Quote:
Originally Posted by DJones
Nothing confusing about it. Pretty much standard in Europe. Like our income taxes are higher than Norway, the stereotypical high tax county. Jack up sales taxes and drop income taxes. As a CPA I'm biased but our tax system is broken. Income taxes are not capable of keeping up in a global economy. You tax activities, not income. You'll get way more money from rich people and non residents.
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Only because Canada funds healthcare and Old Age Security through tax revenue rather than social security payments. If you combine income tax and social security contributions relative to GDP, Canada is lower than basically any Western/Northern European country.
And within those countries, there are huge variances. Norway brings in 2.5x as much corporate tax revenue as Canada does, while Finland brings in very little (about half what Canada does). Denmark and Sweden have very high consumption tax revenue, while Norway's is far closer to Canada in that regard.
The main constant with the Nordic model is that they all bring in about 20% more tax revenue than Canada does. Lowering income taxes isn't going to get you there, unless you just shift it (and more) to mandatory social security contributions; but you're still just taxing income. Increasing consumption taxes would help, but matching Norway's consumption tax revenue and keeping all other existing taxes still doesn't get Canada anywhere close to what Nordic countries are bringing in overall relative to GDP.