Stephen Harper announces family tax cut, child care benefit boost

[valve37]

Can you believe Trudeau said he would reverse the income splitting if elected. That should go over like a lead balloon. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a new "family tax cut," a version of the family income-splitting promise he made during the 2011 federal election, along with increases to monthly child care benefit cheques and to the amount taxpayers can deduct for child care expenses.

The tax cut comes in the form of a non-refundable federal tax credit — meaning it will have no effect on provincial income taxes — and is capped at $2,000.

Harper made his announcement at a campaign-style event at a community centre north of Toronto. He was joined by Finance Minister Joe Oliver and other Conservative MPs, including several from the Toronto area.

• Harper to introduce scaled-down income splitting for parents
• Child fitness tax credit to be doubled and made refundable
• 5 ways the government could tweak income-splitting promise

The prime minister also announced a boost to the universal child care benefit, to $160 a month per child up to age six from the current $100 per month, and is introducing a credit of $60 per month for children aged six to 17 years.

The new credits go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, but the government will wait until July to make the first payments and make them retroactive.

That means every Canadian family with children under 18 is set to receive $420 per child just three months ahead of the next scheduled federal election — plus regular monthly cheques as the campaign nears.

"Our goal has always been to make sure that Canada is the best country in the world in which to raise a family," Harper told the assembled crowd in Vaughan, Ont.

"Our government is utterly convinced of one thing: when it comes to the cost of raising a family, Canada's moms and dads deserve all of the help that we can give them."

Changes to 2011 promise, but more money

Harper's 2011 promise on income splitting was contingent on a balanced budget, a goal that will officially be met with next spring's budget and one that many observers believe is already a fact.

The 2011 proposal promised couples the ability to transfer up to $50,000 from one spouse or partner to the other to take advantage of lower tax brackets, a move the government projected would cost $2.7 billion per year.

Thursday's announcement puts a cap of $2,000 on the tax savings for each couple, which will reduce the cost of the program and free up money for the universal child care credit increase.

Those two measures together will cost $3.1 billion in 2014-15 and $4.5 billion in 2015-16.

Harper also announced that the limit on the child-care expenses deduction, which allows taxpayers to claim child-care expenses incurred in order to work or go to school, will be raised by $1,000.

Harper said all the measures being introduced would save Canadian families on average $1,100 a year, but higher-income families with more children will stand to save significantly more than that.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was not impressed with Harper's announcements.

"Income splitting is an idea that will give a $2,000 tax cut to families like mine or Mr. Harper's — that's not good enough," he told reporters during a brief statement in Whitby, Ont., where he was campaigning for next month's federal byelection with Liberal candidate Celina Caesar-Chavannes. He did not offer a counter-proposal.

Thursday's event included Harper interviewing a pair of "average" Canadian families on either side of the stage about the daily challenges of raising a family.

Harper previously announced the federal children's fitness tax credit will be doubled immediately, to a maximum credit of $150 per child from $75, and made fully refundable as of 2015. A refundable credit means parents whose incomes are too low to pay taxes will still get money.

The New Democrats announced a $15-a-day child-care plan earlier this month as part of an ambitious plan to create or maintain a million affordable daycare spaces across the country.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has already vowed he’d reverse a Conservative income-splitting policy if his party forms a government. Trudeau will speak to reporters after Harper's announcement.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-announces-family-tax-cut-child-care-benefit-boost-1.2...

[puckstopshere]

"For the first time in Canadian history, more than half of the federal government’s revenue in 2014 will come from personal income taxes"

Where are all the new jobs and new investment and the new companies flocking to Canada to take advantage of these low taxes?  Doesn't seem to be having much of an effect on our economy.

And in return, what are we tax payers getting for our increased contributions - less and less, it seems.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Our "leader"..... hardly. Harper making deals with a Communist country with a horrible human rights record, where people still disappear in the middle of the night for speaking our against the government. What happened to our integrity and our morals?

