2015 property tax calculators - Vernon and Coldstream.

For a peak at your expected property taxes Councillor Spiers has posted a tax calculator comparing property taxes between Coldstream and Vernon (click here).

To view his complete article click here.

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Tax comparisons

Councillor Spiers posted tax calculators for Vernon and Coldstream. If you wish to find out the tax differences visit these calculators, insert your property values (land and improvements) into both calculators and you can compare your 2013 and 2014 taxes in both jurisdictions.

Vernon tax calculator             Coldstream tax calculator

Have fun comparing!

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Media Release - City of Vernon Budget Proposal.

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Campbell's 15% Cut Gives 50% of Benefits to Just 20% with High Income.

October 27, 2010

The 15% tax reduction announced by Premier Campbell in his TV address is NOT a cut restricted to those making less than $72,000 per year; it is a tax cut for everyone on the first $72,000 of their income. That means that the 20% of taxpayers who make over $72,000 a year will get 50% of the total benefits. The total lost revenue is estimated by the Campbell government to be $568 million; those making over $72,000 a year will collectively reap $284 million per year in tax cuts. Once again Campbell has tried to make it look like he is helping the middle class, when the truth is he is helping higher income earners.

Those making less than $72,000 per year are 80% of all taxpayers, but 40% of all taxpayers have incomes so low that they don't pay any provincial income taxes, hence they won't benefit from Campbell's announcement. Another 40% of taxpayers pay some provincial tax, but not enough to get the full benefit that will be enjoyed by those in higher tax brackets.

Campbell's brief comments on education would be laughable if the problems facing children who are not ready for school weren't so severe. He acknowledged that after 10 years in power, 1 out of every 5 grade 4 students are not achieving basic skills expected for their grade level. He wants British Columbians to believe that like magic, that problem will be solved in the next 5 years, but he isn't saying how much it might cost or how it would be accomplished.

A quarter billion dollars that his tax cut will give to higher income families would go a long way towards addressing child poverty and children who are not ready for school. That is why announcing major tax policy four months before the next budget and without consultation has a very high opportunity cost. There are better and more equitable ways of spending that money than using it to try to buy a little popularity for Campbell. He's shown that he can't consult and isn't responsible enough to set the course for British Columbia.

He began his TV address with a rehash of why he imposed the HST, starting by saying that businesses wanted it. He failed to mention that it is a $2 billion per year (forever) tax shift from some businesses to all BC families. He failed to mention that there are winners and losers, let alone give examples from each group. Losers include the restaurant industry where data from Statistics Canada are already showing a drop in food sales. Losers also include any service business that is labour intensive, like hair stylists or gardeners. He can't prove his claims about benefits from the HST, yet most people can see the negative consequences of the hated tax.

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Sacha’s spin-free discussion on HST

There has been so much spin about the HST. My post comes from both an accounting background and a physics background (two professions that might seem quite distant have a lot in common). I am also very well versed with income tax legislation and government policy concerning finance in general.

Both sides of the HST debate have spun the facts so hard that it is difficult to get legitimate analysis on it. The following is an attempt at clarifying the HST, as I see it.

Q: Who wins with the HST?
A: Businesses that have high amounts of inputs that they previously would have paid PST for – they can claim these as input credits with HST. Generally, this applies for businesses that deal with products as opposed to services. So industrial companies, or manufacturing companies would be a significant winner with the HST.

Q: Who loses with the HST?
A: On the business side, any businesses that have their costs dominated by labour and/or non-PSTable items. Examples include restaurants and consultants. Individually, almost everybody is going to end up paying more in consumption taxes than before the HST implementation. It is impossible to conceive of a scenario where ordinary middle-aged working individuals will pay less tax with the HST, even when factoring in the increase in the basic exemption (the amount of income you can earn without paying provincial income taxes).

Q: Will prices drop as a result of HST?
A: Only in those industries that have significant amounts of PST on their business inputs. It is also unlikely these price increases will be seen immediately – it will be subtle and impossible to measure, although in theory competitive industries should realize some price decreases in the medium and long term had HST not been implemented. The real strategic issue is that the HST benefits manufacturing, and manufacturing has been consistently been outsourced across the Pacific (to countries like China, India, Thailand, etc.) – HST will clearly enable us to be more competitive with manufacturing, but since labour costs are also a significant cost input, I haven’t seen any clear analysis to establish that we will be able to draw in more manufacturing capital. A lot of the theory behind the positive aspects of HST depends on capital asset purchases being a detriment to manufacturing, as opposed to high labour costs (which the HST does not address at all).

Q: Will HST increase my wages?
A: Very, very, very indirectly. The theory is that with increased investment, you will have demand for labour, and with labour demand, this will result in increased expectations for wages. The answer to this question is much closer to “no” than it is to “yes” and to claim that HST will result in increased wages is simply not true – doubly so if you work in a service industry. (for more information click here).

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Some amazing facts.

The big news now days is the one billion dollar expenditure on the security of the G8 and G20 participants. Of course the $2 million cost of the fake lake and other goodies that only reporters will see outside of officials is also on the news.

Big numbers such as a billion dollars are hard perceive. So to show how much an individual resident of Canada contributes to this cause I calculated those costs. Assuming in round numbers that Canada’s population is 35,000,000. One billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) divided by 35,000,000 is $28.57. Thus, each man, woman and child contributes $28.57, most of them unwittingly, to the security of leaders discussing fiscal responsibility. Amazing!

