Now, this was pretty quick! I am sure there will be more super-rich Canadian people doing this. Edwards is reportedly worth about $2B. There is no information about his reported income; but let's do some primitive math for a ballpark estimate. Assuming he makes 5% annually on his net worth, that's $100M/year. So, instead of $40M in his income taxes annually, Canada will get nothing.
http://calgaryherald.com/business/en...gary-to-london
Quote:
Murray Edwards, one of Canada’s wealthiest people, is changing his residency from Calgary to London.
...
Two sources familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified said Edwards is switching his residency to the U.K. for tax reasons. Income taxes for high earners in Alberta increased dramatically over the past year with the top federal/provincial combined marginal rate rising from 40.25 per cent in 2015 to 48 per cent in 2016...
Paige MacPherson, Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said she doesn’t know of any specific other examples but she’s not surprised people are considering leaving Alberta given the “double whammy” of provincial and federal tax increases.
“This is the problem with levying taxes on high-income, high-skilled individuals,” she said.
“They are an extremely mobile tax base … studies show you often don’t get the return you’re expecting to get from levying higher taxes. In addition, it makes it more difficult for the province to attract those high-skilled workers, including people like CEOs and engineers.”
Catherine Brown, a law professor at the University of Calgary who specializes in taxes, said the U.K.’s top income tax rate is only a few per cent lower than Canada’s (45 versus 48 per cent) but there are big benefits there in terms of lower taxes on capital gains — profits earned from the appreciation of value on property such as a house or a company’s stock...
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