Taxed to Death - A summary of NDP’s new taxes

[whatnext]

So I submitted my Speculation Tax declaration tonight. Despite Granny Andrew Wilkinson's wailing and gnashing of teeth about how onerous it was, it took me all of 4 minutes.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So I submitted my Speculation Tax declaration tonight. Despite Granny Andrew Wilkinson's wailing and gnashing of teeth about how onerous it was, it took me all of 4 minutes.

I did 3 in 5 mins. It's actually a more friendly UI than the CoV's version.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So I submitted my Speculation Tax declaration tonight. Despite Granny Andrew Wilkinson's wailing and gnashing of teeth about how onerous it was, it took me all of 4 minutes.

What was fantastic was seeing Michael Geller complain on Twitter about having to find all of the legal names for his various numbered companies that own his properties so he can submit the Speculation Tax declaration. He's since deleted it because he got dunked on so hard for being so incredibly out of touch.

Mine took me just under three minutes, and that was longer than I could have taken because I went back a page to make sure everything was filled out correctly. So so onerous!

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

What was fantastic was seeing Michael Geller complain on Twitter about having to find all of the legal names for his various numbered companies that own his properties so he can submit the Speculation Tax declaration. He's since deleted it because he got dunked on so hard for being so incredibly out of touch.

Mine took me just under three minutes, and that was longer than I could have taken because I went back a page to make sure everything was filled out correctly. So so onerous!

The Little People just do not understand what a burden it is to declare your multiple properties and numbered companies.

[whatnext]

I'm sure the OP's heart is just bleeding for this guy :

A Chinese tycoon’s son took to Instagram to complain about British Columbia’s taxes – upset that he was paying more than $900,000 in fees on the purchase of a $5 million supercar.

Ding Chen, the son of China-based multi-millionaire Chen Mailin, posted the invoice for his custom Bugatti supercar to his Instagram on Thursday along with a caption which translates to “This tax… The heart is really tired.”

The bill from Vancouver’s Weissach Performance dealership shows a breakdown of the fees and taxes on the car, but what seemed to upset Chen was the federal and provincial sales taxes, with GST costing him $210,404.25, alongside a whopping $697,939 in PST.

The tax – which equals almost a quarter of the car’s total costs -- is a result of B.C.’s longstanding luxury car tax, which was recently increased by the provincial NDP in February of 2018.

Vehicles costing $125,000 to $149,999 are hit with a 15 per cent rate, while vehicles costing more than $150,000 come with a 20 per cent tax....

....The younger Chen is no stranger to showing off his lavish lifestyle either, posting pictures online of other expensive cars, expensive clothing and watches, and a jet with his name painted on the tail in the past.

Chen’s Instagram account went offline on Friday.

[Millennium2002]

This is a bit of an off-topic / general question, but I didn't want to start an entirely new thread about it.

Apparently the BC Liberals are trying to pin the blame for the high gas prices on the current government due to in part the various fuel taxes that are imposed on top:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ices-1.5117557

Now, to start, I don't trust what the BC Liberals claim and in many ways they are also to blame for the historical imposition of the fuel taxes themselves. In any case, it's hard to know if lowering the fuel taxes will actually mean price relief at the pumps; for all we know, they gas comoanies could easily claim afterwards that the price has to be stay the same for X number of reasons.

But it got me thinking. Our province is in a bit of an odd situation. Economically, we have to compete with neighbours that charge a lot less in taxes overall and who somehow can still get the bills paid for the most part.

For example, we all know that a sizeable chunk of Lower Mainlanders head across the border to make purchases in spite of the current conversion rates due to the fact that consumption taxes in Washington State are generally lower. And at the same time Washington state still has the money to fund expensive projects like the Alaskan Way tunnel, the Link light rail extensions, or that crazy high speed rail study. Meanwhile, despite all of our taxes here, we seem to struggle to cobble enough together for SkyTrain extensions, improvements to both Highways 1 and 99, solutions to the DTES drug / crime / mental illness problem, and so on.

So, having said all that, the question that came to mind was: what do you think we should do with our taxes and spending?

