Got my forms in the mail last week for doing my taxes in Canada for the first time, after becoming a Permanent Resident last year. After growing up and living most of my life in the U.S., with regard to Canada all I ever heard was how they're all crushed to death under the burden of taxes they have to pay to support their eeee-villll socialist, multicultural agenda.
(more below the flip)
So I decided as an experiment to scan the forms (after photoshopping out my own pathetic numbers) and post the two basic Canadian tax forms here for you all to see. There is a Federal and a Provincial, just like the U.S. has a Federal and State form. They show what I presume to be the major bracket divisions of income (though I'm no accountant or tax expert) and the rates one pays within them. I was rather surprised to see that the tax rates were as low as they are - the top Federal rate appears to be 29%, with the lowest being 15%! A far cry from the numbers (60%, 70%) I heard people casually bandy about back when I was in with the Lush Rimjob crowd.
Not evident in these forms is the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax - which after my first encounter with it I dubbed the Holy Shit! Tax), which is 15% on all taxable goods and services. Most grocery store items are exempt from the sales tax. It is my understanding that this tax, along with some federal money, is what supports the provincial health care systems in Canada. If so, I am perfectly happy to pay it. I haven't personally had to use it yet, but my wife and daughter have, and so far it's been excellent.
Here are the forms themselves, for your perusal - please feel free to coment on any wrong assumptions I have made - this will be educational for me.
Here's the Federal form (click for large version)
and here's the Provincial form (click for large version)
I'm not even getting into allowable deductions here, just the basic rates. Please feel free to point out any interesting differences in the deductions available between the two countries if you have any information to add.
After everything's taken into account, are the taxes in Canada really that much higher? My instincts say no.