Re: “Misinformation foments resentment,” page 25, April 17 Gazette.
Simon Ducatel says in his commentary that some "mainstream Canadian media" are sending out misinformation.
Ducatel mainly used personal income tax issues (not corporate) as an example for his article but did not delve deeply into any specific aspect of said taxes.
It seemed to me that the main intent of his commentary was mostly with regard to misinformation and propaganda. He seems to imply that income tax is an "extremely complex issue." I don’t think that, in general, it is that complex an idea nor should it be.
The complexity comes in the form of the multitude of rules and exemptions, which currently exist in our silly system. For both personal and corporate taxes as well as the GST and all other taxes, I wish that our governments (federal and provincial) remembered the KISS philosophy of Keep It Simple Stupid. It would seem that they did not get that memo.
As a note to Ducatel, propaganda in many forms has been and continues to be prevalent both in political and in many other areas including advertising as well as in all forms of media.
The information that is in the written media in our country comes from a very few newspaper conglomerates. For example, the Mountain View Gazette and the Cochrane Eagle are part of Great West Newspapers, which has 19 publications throughout Alberta. The Cochrane Times is a member of Sun Media which is a member of Post Media which comprises, in part, of 16 major newspapers across Canada. Our media via TV, radio and newspapers are very much controlled by a few conglomerates. These very limited number of sources may be seen as providing a somewhat limited perspective, so I would advise the public to consider all media info "with a grain of salt."
Ducatel references a 2017 article in the Toronto Sun by Lorne Gunter who suggested, “It’s time for a tax revolt in Canada.” I would suggest and prefer tax reform versus tax revolt.
Ducatel cites a quote from a U.S. Justice saying, “Taxes are the price of civilization.” I think this is a reasonable statement, but I would also wish the taxation system to be fair and equitable to all. I don’t believe it is currently so in Canada, nor in the other countries with similar systems.
This is where I boldly go where Ducatel did not. I believe that everyone in Canada is over taxed, no matter what their "tax bracket."
I am a supporter of both federal and provincial flat personal income tax. Canada has what is referred to as a progressive income tax system, which I believe is actually a regressive system.
To be clear, this is a tiered system, period.
Our tax system is based on taxpayers being honest and yet it discriminates against and actually penalizes people for being financially successful, thereby giving them a disincentive to be honest concerning reporting their income. We all have heard about the huge amounts of dollars held in offshore accounts.
A distinction I would make is between the wealthy (as in net worth) versus High(er) Income Earners (HIE). Few would feel sorry for the wealthy as they do not suffer financially. But I would assert that HIE are shortchanged. I have heard throughout my life how every tax change benefits the wealthy, but I think the HIEs are the ones that are really disproportionately supporting society.
We are so lucky/blessed to live in Canada but our very high standard of living comes at a fairly high financial cost.
I believe we should all pay our fair share but the HIEs pay more than that. We should make it worth the while of the HIE and wealthy to not cheat as I believe we would likely be better off financially.
Every Canadian provincial/territorial/regional (PTR) area has its own tax regime (14 in total) that vary in the number of tax tiers (from three to six), the dollar range for each tier and the rates themselves for each tier, so this makes the personal income tax for each PTR vary greatly.
For every incremental dollar of income earned at the combined (Fed. & PTR) marginal (highest) tax rate/tier, about one half of the gross income earned is taken by the government(s).
FYI, the combined Canadian marginal personal income tax rate varies from about 44 per cent (Nunavut) to almost 59 per cent (Quebec, of course) by PTR.
Houston, I have a big problem, at the combined marginal tax rate, with forking over around half of the gross income to the government(s). This is big-time highway robbery.
For myself, I am not anywhere near being an HIE let alone wealthy. In fact, I currently pay a flat tax of 25 per cent because I live in Alberta and my income is in the lowest tax tiers. Maybe I should be sad about that? I don’t agree with our personal income tax system out of principle, not self-interest.
Something that I strongly believe should be pursued is to see the "basic personal amount" substantially raised, both federally and PTR, in an effort to help those most in need. I find it ridiculous that after a person earns over $11,635 per year that they are taxed by the federal government. Then add on all the other taxes we pay for such as GST, PST, carbon tax, sin taxes, property tax, etc.
I repeat that I think everyone in Canada is over taxed. The other frustrating arm of the government is the blatant waste of our tax dollars. There is next to no accountability in government. And yet our country and many others are going bankrupt at a staggering rate. What about that gorilla? Just saying, Simon.
Scott Rath
Water Valley
