Your take home pay will be less in 2012. Thank the Harper Government.

[Rick]

OTTAWA—Canadians will see the biggest increase in payroll taxes in a decade next year, according to a Canadian Taxpayers Federation analysis of how many of your dollars will go to federal government coffers.

“Finance Canada tells us that we should be thanking the government because they are not going to be raising payroll taxes as much as they promised,” said Derek Fildebrandt, national research director for the advocacy group.

A spokeswoman for the federal finance department suggested exactly that.

“The Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board is responsible for setting premium rates to ensure that the program just breaks even over time and managing a cash reserve — including adjustments in rates,” Suzanne Prebinski wrote in an email.

“However, to protect the economy and jobs, we cut any potential increases in half for 2012 — keeping EI premiums near their lowest level since 1982. This change is expected to save employers and employees $600 million in 2012.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation argues that tax credits are not as useful as income tax cuts and wants the government to scrap them in favour of letting people take more of their salaries home in the first place.

“We under no circumstances consider tax credits to be tax cuts,” Fildebrandt said. “They’re a form of expenditures simply meant to do one of two things: shape our behaviours and buy our votes ... What we want is the outright scrapping of the vast majority of tax credits and taking the revenues that we are currently foregoing from tax credits and exemptions and loopholes and put that towards overall lower rates.”

Meanwhile, the corporate tax rate is going down to 15 per cent.

That's right, your wallet is once again being fleeced by Harper to give his rich corporate friends even more of your money...

Read the rest here

Edited December 28, 2011 by Rick

[cybercoma]

Someone phone up Satan and ask him the temperature in hell because I agree with something the CTF says:

“We under no circumstances consider tax credits to be tax cuts,” Fildebrandt said. “They’re a form of expenditures simply meant to do one of two things: shape our behaviours and buy our votes ... What we want is the outright scrapping of the vast majority of tax credits and taking the revenues that we are currently foregoing from tax credits and exemptions and loopholes and put that towards overall lower rates.”

[Jerry J. Fortin]

Someone phone up Satan and ask him the temperature in hell because I agree with something the CTF says:

That is funny, because I agree with them and you, and that just never happens!!

[fellowtraveller]

Someone phone up Satan

It is a toll free number in Ottawa but it is hard to get hold of Harper himself.

[Shady]

That's right, your wallet is once again being fleeced by Harper to give his rich corporate friends even more of your money...

Complete nonsense. Businesses keeping more of their own money resembles in no way anyone giving them more of your money or mine. Once again, complete and utter nonsense.

However, I do like your new support for income tax cuts.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Shady

[cybercoma]

Forget Harper himself, his MPs won't even meet constituents face-to-face if it's over an issue they find "contentious."

[GostHacked]

Complete nonsense. Businesses keeping more of their own money resembles in no way anyone giving them more of your money or mine. Once again, complete and utter nonsense.

However, I do like your new support for income tax cuts.

Taxes don't get cut, they get shuffles. Less income tax, more tax on goods. Abolish the GST and PST, roll it all into the HST.

[CPCFTW]

Taxes don't get cut, they get shuffles. Less income tax, more tax on goods. Abolish the GST and PST, roll it all into the HST.

Hard to cut taxes when hippies demand no cuts to their entitlements. The tfsa was a great way to provide a hidden tax cut that the hippies haven't figured out yet.

Also taxes on consumption are far better for a society than taxes on income. If it wrrent for free trade, I would suggest we should be completely taxed on consumption with exemptions for necessities (energy, water, food, etc.). But with free trade, people will just buy their hdtvs and ipads across the border. I guess some sort of tax harmonization could be worked out.

Edited December 28, 2011 by CPCFTW

[cybercoma]

Hard to cut taxes when hippies demand no cuts to their entitlements.

You seem to have hippies confused with the rich, who seem to think they're entitled to lower tax rates.

[Rick]

You seem to have hippies confused with the rich, who seem to think they're entitled to lower tax rates.

Conservatives and the rich actually do believe they're entitled to their entitlements...

[PIK]

Conservatives and the rich actually do believe they're entitled to their entitlements...

You guys are soooo funny, thank harper that we do have jobs and this country is doing quite fine, but it is never good enough for some.

[cybercoma]

You guys are soooo funny, thank harper that we do have jobs and this country is doing quite fine, but it is never good enough for some.

Harper didn't give me my job. In fact, Harper is the reason many of my colleagues of lost their jobs.

[Moonbox]

Forget Harper himself, his MPs won't even meet constituents face-to-face if it's over an issue they find "contentious."

That's usually because any sort of meeting or debate is attended primarily by ignorant, loud and obnoxious "activists" who aren't interested in debating anything.

[Rick]

You guys are soooo funny, thank harper that we do have jobs and this country is doing quite fine, but it is never good enough for some.

You Harper worshippers are a riot. You fail to see what's actually going on in this country because all looks good inside the compounds of your brainwashed cult.

You're really no different than the Iranians who believe word for word what the Ayatollah tells them.

[Bryan]

EI is an insurance premium. It's accounted separately from taxes. That is is going up a little is small price to pay for the significantly lower overall tax bill that we have now compared to before the Conservatives took office.

[monty16]

Hey wait a minute, how could taxes be rising when Harper just granted corporations a tax cut? He wouldn't raise one while reducing the other.

[Rick]

EI is an insurance premium. It's accounted separately from taxes.

Ok... how did Dalton McGuinty get a hold of Bryan's password?

[Rick]

Hey wait a minute, how could taxes be rising when Harper just granted corporations a tax cut? He wouldn't raise one while reducing the other.

Harper would sell his own mother to appease his corporate friends demands.

It makes one wonder how long before Harper takes another play out of his GOP masters' playbook

[Jack Weber]

You guys are soooo funny, thank harper that we do have jobs and this country is doing quite fine, but it is never good enough for some.

Translation?

"We bow at your greatness,Dear Leader..."

[Boges]

You can see that the Liberals on this site are so blinded by hatred for Harper that they are opposing modest increases in EI and CPP premiums.

Don't both those things benefit us all?

[cybercoma]

It's funny how under the LPC there was too much money in the EI fund, eh?

[Boges]

It's funny how under the LPC there was too much money in the EI fund, eh?

A Global Recession can change that.

[Shady]

EI isn't welfare. It's an insurance program. That's been pointed out already by many people in the forum. When more people are accessing insurance benefits, premiums have to go up in order to properly fund the program.

If your goal is to turn EI into welfare, where somebody else pays for your benefits, fine. But at least come out and state that. But as of now, that's not what the program is about.

And if you wanna talk about things affecting take home pay. How about environmental extremists that make energy production and energy prices much more expensive than they should be. Or public sector unions that make the cost of government much more expensive than they should be. That has a hell of a lot greater impact on somebody's take home pay than EI.

[Jerry J. Fortin]

EI isn't welfare. It's an insurance program. That's been pointed out already by many people in the forum. When more people are accessing insurance benefits, premiums have to go up in order to properly fund the program.

If your goal is to turn EI into welfare, where somebody else pays for your benefits, fine. But at least come out and state that. But as of now, that's not what the program is about.

And if you wanna talk about things affecting take home pay. How about environmental extremists that make energy production and energy prices much more expensive than they should be. Or public sector unions that make the cost of government much more expensive than they should be. That has a hell of a lot greater impact on somebody's take home pay than EI.

Is it time for a tax revolt yet?

[cybercoma]

I love watching the Right on this forum twist themselves to justify the profligate spending of this government and their increase in taxes to cover it.