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

For example, we all know that a sizeable chunk of Lower Mainlanders head across the border to make purchases in spite of the current conversion rates due to the fact that consumption taxes in Washington State are generally lower. And at the same time Washington state still has the money to fund expensive projects like the Alaskan Way tunnel, the Link light rail extensions, or that crazy high speed rail study. Meanwhile, despite all of our taxes here, we seem to struggle to cobble enough together for SkyTrain extensions, Highway 1 / 99 improvements, solutions to the DTES drug / crime / mental illness problem, and so on.

So, having said all that, the question that came to mind was: what do you think we should do with our taxes and spending?

I'm not sure you can reasonably compare us with Seattle, if that's what you're doing. They actually voted themselves sales tax increases in order to fund their transit system. However, as a city, they are way behind even Vancouver, and their new Link rail lines are really just catching up. We also have free healthcare.

"What should we do with taxes and spending" is a pretty broad question. If we're just talking about gas taxes and this pipeline debacle, I think the BC response should be doubling down on the conversion off of fossil fuels. Increase the EV rebate, charging infrastructure deployment, take PST off of bicycles, create a new incentive for electric bikes, and boost transit funding.

Throw $100M/yr at it.

[Millennium2002]

Those are fair arguments. I personally do support moving off fossil fuel dependence as soon as possible. And you are right that I forgot to account for both free vs private healthcare and the fact that their transit system is still miles away from where we are today.

I guess what's really nagging me are the many complaints on this forum and elsewhere about how our road infrastructure is so underfunded. In conjunction with the DTES-related issues and the gas price complaints, it makes me question our priorities as a society. It's like... We're trying to minimize what we contribute to the government but have all these big ticket items that we want them to spend it on. What comes first?

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

Those are fair arguments. I personally do support moving off fossil fuel dependence as soon as possible. And you are right that I forgot to account for both free vs private healthcare and the fact that their transit system is still miles away from where we are today.

I guess what's really nagging me are the many complaints on this forum and elsewhere about how our road infrastructure is so underfunded. In conjunction with the DTES-related issues and the gas price complaints, it makes me question our priorities as a society. It's like... We're trying to minimize what we contribute to the government but have all these big ticket items that we want them to spend it on. What comes first?

You just described literally any government. People want things for free, but don't want to pay for them.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Millennium2002

Those are fair arguments. I personally do support moving off fossil fuel dependence as soon as possible. And you are right that I forgot to account for both free vs private healthcare and the fact that their transit system is still miles away from where we are today.

I guess what's really nagging me are the many complaints on this forum and elsewhere about how our road infrastructure is so underfunded. In conjunction with the DTES-related issues and the gas price complaints, it makes me question our priorities as a society. It's like... We're trying to minimize what we contribute to the government but have all these big ticket items that we want them to spend it on. What comes first?

We have two big new bridges, the Port Mann and Golden Ears to Seattle's Alaskan Way tunnel. New Patullo also on the way.

This despite Seattle/WA has huge amounts of corporate money that Vancouver does not.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by whatnext

We have two big new bridges, the Port Mann and Golden Ears to Seattle's Alaskan Way tunnel. New Patullo also on the way.

This despite Seattle/WA has huge amounts of corporate money that Vancouver does not.

Seattle also took the step of tolling an existing bridge rather than constructing a new one.

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

We have two big new bridges, the Port Mann and Golden Ears to Seattle's Alaskan Way tunnel. New Patullo also on the way.

This despite Seattle/WA has huge amounts of corporate money that Vancouver does not.

We have so many projects planned but no money to do them with in the budget:

Site C
Extension to UBC
Skytrain to Langley
Bridge to Delta
And I'm sure there's others. I know Site C will be debt funded but I'm unsure how we will pay for the rest.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by misher

We have so many projects planned but no money to do them with in the budget:

Site C
Extension to UBC
Skytrain to Langley
Bridge to Delta
And I'm sure there's others. I know Site C will be debt funded but I'm unsure how we will pay for the rest.

You're unsure about a lot of things. All large capital projects are debt funded.

Site C is BC Hydro and money has been allocated. The others will follow the same pattern once business cases have been developed and approved. I'd wager Translink's portion of the Skytrain projects will be the hardest to raise.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

You're unsure about a lot of things. All large capital projects are debt funded.

