The income tax consequences or the CPC’s $100/month childcare grants, which some of us wrote about during last year’s federal election, are becoming clear to Canadian families. As a fellow blogger writes, the government now is mailing notices of the tax liability to those who have been cashing the $100 cheques.
Aside from the fact that the $100 grant is closer to $65 after taxes (what kind of day care can be bought for $2 a day?) is the fiscal lunacy of how the program is being manages.
With seniors’ grants, the government uses previous-year tax filings to predict income and claws-back expected tax owing from the monthly payments. As a result, many seniors receive nothing. The cost of mailing cheques to arranging direct deposit are avoided. And the government retains the cash.
With the child care program, the government spends money to distribute the grants, spends more money to process the tax owing and is out the money it will eventually claw-back for up to a year. All of this is money that, in theory at least, could have gone into a public day-care program.
It is delicious that, just as election fever is reaching a near-boil, the government is forced to mail out the tax bills for its “gift” to parents in the last election. Amidst all the things that are going wrong for the Liberal opposition in recent weeks, this opportunity to remind Canadians they were forewarned about the inadequacy, inefficiency and colossal waste of the the CPC’s child-care “plan”. There is nothing like a bill from Canada Revenue to remind Canadians of the government’s duplicity.
Aside from the fact that the $100 grant is closer to $65 after taxes (what kind of day care can be bought for $2 a day?) is the fiscal lunacy of how the program is being manages.
With seniors’ grants, the government uses previous-year tax filings to predict income and claws-back expected tax owing from the monthly payments. As a result, many seniors receive nothing. The cost of mailing cheques to arranging direct deposit are avoided. And the government retains the cash.
With the child care program, the government spends money to distribute the grants, spends more money to process the tax owing and is out the money it will eventually claw-back for up to a year. All of this is money that, in theory at least, could have gone into a public day-care program.
It is delicious that, just as election fever is reaching a near-boil, the government is forced to mail out the tax bills for its “gift” to parents in the last election. Amidst all the things that are going wrong for the Liberal opposition in recent weeks, this opportunity to remind Canadians they were forewarned about the inadequacy, inefficiency and colossal waste of the the CPC’s child-care “plan”. There is nothing like a bill from Canada Revenue to remind Canadians of the government’s duplicity.
