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Comment by cmrdporcupine | Hacker News Reader

Plenty of US states (e.g. California) end up with total taxation up in the same range as Canadian provinces, in the higher income brackets anyways.

And Canadian corporate taxes are very low. US and Canada basically the same on this front.

https://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/taxation/canada-...

"While the lowest five corporate tax rates worldwide are held by corporate tax havens (led by Ireland), the United States and Canada have ranked ninth and tenth respectively out of 33 major economies for the past two years. The corporate tax rate in Canada is lower than all the averages of regional jurisdictions, including the global and G7, according to the average tax rates of 33 UHY international firms, assuming companies have a profit of $1 million. "

Canada's problem is not excessive taxation. It's monopolies and lack of competition and over-reliance on commodity exports.

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Something is paying for Canada's massive public sector. What do you think it is?

As for California, a lot of companies moved to Washington to escape the high taxes. Washington used to be a low tax state, but no longer, and companies aren't moving here anymore.

(Washington recently added a capital gains tax, payroll taxes, a $.50 per gallon additional gas tax, and boosted the sales tax to 10.1%.)

Why don't you try using facts and numbers instead of insinuations, then? Show me how Canadians are being screwed on taxes.

Actually I know working class Canadians are -- Canada's system is actually not very progressive compared to many US states, the bottom end of the tax bracket is fairly heavily weighted... but corporations here are sitting pretty. Best gig in Canada (after real estate) is to be a fake "contractor" paying corporate taxes instead of personal income taxes, and stashing your wealth in corporate assets and paying your spouse dividends... it's ridiculous.

In any case, to throw it back: Something is paying for the US's massive defense sector. What do you think it is?

The fake contractor scheme is exactly the same in Sweden, the dividends too and saving assets inside the business entity.

> Something is paying for the US's massive defense sector. What do you think it is?

Taxes and deficits. Both of which are extracted from the economy.

So, so many people have recommended I do the fake contractor thing. Dude, just pay your wife to do “HR stuff” or something. Wait, why buy a personal vehicle? You could buy one for your company to travel to client meetings. You know you could be putting X amount into your “business”? Why lose all this money in taxes?

The thing is, we need people to pay taxes because our public systems are having major issues and people earning or paying less is a real problem for all of us. Would I like to get more from what I earn? Yeah, in a sense. Do I need it? Not as much as the average Canadian. Not even close.

Isn't that only an option when you have multiple contracts?

It does seem like in the last 10 years the tax code in Canada has become more strict and the CRA really doesn't like single-customer "corporations" anymore and ends up taxing them just like employment. So some of the holes at least have been plugged.

For 10 years I worked at Google and pulled in what I would consider a ridiculous salary. But over 50% of it was pulled away in taxes. I am a socialist by conviction so don't complain about these kinds of taxes much, but it really chafed me to see people in contracting situations bringing in more than me by squirreling away money, hiding it from the gov't in these kinds of corporate arrangements.

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