It doesn’t cover all of our healthcare costs, I think we pay higher income tax and higher sales tax also. Our sales tax is 15 percent in my province. Also a lot of Canadians do not agree with me and would rather the sale of spirits be Privatized to lower the cost Out of pocket.
Right does not cover all and not all is applied to just healthcare... as you said. Our sales tax varies and we do not have a federal one at all. I have not looked very hard at the income tax comparison. There was a member here who posted what he cleared and grossed. It was basically the same a they would have cleared in my state. (Again rate would vary from state to state) That was really as far as I bothered to look.
I did look up our info and our entire sales ($283B) would not be enough. ($562B)
Yep, I have no idea how our income taxes compare with yours. I feel like our sales tax is a lot more though. Just compared with the states I have gone to shop in.
Do you have a province and a federal tax? 15% is high. It is 9.6% in my town for most products. But some things like hotels, theaters are much higher. (Which is just a city tax added on) I know some states do not tax food at all and some tax at a much lower rate. It can get confusing.
Ours is confusing, I know when I was a teen we had a separate Provincial sales tax 8% and a 7% government sales tax. some things were taxed on both, some just on provincial. Now we have what’s called a harmonized sales tax. any commodity that is taxable is 15%. Staples like bread, milk ...are not taxed at all.
You pay a little less than twice as much sales tax as NYC - The City Sales Tax rate is 4.5%, NY State Sales and Use Tax is 4% and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375% for a total Sales and Use Tax of 8.875. I'm betting that your personal income tax is also higher.
It's called taxes. That pays for universal healthcare everywhere. I pay a levy of 1.5% on top of regular income tax (comes to about $1000 per year on my salary). I spent 4 days in hospital 2 months ago - total out-of-pocket expenses $13.20 (for the meds they sent me home with, what I got as an inpatient was free). The Australian government taxes liquor, tobacco and petroleum heavily (doesn't own them), we have better services as a result. Government isn't supposed to be run as a for-profit business, that's not its function. Conservatives always complain about "tax and spend" budgets, conveniently forgetting that it's what government is FOR.
Jaimie 