It is said that only 2 things are absolute in life: death and taxes. Taxes have been around for thousands of years. The purpose of taxes is to pay for the government, and various government expenditures, like police, fire, hospital, garbage collection, clean drinking water, education, food inspectors, military, and wars.
All these things cost money and various levels of government have been able to find ways to get more tax revenue every time someone discovers a new way to make money. Because taxes have been around for so long, everywhere, they are ingrained in the very fabric of society. You simply cannot avoid paying taxes in some way, which is why, along with inflation and fees, taxes are the 3rd and possibly most costly of the Unavoidable Trifecta of Investment Costs (UTIC)
Kinds of taxes include:
In Canada, consumer taxes are:
- Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is a federal tax (ie. national, run from Ottawa) and is spent across the country.
- Provincial Sales Tax (PST), which is run at a provincial level, so the money is directly collected by Quebec City, Regina or Halifax and is not shared with other provinces. Only Alberta has no PST.
- Or Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which is a combination of PST and GST in one tax. Currently, only 5 provinces have HST instead of PST and GST:
- Nova Scotica
- Prince Edward Island
- New Brunswick
As its name suggests, you will pay a lot more in consumer tax if you buy a lot of stuff, ie. consume.
In Canada, both the federal government, ie. the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and provinces, eg. Fredericton, Regina will take a significant chunk of your paycheque before it even reaches you. Every year, you have until the end of April to complete your income tax return. Your income tax return is basically you telling the government how much money you made in a given year (including money from investments, foreign properties, and pretty much anything else you can make money on), and the government making sure you’ve paid your fair share of taxes on the income you claimed.
The CRA, ie. federal government, takes 15% of your income if you made less than $44,701, up to 29% on anything more than $138,586.
The provinces each take a different amount of your income. In Alberta, the provincial government in Edmonton simply takes 10% of your taxable income, no matter how much you made. In other provinces, your income tax will be determined by your income: the provincial government will take as little as 5% in BC and Ontario for low income earners, up to 21% in Nova Scotia for high income earners.
Canadian cities and towns are all run by local governments and mayors, but the only taxes they are legally allowed to collect are property taxes. Because there are so many municipalities in Canada, there is a wide range of property taxes. Typically, your land will be assessed by the municipality you live in to determine the value of your property, taking into account renovations, the local housing market, amenities, proximity to good things like schools and transit. You will then pay an annual tax on the estimated value of your property that goes straight to city hall.
Capital Gains Taxes
This one is just for investors. If you make an investment, and sell it to collect a profit, you have to pay taxes on that. It doesn’t matter if it’s a house (as long as it’s not your only house) or stocks in your favorite company, the government wants you to give a share of the proceeds back to public coffers.
In Canada, you pay a capital gains tax on 50% of your investment profits. That means if you invest $10,000 in an unprotected fund (ie. outside of a TFSA or RRSP), and make a 40% profit, and then withdraw your $14,000, you would need to pay your current income tax rate on half your profit of $4000.
50% of $4000 (the income from your investment) is $2000. If your income tax rate is 37%, 37% of $2000 is $740 in capital gains taxes. The CRA has another example of calculating your capital gains here.
There are many other kinds of taxes and fees governments charge, like corporate taxes, inheritance taxes, carbon taxes, custom taxes, tariffs, etc. But there are also many kinds of tax deductions / breaks you can apply for to avoid paying a significant portion of your regular taxes.
It is controversial to say if tax payers get good value for the taxes they pay or not, but certainly, it is hard to argue that society would be better off without the kinds of services governments offer.