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Hi folks. Is anyone else having trouble getting emails. We
keep getting them returned by mail administrator? Our computer was shut down for
a couple of days and problem has arisen since we turned it back on.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 9:59
AM
Subject: Taxation
For anyone who missed the Dunford column this
morning, I thought it was a pretty accurate take on the ridiculous state of
over-taxation in this country. No wonder there is a huge underground "cash"
economy.
Nibbled to death
Taxation, double taxation, triple taxation: It's all part of living and
buying in Canada
By GARY
DUNFORD -- Toronto Sun
SUMMER SNOOZE:
Good morning, sheep. Sorry to interrupt your reading about dear dead Elvis,
Vin Diesel's fake tattoos and whether or not Jean Chretien can still make a
fist.
Rise and shine, pop the pills you bought at the drug store,
shave with the new razor, shower with new shampoo, and--tho the bill was
$107.37--you paid $122.36. GST $7.42, PST $7.47.
Pour some juice, eat
a doughnut --but why did you buy detergent, paper towels and a sponge at the
grocery? The bill would have been $26.40. You paid $32.95.
On the way
to work, gas up the car. For about $10 of gas, you're invited to pay $16.80.
More than 40% of the gas cost is taxes.
Running late? Use the
cross-town tollway you paid taxes to build but pay for again each time you
dare go on it. For a ride of 10 minutes you'll pay $3.49. Plus a
non-transponder charge of $5.30. Plus an account fee of $2 to receive the
bill. Plus $.14 in GST. Your 10 minute ride will cost you $10.93, more than a
buck a minute. Oh well.
Look! The new hydro bill has arrived.
Electricity, plus so much more!
You're dinged $121.18 for electricity,
an additional $21.70 basic service charge, $28.78 as a volume charge, $39.32
Hydro One claims they paid to get the electricity, $15.75 to "retire" the
$38-billion debt run up in the 50 years hydro was were so badly mismanaged
nobody even wants to talk about it, $15.87 for GST. You use $121.18 in
electricity, you pay an astonishing $242.60. Everybody say "bargoon."
Tax on tax
Note you pay GST on the debt retirement
charge tho it is neither "goods" nor a "service." Hydro and the tax dipsticks
thought that would be an excellent idea. You pay tax on top of tax at the gas
pump, right? They knew you wouldn't mind doing it again. Double taxation,
triple taxation, full speed ahead.
The phone bill's here--$22.15 for
service, but you'll pay $25.48. Tax.
That $17.99 bath mat you need
will cost $20.69. Tax.
Death by a thousand cuts. You're nibbled to
death by rabbits.
You pay property taxes, income taxes and -- if
you're lucky enough to be self-employed -- you'll get to prepay your income
tax and GST taxes quarterly, plus annually. Four times a year for the GST,
plus an annual summary. Four times a year for the income tax, plus the annual
filing. Ten tax filings a year! All the bilingual forms go to--here's a happy
coincidence! -- Shawinigan.
There are invoices, papers, deadlines,
notices, tax advisories and departmental newsletters for all this multiple
money-shuffling. If your plumber or cabby seems a bit harried, perhaps he has
writer's cramp.
Many municipalities charge a buck for each bag of
garbage. Is there LESS garbage in a community that levies a surcharge? Or just
more soiled diapers, household crap tossed in parks, sideroads and alleys? If
your property tax is not for the garbage and a snowplow, what the hell is it
for?
There's not enough money to fund healthcare. Or schools. Or
replace aging streets or sewers. We can't afford an army. We are the proud
owners of four submarines that can't leave the dock. What do they do with all
our money? We don't know. We don't care. We be total dim-wits.
A whack
of our tax hit goes to retire the national debt. The debt is paid down more
slowly than any bank would allow a taxpayer. The debt was run up by elves and
fairies, for surely voters would not send politicians to Ottawa who do not
realize they should spend less than we make. Would we?
Jumbo-sized
legislature
Tho a tenth the size, Canada has a Parliament that is
larger than the U.S. Congress. Each province has its own jumbo-sized
legislature, with attendant civil service army. There is loot to fund
ridiculous academic research, cover the outrages uncovered in each year's
Auditor General's Report.
Will our masters really build another
Trans-Canada Highway beside the patched-up, pot-holed strip that's already
there? Give everybody who can hump two years off to babysit? Pay more bagmen
to sit in the Senate?
Over-taxed, over-governed, over-regulated, they
take our money and run.
We are way too accustomed to walking with
multiple tax hands in our pockets. Not a single party or politician has ever
seriously lifted a finger in the name of tax reform. That too is okay with us.
Wouldn't you think at least a few rebel souls would cry " Enough?" We are
complete idiots.
Go back to sleep, sheep. Sorry to have bothered you.
Have a nice snooze. Exciting Liberal leadership race, eh? Too bad about Elvis.
Zzzzzz.
_______________________
Scott
MacLean
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ:
9184011
http://www.nerosoft.com
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