It’s tax time again, and it’s probably the time where you give some fleeting thought as to where is all this money going that you dole out in taxes throughout the year?
The fiscal year for Canada ended on March 31, 2014. So on April 1st we begin the new fiscal year for 2015.
For the 2014 fiscal year the Federal Government spent $276.8 billion dollars. How much of that directly benefited you?
Transfer dollars:
When we refer to transfers in regards to the Federal Government finances it means payments that go either directly to an individual, or to provincial or territorial governments, or other organizations.
Some examples of transfers are….
Individuals – old age security payments
Individuals – guaranteed income supplements
Individuals – allowances for spouses
Individuals – children’s benefits
Individuals – Employment insurance benefits
As we are all aware, our general population is aging and this is increasing costs. In the 2014 fiscal year these costs amounted to about 15 cents on every tax dollar spent, to bring the total elderly benefits costs to about $41.8 billion.
The Employment Insurance benefits paid out for this fiscal year amounted to $17.3 billion, but don’t forget that there are premiums that are collected to help go towards these expenditures.
Then there are the children’s benefits which cost the government $13.1 billion which equates to about 5 cents on every tax dollar spent. This comes under the umbrella of the Canada Child tax benefit and the Universal Child care benefit.
The Provincial and Territorial Transfers:
Canada Social transfer – Post secondary education
Canada Health transfer
Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing
In total these transfers amounted to $60.5 billion. This equates to about 22 cents of each tax dollar, broken down as follows:
For health care, it gets 11 cents bringing the amount of the transfer to $30.5 billion.
For the social transfer it totals $12.2 billion which is allotted for post secondary education and other social programs, and takes up 5 cents of the tax dollar.
The equalization and territorial program which is designed to help provinces that are not very prosperous receives a specified amount of money according to the program criteria. Then there are the Gas Tax fund program payments that help with infrastructure.
Additional Health Care Support:
Over and beyond the Canada Health Transfer Payments the Federal Government infused more money into this need to the tune of in excess of $6 billion. This was to assist First Nations health services, health care for veterans, public health programs, and health research.
Misc. Transfer Payments:
Then there are all the various programs that have to be financially supported: These are programs like the federal grants, and subsidies which add up to for 2014 to the tune of $36.7 billion which equates to 13 cents of the tax dollars spend.
Employment and Social Development Canada provided $6.3 billion in assistance
Indian Affairs and Northern Development for First Nations and Aboriginals received $6.2 billion in assistance
Canada Revenue Agency put out $3.4 billion in transfers towards transfers to individuals and Corporations via the tax system.
Then other funding costs included farmers, food producers, R & D and arts just to name a few.
Our Government Costs:
We can’t forget that we have to pay for the administration of our tax dollars, which totaled $79.2 billion, or 29 cents on the tax dollar.
This covers the cost of salaries and benefits, then all of the equipment and supplies and facilities they need to operate effectively.
Half of this 29 cents = 14 cents went to only 3 organizations alone which was….
- National defence which used up 8 cents
- Public safety used 3 cents
- Canada revenue agency rung in a whopping $7.8 billion in costs to administer the CRA program which equates to 3 cents of the tax dollars
Other Operational expenses:
We can’t forget about the costs that are racked up by all the other Federal sub-programs that have not been mentioned as yet. This amounted to $32.6 billion or 12 cents on the dollar.
These are…
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Transport Canada
- Public Works and Government Services Canada
- Natural Resources Canada
- Department of Justice
- Industry Canda
- Health Canada
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Environment Canada
- Employment and Social Development Canada
o Canada Food Inspection Agency
o Parks Canada
If you look at these there seems to be an overlap in respect to other costs mentioned earlier, but we will talk more about this in future posts. However, we aren’t finished yet, so you may want to move onto our part 2 of this series.
