Well we all knew that an election was on the horizon and it’s officially been kicked off. Now is the time that the average tax payer starts to listen to the views of those politicians that are running for office in regards to their stance on taxes.
Taxes are probably the biggest bone of contention when it comes to the Canadian population. Of course each province has to deal with their own provincial tax woes, but when it comes to Federal tax we are all basically on common ground.
There is no doubt that the Harper government is well aware that if they want to grab the Canadian’s attention then they only need to lean towards the tax scene. We have seen the subtle workup to this in the last tax year with all the supposedly great tax breaks that were implemented. Being as the Harper government was in office they had the advantage to pull of this type of pre-election hype which put them a step ahead of the rest. The current reigning government gets to boast about all that they have done for the tax payer on a Federal level at least.
Now to sweeten the pot even more there is a hint of a potential new tax credit that will be introduced if the Harper government is re-elected. This evolves around re-introducing the home renovation tax credit. At the same time warnings were given that this would not take place right away. The government would have to be sure of the fiscal situation before it could offer this. It would all come down to the budget at that time. The opposition are quick to point out that a similar scenario of tax promises were made in 2011 which didn’t materialize until the 2015-16 budget. If this re-introduction of the home renovation tax credit were to take place it would probably cost the government around $1.5 billion per year.
Of course all of the opposition are going to come up with their own mandates to win the Canadian people over. It will be a matter of who offers what as their platform and how important it is with those who have the power to vote.
Job issues are always a big point of contention. The opposition feel that any of the attention that the Harper government has paid to the job issues has only resulted in part time low paying jobs.
The bottom line is every tax payer regardless of what the political parties have to offer has the responsibility of staying on top of their own tax situation and making the best of it. By paying attention to what tax incentives are implacable to the individual person, and relying on expert resources like quality accountants these are things which are in control of the tax payer.
