CANADA'S
RICH GET TAX BREAKS
(The
following article is from
the February 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
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People's Voice Editorial, Feb. 1-15, 2008
Believe it or not, Canada's wealthy elite are taxed at a lower rate
than their counterparts in the United States. A recent study by
economist Andrew Jackson points out that the top U.S. tax rate is 35
per cent on incomes more than $326,000, and 33 per cent on incomes more
than $150,000. Canada's top rate is 29 per cent on incomes of more than
$116,000. The study also shows that income inequality is growing
rapidly as Canada's richest one per cent take home an increasing share
of pre tax income. This sliver of the population also received a
disproportionate share of recent income tax cuts.
It's also worth remembering that corporate tax
rates have been sharply reduced in recent decades, under the
Chretien/Martin Liberals, and now under the Harper Conservatives. It's
a pattern that goes back much further; during the post-WW2 era,
corporate taxes accounted for the lion's share of government revenues
in Canada. Today income taxes make up the bulk of government revenues,
a share which is increasingly being shifted away from the ultra-rich
and onto the backs of middle and lower-income earners.
And this is certainly not because the rich are
suffering. The top one percent of Canadian earners took home 8.6% of
the national income in 1992, rising to 12.2% by 2004.
Meanwhile, right-wing Canadian governments
have fought a largely successful campaign to cut spending on social
programs. Their convenient argument, of course, is that Canadians
"can't afford" more social spending. But most Canadians disagree. A
2006 Environics Research poll found that 82% of Canadians support
closing tax loopholes for wealthy individuals, and that 70% favour
increasing taxes on the wealthy. It's an issue that should be right up
front in the coming federal election.
Found
at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint11/10_CANADA'S_RICH_GET_TAX_BREAKS.html