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Canada falling further behind
How does Tax Freedom Day in Canada and the U.S.A. compare?
U.S.A.: Tax Freedom Day is April 17 this year.
Definition:| quote: | | Tax Freedom Day is calculated by dividing the official government tally of all taxes collected in each year by the official government tally of all income earned in each year. Governments — federal, state and local — took |
Taxes as a Percentage of Income are 29.1% in the U.S.A.
U.S. Tax Freedom Day
Canada: Tax Freedom Day for the year 2004 was June 28.
Definition: | quote: | | The taxes used to compute Tax Freedom Day include income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes, as well as profit taxes, health, social security and employment taxes, import duties, license fees, taxes on the consumption of alcohol and tobacco (‘sin’ taxes), natural resource fees, fuel taxes, hospital taxes, and a host of other levies. |
Taxes as a Percentage of Income are 48.8% in Canada.
About that historical tax cut that Mr. Dithers often boasts about? The one where he says it's the largest tax cut in Canadian history?
| quote: | | “The fact that Tax Freedom Day has been steadily increasing since 2001 and comes only four days earlier than its peak should be cause for concern. All the talk of tax relief has not resulted in meaningful reductions in the tax burden for Canadian families,” commented Veldhuis. |
Note the trend in Table 7: Climbing year after year since 1981, except the Fraser Institute reports: "After a seven-day decline from 2000 to 2001, Tax Freedom Day has been steadily increasing."
Canadian Tax Rates
But you say, Canada has its public health care system and the U.S has private health insurance! According to the Fraser Institute Report "A Canada Strong and Free" p. 27:
| quote: | The good news about Canadian health care is that Canadians are living longer and healthier lives than they were 30 years ago. The bad news is that while recent data shows Canada tied with Iceland as the number-one per-capita spender on health care among all the OECD countries with universal access health systems, we are not number one in any of the major categories used to measure the quality of health care provided (see Table 1).
According to a recent study, Canada ranks sixteenth in terms of doctors per capita (2.3 doctors for every 1000 Canadians), out of the 23 countries for which data is available. With respect to access to advanced medical technology, we ranked fifteenth of 24 in access to MRIs, seventeenth of 23 in access to CT scanners, and eighth of 22 in access to radiation scanners. Despite spending more on health care than any other industrialized country in the OECD (except Iceland), our citizens ranked fourteenth in the percentage of total life expectancy that will be lived disability free, sixteenth in infant mortality, eighth in mortality amenable to health care, ninth in potential years of life lost to disease, and sixth in the incidence of breast cancer mortality (Esmail and Walker, 2004). |
So if our health care is so comparatively lousy compared to other OECD nations, where are all those extra taxes going? According to the same Fraser Institute report (p. 7) not to our military:
| quote: | The Canadian military, once a source of national pride, has for many years been starved of funding, equipment, and personnel. This is true whether the services are viewed in absolute size, size relative to the population, or military spending as a percentage of GDP.
* Canada’s 52,500-person armed forces ranks 56th in the world, just behind Croatia and Sweden.
* Canada has 1.83 military personnel per 1,000 residents. By this measure, our armed forces are the smallest among the 26-member NATO alliance except for Luxembourg and Iceland; and 118th in the world, just ahead of Togo.
* Canada spends 1.1% of its GDP on the military—133rd in the world, tied with El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Niger, and the Central African Republic. (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2002). |
What about foreign aid? Canadians pride ourselves as the quintessential "kind and generous nation," right?
| quote: | | Our national government talks about its compassionate commitment to helping the world’s poor but its actions do not begin to match the commitment of the Canadian people to that objective. The Canadian government’s budget for foreign aid (as a percentage of GDP) is 0.26%, placing it thirteenth among the 22 rich OECD aid-giving nations, and its efforts to open free-trade doors for impoverished nations (the real answer to combating poverty internationally) are even weaker than its commitments to military and foreign-aid spending. |
Where does the money go, then? Government waste, corruption and cronyism, unaccounted trust funds for foundations, pork-barreling and sponsorships?
Summary :
* The difference in total tax rates between Canada and the US is 48.8-29.1= 19.1%.
* Almost 20% more of your income is siphoned off as taxes in Canada than in the US.
* For the dollar you earn in the U.S., all levels of government combined take nearly 30 cents.
* For the dollar you earn in the Canada, all levels of government combined take nearly 50 cents.
* Put another way, the average Canadian tax rate is 67.7% higher then the US tax rate.
Is our nanny state worth 67.7% higher taxes then the U.S.?
The CPC policy includes plans for deep tax cuts. The 2005 Liberal budget gave a $16 personal income tax cut: the typical cost of one pizza. Given that the average Canadian personal income tax bill was $12,306 in 2004 (refer to Tax Freedom Day tables link), that's a whopping 0.13% tax cut!
The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada gave the budget a failing grade for competitive tax policy.
Meanwhile, the government is on a spending spree , exceeding growth in the GDP:
| quote: | | Program expenses are expected to increase by 11.9 per cent in 2004 — 05. Average annual growth in program expenses over the 2005 — 06 to 2009 — 10 periods is projected to be around four per cent. |
Oh, thank-you so much for the irresponsible budget, Mr. Dithers!
Thanks to Enn for the excellent info.
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Disco and classical had sex while watching a sci-fi movie. Their child: trance.
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ok, I'm moving down south. Who's in???
