One way suggested in the most recent issue of the Alberta Views (April 2021) to increase government revenue of the Alberta government is to bring in a ...
Property Transfer Tax.
This would be a tax paid by the buyer when a property changes hands, based on market value as assessed.
First time buyers could be waived payment.
currently in use in BC where it brings in more than $1B.
difficult to avoid, so enforcement is easy.
Senior citizens eking out survival in old family homes would not be liable for payment of this tax -- unlike the property tax now imposed - as long as they did not buy a property.
can be progressive -
imposed at higher rate for more expensive properties, lighter on inexpensive homes.
Imposed on those who have wealth - or those who pretend to have wealth through debt - and not imposed on those with lower income who rent or do not buy property.
The Alberta Views also noted that BC imposes a foreign buyer tax, a vacancy tax and a speculation tax. (The UFA government brought in a Wild Lands Tax in the early 1920s to try to get land moving and not just going to waste, held by those who owned it for future speculative profit and were not putting it to any use.)
An Inheritance tax is another way for a government to get income while also making a more level playing field for generation on generation.
Other options discussed in full in the magazine are:
- increase income and corporate taxes
- take back control of the carbon tax (so Alberta gets the revenue, not the federal government)
- raise the price of greenhouse gas emissions imposed on the large polluters.
- put tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Under any government system, no matter how fair we can make it, much of a person's quality of life depends on personal endeavour, stick-to-it-ness, frugality, being nice, the cardinal rule, etc.
But the only way for the present uneven playing field to become fair is for all those who are currently at a disadvantage - those who don't have privilege, power, money - to stand together and fight for a more just system.
We must work together if future generations will not be locked into the same dis-empowerment that us, the adult workers today, grew up under.
Nothing will change if we don't make it change.
The energy and tech savy-ness of the youth
the experience and wisdom of those who have been through it all before
the distrust that old fighters have for authority figures with their empty promises and glib talk and do-nothing politicking
Together we can use these things to make a difference.
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