{"id":63363,"date":"2015-10-21T02:43:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T07:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63363"},"modified":"2015-10-21T02:43:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T07:43:50","slug":"high-income-earners-face-higher-taxes-lower-child-benefits-under-liberals-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/21\/high-income-earners-face-higher-taxes-lower-child-benefits-under-liberals-2\/","title":{"rendered":"High income earners face higher taxes, lower child benefits under Liberals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OTTAWA \u2013 Canada\u2019s highest income earners face the prospect of higher taxes under a new Liberal majority government, but those in the middle can expect a break.<\/p>\n

Keith MacIntyre, a tax specialist at accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton, says people in the middle tax brackets could see a reduction in the federal income tax they\u2019ll be required to pay if Justin Trudeau\u2019s promises are put in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly people in those brackets will be looking forward to that in terms of additional cash flow,\u201d MacIntyre said from Halifax.<\/p>\n

The prime minister-designate campaigned relentlessly on a plan to help what he described as Canada\u2019s middle class.<\/p>\n

Under the party\u2019s platform, the Liberals pledged to cut the middle income-tax bracket to 20.5 per cent from 22 per cent. However, to help pay for the cut, the party has promised to create a new federal tax bracket of 33 per cent for those earning more than $200,000 a year.<\/p>\n

The increase means that the top marginal income tax rate in Canada is set to be between 43 per cent and 58.75 per cent depending on the province, according to TD Bank. The bank says New Brunswick will have the highest combined rate, while Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario are also expected to have a combined marginal rate above 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be a new day for high-rate income earners in terms of the percentage rates they are going to pay,\u201d MacIntyre said.<\/p>\n

Those in the lowest tax brackets won\u2019t see a change in their tax bills under the Liberal plan, but if they have children, the party\u2019s new child benefit is expected to put more money in their pockets.<\/p>\n

High-income earners, meantime, will receive less under the Liberals\u2019 plan to eliminate the universal child-care benefit given its proposed replacement is aimed at putting more money into the pockets of lower-income families.<\/p>\n

The Liberal child benefit, in combination with the cut to the middle tax bracket, will offset the benefits of the Conservatives\u2019 controversial income-splitting initiative for families. The Liberals attacked income-splitting because it failed to benefit single-parent families or those in which both parents were in the same tax bracket.<\/p>\n

For the most part, however, the devil will be in the details for individual families in terms of how much they\u2019ll benefit under a Trudeau government.<\/p>\n

Caroline Battista, a senior tax analyst with H&R Block Canada, says it all depends on specific circumstances, including age, income, number of children and other variables.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Canada, our system is unique to the individual and tax obligations are based on each person\u2019s allowable deductions and qualified credits, so it\u2019s hard to make a sort of sweeping statement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Liberals also campaigned on a promise that they\u2019ll roll back this year\u2019s increase in the tax-free savings account contribution limit. That means the limit will return to $5,500 after being raised to $10,000 this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne good thing that taxpayers will look for is that the TFSA is still there, it is just that they will have to look to find other places in order to shelter their money or other ways to shelter their money,\u201d MacIntyre said.<\/p>\n

The Liberals are also expected to restore the eligibility age for the old age security and guaranteed income supplement to 65. The Conservatives had introduced a plan to raise it gradually to 67.<\/p>\n

Trudeau has also promised to revamp and expand the Canada Pension Plan, but details haven\u2019t yet been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 Canada\u2019s highest income earners face the prospect of higher taxes under a new Liberal majority government, but those …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":10381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-63363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-original","mauthors-craig-wong","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}