See if you can balance the city budget.

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eljay said:
Privatize library and zoo. Done. There's plenty more fluff in there. This is a first world problem.
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I just don't see that as the solution.

How much can you save? Estimates are 10%, or 15% in the best case scenario.

The zoo budget is only $11.71 million. If you save 10%, it is only $1,171,000 saved.
The libraries are $171.56 million. 10% savings would be $17 millions.


We are talking about a $86 million gap, so not even close.

In that case, let's talk about privatizing the police... ten percent savings on ONE BILLION dollars are a lot of money...

Rob Ford was 100% right about efficiencies. Too bad it was all talk, he never did anything about it.
 
Income tax. Sales tax on everything I buy. Property tax. Gas tax. Of course, buying things is a variable but I am sitting at a 48% income tax to start with.

It's worse than that, actually. I am a business owner, so I am paying many of the addon taxes for my employees that the government has forced on small and medium business in the past 10 years.
 
MarcosSantiago said:
I just don't see that as the solution.

How much can you save? Estimates are 10%, or 15% in the best case scenario.
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By privatization, I meant 100% savings. Give them away or sell them. Unaffordable luxuries. Libraries are obsolete. Giving everyone (literally everyone, not just people that actually use libraries) a free kindle fire and free wifi would be cheaper. Talk to Amazon.


mxs said:
Really?? ... no way. How does it break down? Let's say you made 100K ... what would 70K go to? .... SUV payments and mansion mortgage do not count as indirect tax related costs .... LOL
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I did my household calc last year and we were at 65%.
Income tax, HST, Property Tax, Gas taxes, other fees that happen in the course of life. If you meditate on where all your money goes, you'll realize that a lot is taxed without you being directly involved. Like when you buy something, how much tax revenue is created. 13% by the end user, right off the top. They guy selling to you, he pays income tax from the money he gets paid for selling to you. The company he works for pays tax on their profits (can be a lot or a little depending on what margins are like). All his suppliers have employees with salaries and margins that gets taxed. There are layers and layers of tax.

So if what is easy to see is nearly 60%, there is still more that is hidden.

I quit smoking and mostly don't drink for two reasons: health and taxes. I'm so disgusted by the LCBO and liquor taxes that drinking is now only a very special occasion.
 
eljay said:
Privatize library and zoo. Done. There's plenty more fluff in there. This is a first world problem.
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I don't think they are profit-generating propositions. No one would want them. They're more like services that improve the quality of life in the city, like parks.
 
According to that document, 42%. However my accountant is taking 48%. I'm sure they're not wrong, as it's undoubtably a blended rate (as 42% is), but I will ask.
 
Shaman said:
According to that document, 42%. However my accountant is taking 48%. I'm sure they're not wrong, as it's undoubtably a blended rate (as 42% is), but I will ask.
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OK, I'll bite. Here are the most generous assumptions I have to make to validate your claim of paying 70% taxes.

- You have to have an income of at least a half million
- Somehow you are paying 48% income tax (more than the maximum)
- You are not benefiting from any tax deductions or credits of any kind
- ALL your discretionary income went to buy about 178500 L of fuel at $1.20 last year (which has the highest tax rate)
- The rest would have to be accounted for by property taxes, which in the highest-tax area means you own $2.25M in property

Any error in these assumption leads to the higher property value estimate, as in $10M or more.

Either this is an accurate portrayal of your finances, or you need a new accountant.
 
According to the Fraser Institute, tax freedom day was June 9th in 2014. Tax freedom day is the day that what you have earned is equal to all of the taxes that you will pay in the year.
 
fastar1 said:
- You have to have an income of at least a half million
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Nope. $135k+ is apparently where you enter the highest tax rate. What I made, I'll keep to myself.

- Somehow you are paying 48% income tax (more than the maximum)
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Came from the accountant's last week. That's what I was presented.

- You are not benefiting from any tax deductions or credits of any kind
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Depends on what you think I actually made. But I hate to tell you, it's damned hard to get tax deductions or credits these days. There are other things you can do to sidestep taxation, but frankly most of them are for people with self-employed, non-corporate companies. And they love to audit my industry every few years. They once spent a week finding $900 that they figured I stole from them (because I didn't keep all my gas receipts in order). It cost me far more than that to give them access to my book-keeping staff and archives, but that cost isn't tax-deductible, now is it...

