Tax Breaks, Tax Breaks, Rolly Polly Tax Breaks

Most of the leadership candidates, if not all, are promising tax breaks...tax breaks everywhere!

Jim Dinning was going to give a tax break to under 30 year olds but then changed his mind for some reason. Shouldn't have changed...I like guys who stick to their guns but whatever...it was flawed from the beginning but if you are going to bring it up stick to it, don't change on the fly...not yet anyhow.

Ed Stelmach today is saying that he wants to give a tax break to seniors...flawed, flawed policy but he better stick with it...he threw it out there.

We, as a government, removed Seniors from paying health care premiums...another flawed policy.

And here is why I think this is the case.

If you want to give a tax break, you should do so on the basis of what one pays on their income tax. There are some stinking rich under 30 year olds and there are some stinking rich seniors. Why should they be eliminated from paying a certain amount of taxes just because they fall into a certain age bracket? Should it not be the case that if you make a certain amount of money you get taxed a certain amount?

Same with the Health care premium thing. There are some wicked wealthy seniors out there who are not paying health care premiums but probably use the system far more than anybody under the age of 65. So would it not be better if everybody under a certain amount of income is relieved of paying premiums rather than an age? Grouping people by age and deciding what they pay based on their age is kind of ridiculous.

Instead of discriminating based on age, discriminate based on what you make. It is the Canadian way! I think a better option would be to say...if you make less than x amount, you do not have to pay premiums. If you make more...ding ding, pay up.

Instead of giving an under 30 year old a tax break how about we say that if you make under x amount (maybe 30K or something) you don't have to pay nearly as much tax.

But that was the way we had it before wasn't it? And then we moved to the flat tax...I like the flat tax, so how can we make the two work.

I think you just have to raise exemptions and the like. I know I am making this sound like an awfully simple way of doing it, but it is just my opinion on these policies. And I only pick Jim and Ed because they are the only two I thought of this morning...I am sure the other candidates fail or succeed in their own ways...the policies mentioned are what I thought of right off the top.

So that is how I think our tax policies should work in this province...don't be classifying tax payers based on age but rather do so based on income. And you may want to throw some incentives in there for students or something, but this is just my quick idea for now.

Go ahead, pick it apart...that is why I bring it up.