxes you on your income, then taxes the bank on the interest you pay using that income. The winner? Not you.
Americans can deduct their mortgage interest, but they have to pay capital gains tax when they sell their home. Canadians don’t (so far).
Of course, their capital gains tax is much lower than ours. And some states don’t even tax capital gains.
Also, do not forget the large closing costs they pay to buy real estate, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars, just to close on a home.
I checked into this. The first $250,000 gain for individuals and $500,000 for couples is not subject to capital gains.
True. But ridiculous home sale prices and devaluation of our dollar have pretty well busted this “break”.
Combined with US mortgage interest deductions, itself a function of higher prices, it’s not a bad deal.
Especially when compared to Grit grifters’ capital gains exemption carve out of suites, in virtually every new build, with a little capital gains trap contained therein, and a government that thinks gains on housing over many decades, often accumulated at under market growth rates, is just a lottery win, that Canadians just sat on their porch making money, who carried properties, taxes and maintenance.
We are overtaxed, with Guido the taxman demanding his skim at every transaction, from rich or poor.
“Why are governments content to see banks and bureaucracies benefit while working families are left gasping under rising costs?”
Because Liberals Hate Us.
“(CRA) now employs roughly 60,000 people to manage a population of 40 million. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), even after a major hiring bump, employs about 79,000 people to serve 330 million.”
Because Liberals Hate Us.
Because Liberal Voters Hate Their Neighbors.
Why the fck is this Klein whining again?
The government is the fcking problem and Liberal governments are the fcking enemy.
Prove me wrong.
Name one thing the (federal) government gets right.
uhh, they still manage to get votes?!
“Elbows Up!” and doing some sort of chicken dance. No further explanation required.
I could argue that’s the Liberal Party of Canada, not the federal government although I guess there isn’t any difference anymore.
I, for one, would like the opportunity to find out if you are correct. I still believe you are not. Obviously the CBC doesn’t either or they wouldn’t care who is in power.
Don’t worry, they also want to tax you on the gains from the deemed appreciation of your house, never mind that housing is depreciating asset (the land appreciates).
If someone buys a house and rents it out, mortgage interest is deductible as a business expense. That’s very different from someone buying a personal residence, which makes a house nothing more than a consumption good. We don’t make car interest payments tax deductible; why do that for a personal residence? It would also do nothing to lower housing costs since it merely offers people a greater opportunity to bid up the price. If you want to lower housing costs, don’t let interest rates fall to near zero. Then look at scrapping insulation value requirements and a pointlessly expensive building inspector industry.
The government could solve the housing crisis with the stroke of a pen.
Make the first $50,000 in rental income tax free.
The increase in available rooms and apartments would boggle the mind.
Get rid of all income taxes, replaced by a value added consumption only tax, phased in to avoid deleterious effects like seniors who paid income taxes all their lives and those who owe no tax, and using “tax debits.”
We’ve the technology to make this transparent and automatic. Hiding income in the underground economy becomes meaningless; that matters to only the very wealthiest who may have some healthcare etc. clawed back.
This idea has been around since Michael Wilson and Brian Mulroney. Stop taxes effort and savings thus distorting productivity, growth and common sense. The more we earn the more we consume.
I know. How does that forward the power of partisan progressive parasitism, empire building and neo-regal self-appointed gods deciding on our shared misery for us? It only helps common people, aka statist sacrilege.
In addition to ALL levels of government cutting their taxes….especially the feds.
Tax Freedom Day this year was on June 8. In other words, everything we pay in taxes of some sort for the whole year would take from January 1 to June 8 to earn. That’s 43.1% of the average total income.
In the US it falls on about April 24.