Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
I should not have used "middle class", but more "wage earners". It's the top 1% that are not covering their fair share IMO. Capital gains inclusion was dropped to 50%, perhaps it needs to go back up.
GST should be higher, but income taxes are high enough.
Where are you suggesting we get additional tax revenue? I'd like to focus on the high wealth individuals first.
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When we dropped capital gains to 50 % inclusion, government revenue from capital gains actually went up - something most don't realize or ignore today. People bought and sold assets more often, vs holding them forever.
If you remove the 50% inclusion, there is a good probability the actual tax dollars we generate would decrease.
Think about it on a real-life term, if you own a property as an investment, do you sell it and pay a big tax bill, or borrow against it and invest in something else? For many investors borrowing and investing makes more financial sense. Now scale that to other business, would investors put money into Canada where if they sell they pay a big tax bill or the USA where they don't.
You can argue that short term capital gains should be a business tax (we do this for some real estate already) but can be applied to other areas. The USA actually does - but they do this to encourage long term investments and job creation vs actually raising revenue.
I would actually argue income taxes are not high enough, if you want more services. Say people want child care covered like Quebec, cheap tuition like Quebec and more and cheaper transit. The only real way to get there is everyone kicks in a bit more forever - and should be done provinally.
While people say Alberta likes low taxes, if you make under 150,000 a year you pay lower income taxes in BC than Alberta.
If you make 80K in Alberta you pay 5600 in provincial tax. In BC you pay 4300. Say people in Alberta at that level accepted the same level of tax as Alberta think of all the services. It is also a big reason why people in Alberta would never accept a sales tax, most people pay higher income taxes at the same income level as BC - but that is a different story.
If you want more services, go ask for a broad provincial income tax hike - it is the fastest way to get them.