The next time I hear someone grumble and complain about sky-high income tax rates in Manitoba -- and as sure as the sun rises each day, it's bound to happen again soon -- I'm going to post this comment from a newbie Manitoban in big bold letters.
And if I'm really feeling like a jerk who wants to make his point, I'll put it in all caps too.
"There were so many things to consider when I was thinking about moving to a new province, but I have to be honest – tax rates never once crossed my mind... "People might be quick to say that Manitoba’s higher tax rate is a bad thing. To be sure, Manitoba definitely has one of the higher provincial rates in Canada. But in my mind, it all balances out in the end. For one thing, you don’t have to pay health care premiums here, and you can’t say the same of Alberta and BC (when I lived in Vancouver, I was paid the mandatory $54 a month for basic provincial health care, and I remember I had to pay in Alberta, too). I’m not upset that Manitoba has a higher tax rate–that doesn’t bother me at all."
Now in all fairness, I'm sure there are a few folks out there who decide where to live based in large part on the marginal differences in income tax rates. Those people make me sad, for if they make major life decisions based on whether a province has bracket creep or not, I hate to ponder what their thought process is when it comes to, say, choosing a spouse or deciding what to name their children.
Any day that a non- or new-Manitoban debunks the tax-bracket canard is a good one in my books.
As for those other folks who care about tax rates, maybe they're just unhappy that their biggest opportunity for tax flight is about to become 1% less lucrative if they pull in more than $350,000.
UPDATE: I would say that Luc is one of those people who makes me sad too, but I've always known that he's the kind of guy who plans to read his children Frontier Centre policy notes as bedtime stories, so it would be kind of pointless to shed too many tears for his plight. And if it gets him blogging and using clever pictures again, then what the hell.
Awesome, simple fun
16 minutes ago
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For people who work doing phone surveys at market research companies high taxes are not a big deal, but for small business owners it is. I'll pay a $54 premium for everyone in my house in exchange for Saskatchewan's tax rates any day.
http://www.walterharder.ca/MarginalTaxRateCalculator.html
Run some numbers through that and see the difference between Manitoba and Alberta.
If you're one of those fat cats pulling in $30,000 per year, you'll pay an extra $1010.39 for the privilege of living in Manitoba. And the more you make, the worse it gets.
I suppose if the money was going towards something beneficial, it wouldn't be so bad...but as far as I can tell, we spend the lion's share on one of the lower-ranked health care systems in the country. Well, at least we have those smooth roads and safe streets as a consolation prize.
Curtis,
I agree in part with your logic regarding taxes not being the highest consideration for some people when they consider a move to a given community.
While not knowing the individual personally one can read the personal profile and discover that the move was based on the heart not on numbers.
I can relate because our move back to MB 16 years ago, following a 20 month stint in the lower mainland of BC, was based on a mix of heart and head factors.
If one reads through the entire post though there is this little gem....
"I’m not upset that Manitoba has a higher tax rate–that doesn’t bother me at all. I’m just peeved that I didn’t catch my oversight earlier and pay a little extra tax throughout the rest of the year to make up for it."
The reality is that we do pay more taxes in MB, and yes, we have serious issues in MB when it comes to value for our dollar in taxes spent.
Will I ever consider leaving Manitoba based on taxation?
No... We chose Brandon, Manitoba based on a whole mix of factors and yes, singling out only one factor as one's final measure is likely a rare case.
Of more concern to me is the many communities still living without clean water and functioning sewage systems, the disregard by the government for areas that are not swing seats, the preoccupation with the term "world class", a serious lack of understanding by decision makers of the depth and breadth of our province, the intentional demonization of rural boogeymen to woo urban voters (ie HYTEK OLWEST and the hog industry), the absolutely brutal situations in the area of Child and Family Services and a whole host of other issues that have had decisions made that take these issues further away from a fair and positive outcome.
Who doesn't consider how much disposable income they'll have after a move, before deciding? In Manitoba, we pay high taxes, and we get virtually nothing special because of it.
it's important to consider the big picture on taxes, not just income tax.
Add health-care premiums (as you mentioned) and property taxes (for an average home in Winnipeg versus, say, an average home in Calgary), and I don't think you'll see much difference at all.
The Romanow government made this point about Saskatchewan when I was living there. It's a valid point here as well.
Stimpson you make a very good point that I did not mention...
If one is to factor in the increases in user and registration fees on everything from our autopac to a marriage license that have occured in the past several years our "money given to government" load is much higher than our visible tax load.
Oh, I don't know about that, Mike. I pay less for auto insurance here than I would in Toronto or Calgary. Quite a lot less. And a shitload less to rent an apartment. The average Calgary homeowner pays a lot more in property taxes than the average Winnipeg homeowner.
Higher car registration fees? More for a marriage licence? Trivial.
I'm pretty confident you'd find the cost of living is much lower in Winnipeg than in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto.
Just a quick note...
Health care premiums were eliminated in Alberta. Also, if you are over 25 with a clean driving record you will probably have cheaper car insurance in Alberta than MB. (although I'm not sure about what parameters are included so maybe Calgary would be more expensive than Edmonton...)
No contest on the rent/property prices.
Stimpson being a good driver my insurance would cost about 30% less in Alberta, and in Saskatoon my insurance would be half what it is here.
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