Posts Tagged ‘tax’
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Time to tame the targeted tax tinkering
… Quite often, the tax credits or benefits (a kind of subsidy) are so small that they do not influence behaviour, except at the margin. Or, they are available to families who don’t need the incentive… Some day… a government with guts and common sense will wipe out these targeted tax cuts and use the money for broad-based tax measures that do not discriminate and pick favourites. It will encourage rational decisions, greatly simplify the tax code and put sound economics ahead of political calculations.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s pre-election spending binge isn’t the final word
… the Conservatives propose to claw back $12.5 billion from taxpayers, mostly by cancelling the Child Tax Credit and by taxing the enhanced new child benefit. That’s the equivalent of a third of their new giveaways. Except for affluent households this Tory largesse turns out to be considerably less than meets the eye… Mulcair and Trudeau owe it to Canadians to come up with better approaches… the opposition has good reason to roll back Harper’s regressive policies, if elected.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Conservative tax breaks leave out ‘vast majority’ of households
… a little-noticed move that will defray the cost to the federal treasury of the new measures, the government plans next year to scrap the standard Child Tax Credit, a change that will recoup $400 million for federal coffers in 2014-15 and $1.8 billion in 2015-16… the additional $60 of monthly payments could be reduced by taxes to about $35 or $40 a month… When the loss of the value of the Child Tax Credit — $28 a month — is factored in, “you don’t get a lot in the pocket”
Tags: budget, child care, standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Income redistribution, Harper-style
… In all cases, tax dollars flow from the majority of Canadians to a well-off minority… Moreover, the cost of the package will increase Ottawa’s fiscal vulnerability. If revenues fail to meet the government expectations… Harper’s tax breaks and children’s benefits could tip the budget back into red ink… draining federal coffers precludes badly needed investments, not just in child care but in urban transit, affordable housing, pensions, help for workers supporting aging parents and sustainable energy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
To ensure prosperity, Canada needs ‘ecofiscal’ policies
Relative to other developed countries, Canada makes little use of ecofiscal policies… several important issues require attention – potential threats to business competitiveness, fairness to lower-income families, the benefits from recycling ecofiscal revenues, and dealing with the diverse regions and their priorities… Nov. 4 marks the launch of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission – created to help Canadians seize this opportunity.
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Family Tax Cuts: How Inclusive a Family?
The study canvasses a range of alternative tax cuts and benefit hikes for families having the same revenue cost as the Family Tax Cut. It assesses their distributional impacts and other attributes. The study concludes that numerous policy options alternative to the Family Tax Cut could distribute the benefits more widely and effectively in support of a far more inclusive notion of Canadian families.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Public funds shouldn’t pay for Catholic schools in secular Ontario
From a principled perspective… it simply does not make sense to continue singling out a sole religion for public support… Sorbara, a Catholic himself… is now pressing for Ontario to follow the lead of Quebec and Newfoundland… Within a secular context, it is easy to imagine an Ontario curriculum embedded with a comparative “beliefs” opportunity for building understanding and empathy regarding different religions. Strengthening a collective “commons” by fostering deeper respect for our differences is the right pathway.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, multiculturalism, rights, tax, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Our kids, our future and two competing visions for voters
The Conservative plan is universal, even if it is modest. And the government has increased the child care expense deduction, to $8,000 from $7,000 for children under seven and to $5,000 from $4,000 for those ages seven to 16. This comes down to whether we want to think big when it comes to working parents and the next generation or continue to crawl along at a pace that the Conservatives believe is a winner, a plan that provides an extra $2 per day per child under the age of 18.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
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