Site C is BC Hydro and money has been allocated. The others will follow the same pattern once business cases have been developed and approved. I'd wager Translink's portion of the Skytrain projects will be the hardest to raise.

The money for the existing Skytrain plans (Broadway to Arbutus, Skytrain to...Clayton?) have been provided. There are calls for a federal congestion tax, which would increase and stabilize federal transit funding by about 2.5x on average, which should help raise at least the remaining funds to get to Langley City.

GMB is dead for now.

[whatnext]

Great to see the BC NDP closing this loophole. Even Business in Vancouver approves

As many as 40,000 international students did not enrol and pay for public health care in B.C. in 2018.

On Thursday B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix announced a new health care fee for all international students. The new $75 monthly fee may, depending on how it is administered, shore up a glaring deficiency in government oversight that’s resulted in tens of thousands of uninsured international students in the province.

While MSP fees are being fully diverted from residents to businesses under the Employers Health Tax on Jan. 1, 2020, roughly 90,000 international students enrolled in MSP at the moment will still be required to pay the fee – the same as the old Medical Services Plan fee before it was phased out in 2017 – for regular access to public health care services...

https://biv.com/article/2019/08/4000...th-care-system

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Great to see the BC NDP closing this loophole. Even Business in Vancouver approves

As many as 40,000 international students did not enrol and pay for public health care in B.C. in 2018.

On Thursday B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix announced a new health care fee for all international students. The new $75 monthly fee may, depending on how it is administered, shore up a glaring deficiency in government oversight that’s resulted in tens of thousands of uninsured international students in the province.

While MSP fees are being fully diverted from residents to businesses under the Employers Health Tax on Jan. 1, 2020, roughly 90,000 international students enrolled in MSP at the moment will still be required to pay the fee – the same as the old Medical Services Plan fee before it was phased out in 2017 – for regular access to public health care services...

https://biv.com/article/2019/08/4000...th-care-system

Even I approve. Was weird that the NDP eliminated this and glad they corrected it.

What does worry me is tourists and “visitors” that use our healthcare. In the end if someone’s dying we can’t turn
them away. I do wonder what the feasibility of requiring visitors provide proof of health insurance, a deposit when visiting, or buying into a common health insurance pool is.

[WarrenC12]

Keeping the "MSP" alive for this sounds silly IMO. Just stop covering them and let them find a private plan.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Keeping the "MSP" alive for this sounds silly IMO. Just stop covering them and let them find a private plan.

Certainly a posibility, as the article points out that is the "norm" in Canada:

...B.C. remains one of the few destinations in Canada in which international students are enrolled in public health care; Ontario, Quebec (with exceptions for some countries of origin), Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Northwest Territories – comprising 65% of international students with study permits in Canada – do not extend public health care insurance to international students. Only Saskatchewan and New Brunswick unconditionally enrol international students in public health care. Meanwhile, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Nunavut provide health care for students in or beyond their second year of studies. These six other jurisdictions represent only 11.3% of the study permits currently issued in Canada while B.C. accounts for just under one quarter....

https://biv.com/article/2019/08/4000...th-care-system

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Certainly a posibility, as the article points out that is the "norm" in Canada:

...B.C. remains one of the few destinations in Canada in which international students are enrolled in public health care; Ontario, Quebec (with exceptions for some countries of origin), Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Northwest Territories – comprising 65% of international students with study permits in Canada – do not extend public health care insurance to international students. Only Saskatchewan and New Brunswick unconditionally enrol international students in public health care. Meanwhile, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Nunavut provide health care for students in or beyond their second year of studies. These six other jurisdictions represent only 11.3% of the study permits currently issued in Canada while B.C. accounts for just under one quarter....

https://biv.com/article/2019/08/4000...th-care-system

We do heavily rely on international students for our economy and to subsidize our education system so including it seems practical. If you give them the option of going private or not this means we may end up paying the tab if they don’t have any and get injured. Plus the BC NDP have been pushing to eliminate private healthcare.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by misher

We do heavily rely on international students for our economy and to subsidize our education system

[citation needed]