Budget

Well the Conservative budget came out today and as expected the lower tax bracket got raised. It's now sitting at 15% until June 30th after which time it will go to 15.50% - which levels things off to about 15.25% for the 2006 tax year. The full 15.50% to take effect in 2007. It could be worse I suppose, it could have been reinstated to 16%.

There's a few other things thrown in that affects me:

- a transit credit for employees [so basically your lowest tax rate times the amount you paid for transit passes - the catch is that you'd have to buy a monthly pass for this to benefit you, so if you're like me and using tokens sometimes works out cheaper to commute to work, you're on your own.

- a Canada Employment Credit - basically $1000 per year times your lowest tax rate, but for this year it's only $500, we won't see the $1,000 until next year... but the real kicker is that because it takes effect from July 1 this year we'll only get half of the $500 so basically it's at $250 which equates to a lousy $38 this year. This one smelt like a "re-elect me please" tax cut as Canadians look forward to their $155 for this same credit next year.

- 1% cut in the GST, this will more than likely do squat to affect my life BUT I figure if they can start the mentality that maybe the 7% is too high then they MIGHT work that mentality down to about 4%? Wishful thinking, I know.

The budget had other items, none of which will affect me including the universal child care policy that the Conservatives ran on which basically promotes the at-least-one-stay-at-home parent lifestyle; the removal of the cap off scholarships and bursaries [previously at $500 for non related courses and $3,000 for related courses]; some kind of deduction for tools [which dad might actually like hearing if he's going to start his business up].


Oy. It should be an interesting year for accountants and their clients alike but an even more interesting year for the Conservatives.