Monday, September 19, 2016

This Election Year In Clarkland...The Double Gouge.

DoubleDoubleToilAnd
HiddenTaxationTroubleVille


On the weekend we noted that the egregious gouging of the British Columbian citizenry via the regressive MSP premium will account for direct revenues of 2.5 billion dollars this fiscal year.

Which, of course, is more than the entire BCLiberal 'surplus'.

Which is bad enough given how regressively this money is collected from the citizenry, even with the so-called recent 'fixes'.

But then an Anon-O-Mouse chimed in with the following in the comments:

...$2.5 billion does not represent the total take of the government resulting from charging MSP premiums. Regardless of whether that $2.5 billion is paid by individuals or by their business or employer, that represents real dollars into the treasury.

This is an assumption:

If 50 percent of individuals have their MSP premiums paid by their business or employer, 50 percent of the $2.5 billion appears as a taxable benefit on their T4-slips. The amounts appearing on T4-slips equals $1.25 billion.

Now MSP premiums paid on behalf of an individual is a taxable benefit and income tax is paid at the highest marginal tax rate by that individual. Assuming an average British Columbia marginal tax on net income for affected individuals as 15 percent, 15% of $1.25 billion is paid as income tax to the provincial government. That equals $187 million in additional government revenue totaling $2.6875 billion. I doubt the income tax generated from MSP as a taxable benefit is segregated as MSP revenue. For affected individuals, this is double taxation...



Gosh,  that extra $187 million further gouged out of the backs of the citizenry sure does sound 'complicated', does it not?

Well, given that...

Where did I hear our fine Premier tell us how it is so very difficult to scrap the regressive MSP premium because everything associated with it is just so darned 'complicated'?

Ah, yes, I remember now.

It was in a conversation Ms. Clark had with the Dean of the Legislative Press Gallery back in ancient times as far as BCLiberal party policy goes (i.e. it was in August of this year):

...“The things that I said (before about MSP premiums), I still believe them,” she told me during an interview on Voice of B.C. on Shaw TV Thursday. “It’s not progressive. It’s complicated. And it’s another burden that we put on families.”

Then the caveat: “Unfortunately, it’s turned out to be a very complicated thing to try and change, which I guess is why no government has ever done it or never really tried.”...



Now.

Leaving aside that Clarklandian guess about why no 'government' (without the term 'BC Liberal' in front of it) has done anything either fair or equitable, what, exactly, is that 'complicated' stuff all about, anyway?

Shall we head back to the Dean's chambers to see if our fine Premier can give us a word salad-addled hint:

...(A)s Clark noted, one of the challenges here in B.C. is that many working people don’t actually pay them. Rather, premiums are paid by their employers as part of labour contracts or other terms of employment, albeit as a taxable benefit.

“This is one of the complications,” said the premier. “You’re talking about large employers. If we were to roll all of it into the tax system, none of those large employers would pay anymore.”...




Oh boy.

Even when she almost kinda/sorta tells the truth the good Ms. Clark can't quite bring herself to say (or see?) that it is the average Joe and/or Jill that is really getting screwed.

Families first!


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And how much might the double gouge cost the average Jack or Jill?...Norm Farrell chimed in with the following in the comments: "For people who have employers paying half the cost of family medical coverage, the result may be up to $432 a year in extra income tax."


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15 comments:

e.a.f. said...

its really simple, if Christy wanted to end the MSPs she could. However, she doesn't. Christy wants ALL the money. She can then use it to finance some of her supporters, you know like mining. Don't think those mining companies have paid the province the billion they owe. She still is handing out money to the film, mining, gas, etc. corporations via rebates, etc.

No, we the average tax payer just keep paying and Christy keeps thinking its so complicated. well its not. All the B.C. Lieberals have to do is announce they are scraping MSP and all those computers will just be adjusted. Its real simple, but then if you're not quite up to finishing university or much else perhaps its complicated or she is just plain old too dumb to be premier. Its time to elect someone who doesn't thing changing the MSP system is complicated.

Anyhow did't de Jong just say we have surpluse of over a billion and change?

This province has lots of money, its just Christy keeps handing it out to her financial supporters and wasting it. Christy just doesn't want to spend money on public education, health care, or feeding kids who live 50% below the poverty line. Christy has at least $8 BILLION to build Site C, but not enough for bus passes for the disabled who live on $908 plus a $77 raise. there is something so wrong with that.

Come to think of it, why is Christy building site C. Read on the weekend in the State of Nevada, the power companies are fighting back against solar power. there is so much solar power being produced the regular power companies are loosing money. They have sued and settled with one large hotel chain which has established such a successful solar power system, if they dropped off the regular power grid, the power company would loose a third of their revenue. Regular power companies no longer want to pay solar customers a rebate on their electricity they put into the grid, they are loosing too much money. So again, if that is where things are going, why do we need Site C at the cost of $8 Billionn. Much better to spend it on education, health and feeding kids. On the other hand, if Site C isn't built there are going to be a lot of disappointed B.C. Lieberal supporters.

Lenin's Ghost said...

Bitch! If companies that cover MSP didn't have to pay it, the money could be used for higher pay or better benefits.
Fucking pig politicians! Whenever they don't want to fix things it's too complicated. Too hard. The ignorant masses just follow parroting the same as they have no fucking clue what's going on.

Bill said...

Christy Clark on the campaign trail... "Make British Columbia Grate Again"

Maybe not Donald Trump... But scarily close!

(there are no spelling mistakes in this post.)

Anonymous said...

Gotta go 2 busy promoting that foreign real estate development and student immigration.

Anonymous said...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/class-action-lawsuit-launched-against-b-c-foreign-buyers-property-tax-1.3769751?cmp=rss

Anonymous said...

@ Lenin's Ghost: please don't make this about gender

Anonymous said...

only if its and you are politcally relevant until the election.
and remember delete delete delete.
christmas wish-post it notes and 3 tb portable harddrive

Lenin's Ghost said...

Sorry about any slander to the canines of BC.

Anonymous said...

not too much flack on the triple delete so why not the double gouge?

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

What's next....The Quadruple Bamboozle?


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Anonymous said...

Theft pure and simple...remove the criminals next election..period.

RossK said...

...The Quintuple Lobb?

Anonymous said...

h/t to David Climenhaga and AlbertaPolitics.ca

September 22 – In what had been the country’s most overheated housing market, BC Premier Christy Clark’s imposition of a 15% tax on foreign buyers of Metro Vancouver homes was among other things, a political gamble, one that for now, appears to be paying off.

Not only was this policy change unequivocally popular with people living in the region when it was enacted, it has also given Clark the most drastic quarterly increase in her job performance approval since winning re-election in 2013, up 7 points (34%) since the spring.

Despite this bounce, Clark’s ratio of disapproval to approval is still nearly two-to-one.

http://angusreid.org/premier-approval-sept2016/

RossK said...

Thanks Anon--

Sure hope our fine Premier sent a thank-you card to Mr. Eby.

After all, it is his initiative, albeit poorly implemented, that is responsible for that bounce.


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Anonymous said...

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