- The rest would have to be accounted for by property taxes, which in the highest-tax area means you own $2.25M in property
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I haven't specified. 70% might be a little pessimistic, maybe more like 65% but it's still amazingly high, what I'm guaranteed to pay every year. Then if you are like me, you factor mandatory third-party insurance and licensing in as taxes... it's not like I can legally operate my vehicles or trailers without them. At least I don't have to pay into EI... nor can I benefit from it.

As I said, I'll chat her up, probably tomorrow. Maybe I'll even share what I found out.
 
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fastar1 said:
OK, I'll bite. Here are the most generous assumptions I have to make to validate your claim of paying 70% taxes.
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It's not 70% taxes ... but rather 70% of his income goes to income, property, HST, GST, CPP, EI etc. ... If he really does, he must be an outlier of some sort with niche income/costs.

My estimate would be for 100K income person (with average needs and spending habits), it would not be more than 40% when all is said and done ..... I don't have the data to back it up, but it certainly is not 70% because I would not be typing from the computer I have.

But I could be wrong .... LOL
 
Shaman said:
Nope. $135k+ is apparently where you enter the highest tax rate.
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Correct .... but it's a progressive rate system ... you are not paying 48% across the board of the whole income ... the more you make the less you pay .... as a % number from your total income divided the total tax charged to you.

Your accountant sounds sketchy ... LOL ... but it would be interesting to know what he says.
 
She. And she's a registered account with 20+ years experience, so .. I can't envision her being out of line.
 
Shaman said:
Nope. $135k+ is apparently where you enter the highest tax rate. What I made, I'll keep to myself.
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Oh yeah, I don't get it then. That web page is weird.

I appreciate this is none of our business, so you don't have to say anything. It's just that since you mentioned 70%...
 
mxs said:
Correct .... but it's a progressive rate system ... you are not paying 48% across the board of the whole income ... the more you make the less you pay .... as a % number from your total income divided the total tax charged to you.

Your accountant sounds sketchy ... LOL ... but it would be interesting to know what he says.
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Eh? The more you make, the less you pay? I don't think so. It progressively increases with increase of income.
 
Out of every $ that it costs your employer to have you and that you presumably have to give equal value in service for, compared to how much of that $ you put in your pocket after everything is deducted in addition to all consumer taxes, property taxes, fees, electricity debt retirement charges etc. and all other artificially inflated charges like mandatory insurance, monopoly booze etc. I bet you'd be lucky to see 30cents.
 
I was bored in a meeting today so I took a look at some numbers.

I thought "what if they had pegged property tax increases at the rate of inflation from back in '98 at amalgamation?" I took the property tax increase in Toronto from 1998 to 2014 and then I took the Ontario inflation numbers from the same years. Started with $1 in 1998. The result was not what I had expected.

Tax Increase:
$1 in 1998 = $1.53 in 2014

Inflation:
$1 1998 = $1.43 in 2014

So if the city had of pegged property tax increases to inflation back in '98 the city would be bringing in less $....
 
So where is all the wasted money going? I dont seen nicer roads in my area, just more stupid stop signs, traffic lights and speed traps. Why not let us decide where our tax money goes and by how much + in what areas... And if you dont opt to support say the TTC, then you pay a premium when/if you do use it.

Dont those council members give themselves raises pretty often? I really dont think they desrve it, just seems like all they ever do (like every politician IMO) is kick the can down the street for the next elected ******* to promise us the moon, but just kick the can again.

ok, thats enough ranting
 
corpse said:
So where is all the wasted money going? I dont seen nicer roads in my area, just more stupid stop signs, traffic lights and speed traps. Why not let us decide where our tax money goes and by how much + in what areas... And if you dont opt to support say the TTC, then you pay a premium when/if you do use it.

Dont those council members give themselves raises pretty often? I really dont think they desrve it, just seems like all they ever do (like every politician IMO) is kick the can down the street for the next elected ******* to promise us the moon, but just kick the can again.

ok, thats enough ranting
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The question is what are YOU going to do about it?
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