Go ahead Harper, sell off more of Canada for the wealthy because neither you or they have any values left.

Mark my words, the day will come when everyone who deals with China will regret it because we're making them more wealthy and more powerful and it will come back to bite us in the but one day.  

[puckstopshere]

"with a horrible human rights record"

Canada isn't much better.  My grandfather was taken from his home in B.C. back in the 40's.  The RCMP came in the middle of the night.  They took all his papers - business and personal.  No one was told why he was being held or where.  A few days later, he was released - with no money and had to hitch a ride home.  He was never charged - but none of his papers were ever returned.

Why did the RCMP come?  Seems my grandfather was a union supporter.  He was deemed a "communist".  While an alderman in South Vancouver, he was responsible for getting beds for the firefighters who worked 24 hour shifts.  He was also a member of what would become the CCF.  In short, he was a RED.

[valve37]

"Mark my words, the day will come when everyone who deals with China will regret it because we're making them more wealthy and more powerful and it will come back to bite us in the but one day. "

Mark my words. My Mother used those words as a warning that the day will come when the Red armmies from the North will decend upon the Middle East and there wiil be a great war and the time of the Rapture will have arrived.

Rapture is a term in Christian eschatology which refers to the "being caught up" discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be "caught up in the clouds" to meet "the Lord in the air".[1]

Are you prepared?     

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

I don't believe in Rapture, I believe in the repetitious greed of the human species. I believe in the weakness of humanity when it has power it does not know how to handle. Trade with Communist China is creating a powerful and wealthy nation whose main most plentiful resource is people and they could lose millions and it wouldn't bother them a bit. They also have a highly intelligent people and vast unknown military resources.

Harper just closed deals with China and many of the companies it will benefit are in Alberta. Harper hasn't forgot his roots or who he owes.Last year trade between Canada and China reached $73B and <u>70 percent</u> was Chinese imports to Canada. This is where our good jobs have gone, to China and we find an increasing amount of Canadians having to hold down two part time jobs to survive, or working at Timmies or US owned big box stores at minimum wage. Since 2001 the US has lost 2.8 million factory jobs to China. (I don't know what Canada's figures are but they are probably comparable per capita). The average factory worker wage in China is 1.19 to 2.35 per hour and this is manufacturing goods for corporations in the US and Canada. Our corporate owners live here, live well, eliminate workers jobs here and get people working for slave labour wages in China. The rich get richer and the poor, poorer with the help of more and more trade deals.

[valve37]

But Deacon if we didn't trade with China and other countries we might not have the avenues to export our resources such as oil, coal, LNG, etc. And resources are our bread and butter.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

There are many countries in the world to export to. China has only come into importance in the last 50-60 years, how did we survive before that? Well we survived pretty good and I'd suggest we survived better than we do now. We had better jobs, a wider manufacturing sector and people were prosperous. You never seen a package with 'Made in China' on it unless it was a food product. Now that label is on more and more and more products because our corporate leaders found cheap slave labour and trade deals made it a huge financial boost for their bank accounts. Would our corporate leaders and their families live in China and take the many numerous risks? No. But they don't mind using the Chinese workers and they don't mind dealing with the same Communist government that they abhor. That adds up to a massive amount of hypocrisy and integrity that could only be found with an Electron Holography Microscope.

But Canada could also be a lot more in this world. We could be leaders and not followers. We have the ability for technological development of non-polluting vehicles and our government really does not support it. We have the people and the ability to create independent power sources for homes so that everyone could be off the grid, but we don't support them either. We could be leaders in the world of future technology but we aren't because we protect the corporate interests of resource companies and we even allow the sale of our resources to a Communist country.

I won't go into Harper, you know how I feel about him, but suffice to say he is only really helping his friends in Canada and those he owes.  

[valve37]

BCE earnings beat the street quite handly Pierre and on a tear again today!