Taxpayers Federation Unveils Budget Measures

Dramatic Tax Relief Needed to Eliminate Ottawa’s Over-Taxation of Canadians

Ottawa: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) appeared this morning before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Federal Director John Williamson presented the central pre-budget recommendations from the CTF’s submission, A Return to Fiscal Responsibility, for the 2006/07 federal budget.

The CTF’s agenda items include:

· Reducing the top two personal income tax rates by 3% – phased-in over three years – from 29% to 26% and 26% to 23%;

· Increasing both the Basic Personal Exemption and Spousal Exemption to $15,000 within four years to provide tax relief for all Canadians. This change will remove 1.8 million Canadians from the tax rolls and benefit the remaining 13.8 million taxpayers;

· Replacing the Canada Child Tax Benefit with a universal $10,000 per child income tax credit. The credit (or $1,600 payment) should be available to all parents with children aged eighteen and under;

· Limiting expenditure growth to a maximum annual amount of inflation and population growth;

· Instituting a legislated debt repayment schedule with annual payments of 5% of revenues;

· Redressing inequalities in the Employment Insurance payroll tax regime by lowering and harmonizing employer premiums with those of employees;

· Ending all corporate welfare and regional development programs, scrapping the federal gun registry, and abrogating the Kyoto Protocol; and

· Reducing the excessive mortgage insurance rates charged to Canadian homebuyers by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and rebating them for existing owners to offset the $4.5-billion surplus this Crown corporation is projected to accumulate by 2009.

The complete CTF 2006/07 pre-budget submission is available at:

http://www.taxpayer.com/pdf/Federal_Pre-Budget_2006-07.pdf

Federal Spending is Unsustainable:

“Last year, Ottawa’s program spending jumped by over $21-billion, that’s an astounding 15% increase in a single year. Our tax dollars were squandered,” observed Mr. Williamson. “Increasing spending at such a pace is simply not responsible and highlights that Ottawa collects too much in taxes.”

Canadians Remain Over-Taxed:

“Multi-year and multi-billion dollar surpluses are the result of a structural level of over-taxation levied on Canadians by Ottawa,” said Williamson. “The simplest and best remedy for remedying over-taxation is broadly-based tax relief. The tax saving measures outlined by the CTF today will return $13.4-billion to Canadians next year and $41.4-billion in 2009.”

John Williamson
Canadian Taxpayers Federation