Add to this the cost of the security of the Olympic Games and we have all spent well over $50 per person for security. Now, let me complain about local tax increases!

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B.C.'s other wildfire: HST anger aflame

By Michael Smyth
08-05-2009

The NDP has been handed a pot of political gold with Gordon Campbell's broken-promise HST tax grab.

The party's online petition against the 12-per-cent tax has so far attracted 8,300 signatures in five days. Compare that to the 4,000 signatures the party scraped up in opposition to the carbon tax — and that took five months.

Over at Facebook, the NO B.C. HST group has over 26,000 members and counting. Signatures are flowing in to the B.C. Restaurant Association's online petition, too.

How widespread is anger over the HST? Just watch the Global TV Newshour tonight. Sources tell me they have an exclusive opinion poll and the HST opposition is massive. And I mean huge.

Will the government blink? They're nervous, I can tell you that. Watch for them to cut sweetheart deals with a few favoured special-interest groups to ease the HST sting. But the terms of the government's agreement with Ottawa leaves little wriggle room and a total climb-down looks unlikely, despite the summer flames of protest.

The trick for the NDP, of course, will be sustaining that anger through a long Liberal mandate before the next election. But think about this:

The tax doesn't take effect for another year. Parents will be especially choked when the tax comes due on school supplies in the fall of 2010. Imagine a Winter Olympics budget hangover being revealed at the same time people get slammed with an HST the Liberals promised not to introduce during the election.

Throw in a B.C. Rail corruption trial that tips over a stinking hamper of dirty Liberal laundry and you can suddenly imagine anger at the government lasting for quite some time...

UPDATE: The astonishing numbers from the Global TV poll: 85 per cent opposed to the HST, just 12 per cent in favour. Can the government stand firm in the face of that degree of anger, and ram this tax down people's throats in a recession when so many are that furious? They're shaking in their loafers in Victoria!

msmyth@theprovince.com

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Opinion – Biggest Tax Shift in BC History: Why Did Campbell Do It?

By David Schreck, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca

Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen admit that their harmonized sales tax (HST) shifts $1.9 billion in tax from businesses to B.C. families. That's what it means when they say the tax saves businesses $1.9 billion per year while keeping the government revenue-neutral; in other words, you pay more to make up for what businesses will save. You will do that by paying a 12 per cent HST on almost everything that currently attracts only a 5 per cent GST (children's clothing, gasoline and diesel fuel are exceptions).

A shift of $1.9 billion per year from businesses to B.C. families makes the HST the biggest tax shift in B.C. history.

Campbell's radical 2001 tax cuts cost $1.5 billion with just 8,000 people receiving 14 per cent of the benefits. His 2002 50 per cent increase in MSP premiums cost B.C. families about $450 million per year. It is hard to find anything that comes close to the $1.9 billion per year HST tax shift. Dividing that by B.C.'s population of 4.4 million produces an average tax shift of $428 for each person, infant to senior; it is $1,714 for a family of four. Of course all families are not equal. As a proportion of their income, high-income families will devote less to paying the HST than middle income families, so the HST is regressive. (To read the rest of the story go to TheTyee.ca).

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Anti-HST petition started by B.C. NDP

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Anti-HST petition started by B.C. NDP

B.C. New Democrat MLAs plan to spend the August holiday weekend circulating petitions opposing the provincial government's plans to introduce a harmonized sales tax.The 12 per cent harmonized sales tax (HST) combines the seven per cent provincial sales tax and the five per cent GST, and is scheduled to take effect next July. But provincial NDP Leader Carole James said the New Democrats are hoping to thwart the plan and are circulating a petition that says the Liberal government has no mandate to introduce the tax."We're going to be circulating this wide and far all over this province," James told CBC News on Friday."We're going to make sure it's out with the public. We really have heard an outcry from people who have been asking for this," James said. The way B.C.'s HST will be applied means consumers will pay an extra seven per cent tax on many items that were previously exempt from the PST, such as restaurant meals, airline tickets, funerals, haircuts, and the portion of the price of new homes over $400,000.James said the HST is an issue that crosses party boundaries.On Thursday, former B.C. Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm urged people to take to the streets in protest against the harmonized tax.

Link to HST petition: http://www.bcndp.ca/hstpetition
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Don Quixote Note:

• Carbon Tax

"With the proposed point-of-sale rebate for motor fuels, the provincial portion of the B.C. HST would not apply to gasoline, diesel, marine diesel or aviation fuel including biofuels components used in a motor vehicle, boat or aircraft to the carbon tax payable on those fuels.

However, the B.C. HST will be applied on top of the purchase price including any carbon tax on all other fuels."

This effectively means that all Residential users of electricity (Hydro) and natural gas (Terasen) that are exempt presently from PST will now have that extra 7% charged on their utility bills. Also despite the Finance Minister's concern expressed when the Feds charged GST on the Provincial Carbon Tax it would appear that this tax on a tax will become a Provincial reality on July 1, 2010. (Canada Day)

BC Finance Minister Colin Hansen says there is nothing he can do. "I personally disagree with the concept of a tax on a tax but that's the way the federal government has the GST set up,'' he said.

Actual E-Mail Reply from Finance minister Oct 2, 2008 regarding GST on Carbon tax.

Posted by Don Quixote at 8/01/2009 0 comments

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