The income splitting option is not mandatory for those who qualify for it. Like any other tax credit, it’s optional. Tax software will flag credits to make sure you get every loophole you’re entitled to – problematic if you still do it manually. One guy in the 15%, a labour
Continue readingTag: Working Life
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: You don’t have to take income splitting. At least one guy hasn’t …
The income splitting option is not mandatory for those who qualify for it. Like any other tax credit, it’s optional. Tax software will flag credits to make sure you get every loophole you’re entitled to – problematic if you still do it manually. One gu…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: You don’t have to take income splitting. At least one guy hasn’t …
The income splitting option is not mandatory for those who qualify for it. Like any other tax credit, it’s optional. Tax software will flag credits to make sure you get every loophole you’re entitled to – problematic if you still do it manually. One guy in the 15%, a labour
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: With the new Québec government, the provinces should push back
Monday’s landslide win by Phillipe Couillard and his Québec Liberal Party is a great sign that the idea of sovereignty may have been set aside for a long time. But I think it should lead to something more. It should lead to the federation our Founders wanted but has often
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Should Worker’s Compensation be a shared responsibility?
We all know the reason for workers’ compensation. We give up the right to sue a company for injuries that happen at the workplace (although it is possible to sue another company that made the equipment responsible for the injury, in a product liability lawsuit). In exchange the province’s compensation
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Harper picks CETA over H of C
I couldn’t believe it when I heard it on the radio this morning. On the first day of the debate regarding the Reply to the Speech from the Throne, Stephen Harper doesn’t face off against Tom Mulcair — by tradition it’s the Opposition Leader that starts the debate. Nope. Harper
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Why I’ll be voting in Ontario on the minimum age
Currently, the minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25 per hour. Presuming a 40 hour week, no sick days and two weeks vacation, that works out to about $20,500 per year. Not a bad piece of change; but with the lowest marginal income tax rate of 20% and payroll taxes of
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Now we finally know the real price of milk, thanks to the teabags
We’re all familiar with the concept of a loss leader — a store will deliberately price key products to a price below cost, often way below cost. This is to get people into the store to buy stuff that is overpriced. A good example are razor handles and blades —
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Dalton gets his way … at what price?
Call me nuts, but if there’s one thing I don’t like about minority governments (also called a “hung legislature” in some other democracies) is that they often rule as if they have a majority. Case in point — Queen’s Park finally passed the 2012 Ontario budget but only after a
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: To what possible end with …
… the “human life” thing? Yes, I’m pro-life. Yes, I have argued here in the past there is a need to open up a debate — not necessarily on banning the abortion procedure but how far along a pregnancy is before restrictions ought to begin, as well as to have
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Towards a "living wage" in Canada
A number of years ago, Canada’s statistics agency got rid of the concept of “the poverty line.” Instead they came up with what is called the “low income cut off” or LICO. For the most recent year for which there are full statistics, 2010, a single person living in a
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Keystone XL delayed; and how many Wal-Marts does Hamilton need?
It was a big surprise but also a delight to hear that Hillary Clinton’s State Department has ordered Trans Canada Pipelines to reconsider the proposed route of the Keystone XL project, in particular the section that would have gone through Nebraska’s S…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Greece and the game of chicken
It is truly unbelievable the game of chicken we’ve seen played this week in Europe. Just one week ago, Greece’s PM George Papandreou, was handed the deal of the millennium – a write off of 50% of his country’s debts — and he caused havoc when he w…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Real questions for less than real Ontario leaders
Dear Leaders:I have made the decision that unless one of you does something so egregious that it merits a comment I will not — will not –make any running commentary about the current election in Ontario. Frankly, the platforms are all uni…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: If you want to win votes, play the ethnic card
It’s true.It’s how the GOP have been able to divide and conquer for most of the last 3 decades in the States, it’s worked marvelously well for the Cons in Ottawa and now Tim Hudak, trying to unseat Dalton McGuinty in next month’s provincial election, i…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Adieu, Wendy
It’s hard to imagine a world without Wendy Babcock. She died three days ago at the age of 32. After a truly horrible life including life on the streets as a sex trade worker, she fought back by getting her GED and then winning a…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Case against DSK on shaky ground
The free world was shocked when Dominique Strauss Kahn was charged with sexual assault a few weeks back. But now, DSK’s bail conditions have been significantly relaxed after the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (son of Jimmy Cart…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Mail moves again
So the postal workers are going back and the mail starts moving tomorrow. Just as well, but there were much better ways to settle the issue than a forced wage settlement that was even less than what the post office was offering.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: H of C like the Pink Bunny — they keep going and going and …
… going and going … the debate in Parliament on the back to work legislation for the locked out workers at the Canada Post Corporation, that is. (Kady O’Malley has a good analysis of exactly what the NDs are up to and how the filibuster…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Simplify the tax system and give us back the lost decade and a half
My beef this Sunday morning is taxes.
I haven’t had much time to think about the “revised” federal budget, and there’s not much point in tearing it apart, any honest analysis would be as long as the budget paper itself (300 pages plus). I do g…
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