{"id":345,"date":"2010-05-13T08:09:42","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T15:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/05-6\/wheat-from-the-chaff-sorry-we-arent-drowning-in-taxes"},"modified":"2011-07-13T21:22:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T04:22:50","slug":"wheat-from-the-chaff-sorry-we-arent-drowning-in-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/345","title":{"rendered":"Sorry&#8230; we aren&#8217;t drowning in taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/345\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"blog\"><!-- back and forward --><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogbody\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>Here&#8217;s a story that I have yet to find in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Vancouver Sun <\/span>or the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">G and M.<\/span> [Update: I did find this story in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">National Post<\/span>, but it was half the length of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Toronto Star<\/span> article.] This is not the sort of thing that low-tax corporate media outlets want you to know; the gist of the story is that federal and provincial business taxes are actually quite low, even in comparison to the United States. Of course, racing to the bottom with Mexico may not be the greatest idea, either.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/business\/article\/808475--canada-scores-well-in-tax-report\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;\"><strong>Canada scores well in tax report: Canada ranks behind Mexico, and far ahead of the U.S. in KPMG report<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;\"><strong>thestar.com (Toronto Star Online, May 13, 2010)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Canada ranks second to Mexico and far ahead of the U.S. on a list of tax-friendly countries for business, according to a new report. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">In general, businesses in Mexico pay 40.1 per cent less tax than those in the U.S. Taxes in Canada are just over one-third, or 36.1 per cent, lower. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">At the other end of the spectrum, corporate taxes are 81.4 per cent higher in France than the U.S., according to the report released Wednesday by accounting firm KPMG. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Lower corporate tax rates can be a huge competitive advantage when companies decide where to set up shop, said Greg Wiebe, managing partner in KPMG tax practice in Toronto. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">\u201cBusiness has the ability to set up manufacturing, distribution plants, and offices anywhere in the world depending on where it makes sense. Having a competitive corporate tax rate hopefully allows you to attract more business and investment into the country which creates jobs,\u201d Wiebe said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">\u201cWe\u2019re a small country and have a relatively small economy. We need to take advantage of anything we can to attract business into this country.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">While Mexico remains in the number one spot with the lowest total taxes, changes to the tax systems in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands moved them higher in the ranking, conducted every two years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">The report tallies up the cost of income tax, capital, sales, and property taxes, as well as miscellaneous local taxes and statutory labour costs, in 95 cities across 10 countries. The U.S., the largest economy in the world, is used as a baseline. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">While personal income taxes and sales taxes are still higher in Canada, payroll taxes have been reduced, capital taxes have been phased out, and corporate tax rates have been falling in recent years. Canada\u2019s federal and provincial corporate tax rates are approaching 25 per cent. The U.S. federal tax rate for business starts at 35 per cent, and state tax rates vary. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Canada ranked third in the 2008 survey. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">The introduction of the HST in Ontario and British Columbia is likely to enhance Canada\u2019s standing in the coming years, Wiebe said. \u201cThe HST is quite a business friendly way of applying a sales tax.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Among the ranking of cities, Vancouver comes out on top, and ahead of Monterrey and Mexico City. Seattle, its natural U.S. counterpart, ranked at 18. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Montreal and Toronto rounded out the top five, again showing a big tax advantage over U.S. cities in the eastern corridor, such as New York City, which came in at 27, Philadelphia at 14, and Boston, which captured the 13th spot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Lower health care costs and provincial taxes in British Columbia helped boost Vancouver to the top of the list, Wiebe said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Vancouver was also deemed the most attractive city, tax-wise, for manufacturing and corporate and information technology companies. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">For research and development, Montreal ranked as the top Canadian city, taking the No. 2 spot behind Melbourne, Australia. Sydney, Australia; Vancouver; and Manchester, U.K. filled out the top five. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Australia moved up to the top spot from fifth place in the 2008 survey, as a result of a new refundable tax credit for research and development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>Almost as fascinating as the article were some of the letters posted by the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Toronto Star<\/span> readers. Here&#8217;s one:<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Strange Report<\/strong><br \/>\nI was always under the impression that taxes are lower for businesses in the US than in Canada. I would be interested in knowing exactly how these findings were put together as it is probably laden with bias. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>In other words, all the reader has ever heard from the media is that businesses are over-taxed. So, any contrary point of view, even from a respected international accounting firm like KPMG, must be immediately suspicious. I suspect such skepticism would rarely follow a more traditional &#8220;taxes are too high&#8221; story, no matter how self-serving it might be. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posted\">Posted by <a href=\"mailto:cwelch@lexiconic.net\">Colin Welch<\/a> at 6:37 PM<br \/>\n<em>Edited on: Thursday, May 13, 2010 10:22 PM<\/em><br \/>\nCategories: <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_bcpolitics.html\">BC Politics<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_canadianpolitics.html\">Canadian Politics<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_theeconomy.html\">The Economy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_themedia.html\">The Media<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a story that I have yet to find in the Vancouver Sun or the G and M. [Update: I did find this story in the National Post, but it was half the length of the Toronto Star article.] This is not the sort of thing that low-tax corporate media outlets want you to know; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}