Dear Editor:
Tax fairness?
Income tax, PST, GST, property tax, school tax, speculation tax, gas tax, TransLink, sin taxes, carbon tax, etc. – who should pay to run our three levels of government and the services they provide? What is considered a fair taxation distribution in this province? This is the heart of the current B.C. debate.
We have a political system that rewards (elects) parties that promise new things to voters that they don’t have to pay for.
But the money does indeed have to come from somewhere, whether increased debt or tax revenue and British Columbian taxpayers will ultimately pay the price.
For 2018 the current combined top income tax rate in this province is now 49.8 per ent (an increase of 6.1 per cent in the last five years).
Consider this – a person earning a million dollars a year contributes approximately $500,000 immediately in income tax that goes towards our government services, and then continues to contribute many more times as the balance of their after-tax income is spent and taxed further in the province.
These people are also more likely to contribute significantly to charitable causes, whether personally or corporately and less likely to use our social programs. Is that fair? Is it enough? When would it be too much?
No matter what tax bracket we find ourselves in, consideration should be made as to what that fair contribution is.
It's too easy to stick our heads in the sand when it doesn’t cost us directly. It makes more sense to incentivize all British Columbians to earn income and make their own spending decisions on their after-tax dollars.
Jamieson Merritt
West Vancouver
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