With Harper’s majority secured, it is quite likely that the popular Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA’s) will double the allowable contributions to $10k per year by 2014. There is a considerable benefit to policies that encourage higher savings rates but…
Continue readingTag: taxes
Democratic Progress: Contrasts in Leadership
Doug Saunders tweets that the new UK budget says: “UK will cut corporate tax by 1% a year for 3 years, to 23%… and the bank-profit levy will be raised each year to offset the loss of corporate taxes.”
This is really good, and a solid contrast with t…
Continue readingBill Given: Cost of Community Services
One of the challenges we have is to ensure we have a good mix of different types of development in our community. Not only is important for forming a well-rounded city it also directly affects our bottom line.
Give this report (pdf download) from Red Deer County a quick once over. It looks at different land uses such as Residential, Industrial and Commercial and compares how much revenue each one brings in with how much it consumes in services.
The key concepts it outlines are; that Residential uses more in services than it provides in revenue; that Commercial roughly pays for itself and finally that Industrial basically subsidizes everything else.
Two really interesting sections:
Industrial – The Industrial land use appears to be a significant subsidizer of all other land uses. The low cost of this land use is more or less in line with other COCS studies. A sensitivity test of the “Power and Pipe” taxes, a significant source of the Industrial land use’s revenues, indicated that even without these revenues, the Industrial land use would still pay for itself in dramatic fashion.
and
It is significant to note that the Residential land use did not pay for itself in any scenario in this study, not even in the re-calculations done to make this study more comparable to previous studies. … This effectively means that other land uses are subsidizing the level of service provided to the Residential land use.
Although the specifics would be slightly different for us I’m willing to bet that the fundamentals would be largely the same for any community in the province.
It goes to show that a community like GP with a majority of it’s land used for residential development is not sustainable because we don’t have enough industrial development to subsidize the service residential development demands.
Communities with significant “Power & Pipe” or linear tax sources are much better off.
Continue readingBill Given: Cost of Community Services
One of the challenges we have is to ensure we have a good mix of different types of development in our community. Not only is important for forming a well-rounded city it also directly affects our bottom line. Give this report (pdf download) from Red Deer County a quick once
Continue readingBill Given: Cost of Community Services
One of the challenges we have is to ensure we have a good mix of different types of development in our community. Not only is important for forming a well-rounded city it also directly affects our bottom line. Give this report (pdf download) from Red Deer County a quick once
Continue readingPolitic-O-Pinion: Dept. of Fin.: Corporate Tax Cuts Least Effective
Yesterday I wrote about my wish that the government would make moves to reduce the personal tax rate rather than continue to lower and already low corporate tax rate. Today I’m at it again. It seems that overnight, a bunch of people have jumped on the bandwagon in agreement that corporate tax rates aren’t the […]
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: Scarier of Two Evils
What’s worse than a “tax and spend” liberal? How about a tax-cut and spend Conservative! Prisons, Planes, and Post-signs – these are the things the Canadian taxpayer is going to be paying for in the next budget. And, as usual, there’s got to be a tax out there that needs
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: The Tea Party Strikes Back
How dare President Obama attempt to the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich expire, adding a whopping 4.6% to an already “overtaxed” population! But America shouldn’t worry, ’cause the Tea Party has got their backs. And I don’t mean “America” in the collective sense, I mean those Americans who came
Continue readingOn Rob Ford.
IntroductionI’m not worried about Rob Ford becoming mayor of Toronto. And you shouldn’t be either. Given what he’s presented right now as part of his platform, over at his website, the man seems to be well on his way to becoming another Mel Lastman. Em…
Continue readingTaxes: Why so complicated?
Don’t get me wrong, I know we need to pay taxes. I’m not even going to suggest that we get rid of taxes, because I know they are necessary in our society. What I am saying is that he taxation system has gotten way too complex!
I am a university studen…
Continue readingOn the new feudalism.
I was going to blog something about the CMA’s recent report on Canadian healthcare. But there’s really not much there that anyone could reasonably disagree with. More access to prescription drugs, more access to long-term care for those who need it…
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