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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Toronto
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Sales tax uniformly applies to everyone by the same absolute amount but relatively affects poorer people more. The city should just raise property taxes instead. May help reduce the housing cost as well which would make the city more affordable.
Also considering TO has one of (the?) lowest property tax rates in Ontario it seems like a no-brainer to me.
Exactly. If anything we need to catch up to make sure all of us home owners pay our fair share.
I agree. Or rather, I think a sales tax actually hits the less wealthy more in absolute terms than the wealthy as most of the big things they're buying aren't bought within the city.
Property tax on the other hand, scales very closely with how wealthy you are. I know some people will complain (or rather a lot of people) that property tax is already expensive and an increase of even 0.5% would make it almost impossible to pay all their bills including their mortgage, but to that I say that if your finances are that tight, either you're already spending above your means, or you're pretty bad at managing your money.
Solely relying on property tax increases isn't sustainable. The city is considering increases here too, but it needs further revenues. Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie stated,
Along with further revenue tools, she feels the city needs more direct funding from both the province and the feds.
Yeah but it is literally the biggest thing we should do as mentioned by the report that would address almost 40% of the problem. I'm not sure why are we are debating that we shouldn't do this considering that property tax rates are 3x lower in GTA than everywhere else in Ontario, and that it fixes a large part of the problem.
Basically, before we take the initial, and most impactful step that is uncomfortable but necessary, we are proposing future things to do that is less painful sounding but doesn't have clear returns. We all know why: people don't want to pay more and want to make it someone else's problem instead. Even the report acknowledges this political challenge. This conversation is basically the evidence for that.
I'm not sure why you see it as either/or. They are speaking of the need to not only raise property taxes, but also to implement new revenue measures. The article gave a link to where this is all outlined: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2023/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-238626.pdf
Important stuff like basic groceries are exempt. Also, there is a tax rebate for those of lower incomes, so its affect is primarily on those who have greater wealth. What's being discussed is a one percent addition; hence, a penny from moneyed spendthrifts for integrity of services within the city. Sounds good to me.
Sure groceries are exempt, but there is a limit on how much you can reasonably spend. At the rate housing and asset prices are, there appears no limit on how much your wealth can grow. So instead of using a proxy metric (spending) to tax people with wealth, just go after it directly instead.
You're suggesting a municipal income tax? I doubt that would come to fruition. Again, there is a rebate for those in lower incomes, which I believe addresses your initial concern.
Not sure how you got to that conclusion. I said wealth, not income. Wealth inequality is not the same as income inequality and taxing incoming doesn't fix wealth inequality. Neither does taxing consumption, as most people tend to horde their wealth in some sort of asset.