Here's some tax facts provided by the Broadbent Institute
Income tax rate on the highest income earners in 1980: 43 percent
Income tax rate on the highest income earners in 2019: 33 percent
A 1 percent tax on wealth over $20M would generate $70 Billion over ten years
Corporate tax rate in 1980 : 36 percent
Corporate tax rate in 2019: 15 percent
if the Corporate tax rate rose to 18 percent it would generate $6B yearly
Tax evasion lowers government tax revenue by at least $21B yearly
If Google, Netflix and other e-commerce corporations were charged corporate tax the government would get an additional $600M yearly.
Proportion of capital gains that was taxable prior to 1990: 75 percent
Proportion of capital gains that is taxable since 1990: 50 percent
90 percent of capital gains goes to the richest 1 percent of Canadians
if all capital gains were taxable, it would pay $16B yearly to the government
90 percent of the dividend tax credit lowers tax paid by the richest one percent.
If dividends became taxable, government tax revenue would increase by $5B yearly.
Cracking down on offshore tax evasion would yield at least $10B yearly to the government.
Over the last 30 years, tax cuts have gone to the richest while the middle class gets squeezed, and the poor, the sick and the hurt, the young and the old, working class families suffer.
It seems the easiest and most lucrative tax increases on the richest would be imposing income tax on all capital gains. This does not include sale of principal residence but only from sale of investment properties and other investments.
Why should half the money made from investment deals be un-taxable while wages and salaries are all taxable? It just does not seem fair.
The $16B raised this way would help the government balance its books. It went into debt about $19B in 2017-18. That year the Government collected $313B in taxes, almost half of that from personal income tax. In the old days, the government raised more from corporate tax than from personal income tax. Now this is not true.
As well since the 1980s the government has stopped fully indexing the pension pay-outs to inflation. Since 1980s the pay-out has lost ground against inflation. And think about how in some European countries pension plans are non-contributory - they are paid out of government revenue, not out of working people's pockets. These governments say we don't charge users for many public services such as the use of highways, for example, so why charge for such an important thing as seeing that seniors are not suffering in deep poverty.
We have to hold our government to account - that is why changing the electoral system is so important. As I describe in other blogs, Single Transferable Voting or other form of proportional representation is urgently needed to ensure proper minority representation to hold elected governments accountable.
Source: Broadbent Institute Tax Index, 2019]
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